Lettuce seeds sprouting
Gardening is one of the most popular eco-friendly home activities that people already do. It can be very enjoyable, gives you a little fresh air and sunshine, and best of all, you get delicious local food!
Here, in the Midwest of the United States, we just got pounded by (yet another) snowstorm. It’s the middle of winter and we’re all stuck inside for a few more months. That’s why I was so excited when I got my Seed Savers catalog! It’s a gorgeous color catalog of all sorts of heirloom and organic plants. Tomatoes was an eight-page section all by itself!
In the spirit of getting exited for spring (our local groundhog predicted it would be sooner, not later) I broke out some old seed packets that I found. Now I am by no means a master gardener. I just put plants in the ground and see what happens. But I do know that you are supposed to test old seeds to see how many will actually germinate.
A quick web search seemed to indicate that a simple way of doing that was to just put seeds onto a wet paper towel and slip the whole thing into a plastic bag….. Then wait…
Two nights ago, I did just that. I wrote on the paper towel with a pen to indicate which seeds were which, wet the towel, closed it up in a plastic bag, and then ignored it.
Today is a gorgeous sunny day (although colder than ever) so I thought I would move the seeds into the sun to get a little solar heat into them. When I went to move them, I saw that some of the seeds had already germinated! That’s right, little tiny sprigs of life coming out the ends of the Buttercrunch, Forellenschuss, and Baby Romaine Lettuces! I just noticed that the Green Beans are starting to sprout as well. I only put the seeds out two nights ago!
Well, as they say, hope springs eternal. These little sprigs will help keep me going until we can once again get outside and put our hands in the Earth.
In the mean time, a few modifications to my laundry water recycling system should simply make it into an excellent seedling growing area.
Spouting seeds, label at bottom of paper towel.
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