Seed Starting

Spring is here.

In my mind!

With 40+ inches of snow on the ground and a morning low of -15 degrees on this second day of March, I'm getting really tired of this horrible Minnesota winter.

Alaska is warmer than Minnesota.

So this morning I got out my seed starting tray (made with coconut fibers and recyclable plastic), along with my organic seed starting mix (insert every crunchy granola term you want) and my tomato seeds.

This year I decided to do two heirloom tomatoes and San Marzano tomatoes. I've got yellow bell small tomatoes for one of the heirlooms and huge beefsteak (their name is Mortgage Lifter!) heirloom tomatoes. Small ones for Bimmer Man and The Monkey - the big ones are for me (ooohhh... BLT sandwiches!! YUM!!). The San Marzanos' I plan on dicing, freezing and also roasting and freezing for next winter.

I also started Thyme. This year I'm going to do a shitload of herbs so I can dry them.

This past Fall I dried about 20 plants worth of basil and I've used half of it - I got around 2 large Ikea magnetic storage containers worth. But the thing is, I had to learn a lesson with basil. Rusty pees on everything in the backyard so he's killed two anemones, three hostas, at least two lilies and a few other flowers too. I had to pull out pee-basil plants and compost them. Not cool, Rusty, not cool. This year all the herbs will be going back into pots instead of the flower beds so he doesn't pee on our food.

I need to find some sort of pee-resistant flowers or bushes in the back by the garage. Or I need to stand out there every time he pees and shoo him away.

I love him. I really do. I just don't love his pee.

I've got one more seed starting tray which I'll fill with more herbs on April 1. I don't have enough room on my dining room table for more seeds. Hopefully there won't be snow on the ground then so I can move the trays to our back porch and put them on the table out there during the day and bring them in at night.

Mer. I just want to be outside again!