Ace Hardware had seed starter plant pot gardens on sale today for $3.99 so it cost about $15 to get the potting soil, four packs of seeds, and the plant pot. This is the fiber pot garden made from organic recycled materials that you plant directly in the ground. Both Ace and Southern States in the same strip mall (Mt. Airy, MD) had organic, heirloom, and non-GMO seed choices.
Heirloom seeds preserves historical biodiversity. There are thousands of international varieties of flowers and vegetables available from heirloom seed companies. Usually I’d rather buy the seedlings so I picked four vegetable seed packets that I usually can’t find in spring seedlings: green Romanesco broccoli, burgundy beans, rainbow carrots, and scallions.
I filled the pots with soil and watered them with warm water. I pushed the bottom of a pencil into the dirt to whatever depth the seed packet instructed and inserted the seeds. Some seeds are extremely tiny so it’s hard to tell if you have them in the right place – I probably put two seeds in some of the holes. I also put at least two holes in each pot. I’ll separate them when I transplant. Then I covered filled the holes with new dirt and watered again. Cover the pots with a lid or plastic wrap until the seeds start to sprout, and keep the dirt lightly watered.
Plants will get moved outside in April here, when the ground starts to warm up — you’ll follow the instructions for your zone. In the Deep South, Gulf, and Pacific coast, you can plant through the winter. You can plant more seeds every 3-4 weeks so that you can continue harvesting all season. I only planted the first four rows so there’s room to add more later.
