Christmas was just a little over a week ago, and one of the presents I got was a windowsill herb seed kit. Now, I’d been thinking about starting seeds this winter and purchased an herb seed packet along with a veggie seed survivalists’ packet (because if I don’t plant them this year at least I have them, right?), but I didn’t have anything else. No seed pods, no starter soil (or non-soil) mix, no nothing. So I was still pretty ecstatic when I opened the gift.
I couldn’t plant the seeds right away because I was going to my in-laws while my parents were helping with a newborn (my parents are Mr A’s daycare right now…well, they have been his entire life, and since it’s a pandemic it’s kinda hard to change if I ever want to see them again). But the day after we got back, I told Mr A we were going to plant seeds.
Mr A was understandably excited, and I opened the packet and read the directions…only to find that Step 1 was to soak all the seeds for 18-24 hours. This surprised me. I’ve sown seeds outdoors before, and never have I ever soaked them for 24 hours (maybe we would’ve had better germination rates if we had? I dunno. Don’t look at me!).
While Mr A got more and more excited, I got worried. “I can fix this,” I thought. I got a water bottle and filled it with warm water, then guided Mr A in filling lots of little jars with water. He was enjoying himself despite the absence of seeds. Then I opened each individual packet, asked Mr A which jar to put them in, and poured where he pointed.
Success!
The next day, I prepped the soil pucks (which I think might be coconut husks? The package didn’t specify, but it definitely feels non-soil-y. Which, according to the Joe Gardener podcast, is a good thing). It said to soak each puck individually for 10 minutes. Which would be 90 minutes if I did each one individually. I wasn’t having any of that, so I did what any sane person would do: lined up 9 bowls of differing sizes and did them all at once.
The soil fluffed up so much that I was worried it wouldn’t fit in the individual cups. But it was showtime: time to pull Mr A from his playroom and do Planting Seeds, Part II.
Mr A joyfully helped fill the cups/pots/whatever with soil, and even helped me put the largest seeds (cilantro, I think?) into a cup. Then he joyfully went on his way playing with marbles while I did the rest (though he did come up a few times to watch me work). His favorite part was spearing the labels into the soil over and over.
The hardest part of planting the seeds was getting the seeds out of the water, onto my finger, then off of my finger into the soil. Maybe it would have been easier if I had toothpicks to work with. But it wasn’t until I was cleaning excess seeds from the jars that I had an epiphany: this would’ve been so much easier if I had wetted some paper towels, placed the desired number of seeds onto the paper towels, and then sealed them in baggies for 24 hours. The results would have been the same: seeds soaked in water for 24 hours. But it would’ve been easier to retrieve the seeds from the paper towels than from the water jars. Plus, there would’ve been fewer wasted seeds. A toothpick still would have been helpful, but overall the process would’ve been simplified.
Major facepalm moment.
All in all, it worked out. I hope I got some seeds into those pots (seriously, some of them were smaller than a grain of sand), and that they germinate. If not, I do have those prepper seeds at my disposal.
And while they grow, I’ll prep an herb garden outside for their permanent home. I just hope they don’t grow too big before it gets warm.
Half Green and Kinda Crunchy 