Seedlings

Sometimes hope comes in the smallest of packages.

Garden seeds are the apotheosis of optimism wrapped in a dormant shell, sometimes barely the size of a pinpoint. They hold the promise of Spring, the renewal of life, the anticipation of summer days spent outdoors and summer meals picked fresh.

Nevermind that a Nor’easter blew through, dumping nearly a foot of snow throughout the state from Sunday into Monday. We were darned busy!

It started with Snowball cauliflower on Sunday afternoon.

My daughter and I set up shop on the kitchen counter, soaking peat pellets and fanning out our cool-weather crop seed packets like they were a winning hand of poker. She could hardly contain herself! The cauliflower seeds, those millimeter-sized brown b-b’s that miraculously grow into white basketballs, went in first.

We then started a half-dozen red carrot seeds. Yes, I know they’re probably better grown as direct-sow, but I just couldn’t help myself. While we were at it, we cracked open the rhubarb Swiss chard seeds and progressed right into the bright lights Swiss chard package as well. I love those seeds – they look like spiky landmines washed ashore in an old WWI war movie. That, or like the American sweet gum balls that used to blanket our lawn from the 70+ foot tree that formerly occupied the dead-center portion of our back yard and shade practically the entire lot. It was struck by lightning twice last summer (yikes!) and had to come down in the fall. But now, I’ll have full sun. That’s why I ripped up turf to create beds last fall and why we’re planting so aggressively (and voluminously) this year.

When all was said and done on Sunday, most of our cold weather crops were represented in the pallet of peat-pellets. Then the snow came.

And came, and came.

School was canceled, my boss told me to take the day off, then what else came? My John Scheepers package! This time, we could hardly contain ourselves! We had been reading, re-reading, checking off and adding more varieties since the catalog came in the arctic depths of early January.

Included were Indigo radicchio and Tuscan Lacinato kale – more cold weather crops to pre-sow. We planted only the radicchio into a neat row of six in our seedling terrarium. My daughter checked less than an hour later to see if they had sprouted.

My new Scheepers seeds joined their brother and sister packages of still-viable seeds left over from last year, together with new packages from other sources, including Burpee, Martha Stewart at KMart and The Cook’s Garden, which we’ve picked up in our travels over the past few weeks, waiting, waiting, waiting for the growing season to begin.

We’ll keep you posted.

FYI: What We’re Growing

Pole Beans: Kwintus, Emerité Filet Beans, Purple Podded pole beans [from last year]
Summer squash: Zuchetta Trombolina Zucchini [last year], miniature yellow Pattypan squash
Winter squash: Buttercup, Waltham Butternut
Celery Root [which I should start soon – 120 days to harvest]
Lemon Cucumbers
Tomatoes: Black Cherry [new], Sun Gold Cherry [repeat performance by request], Black Russian, Husky Gold heirloom, "Mortgage Lifter" red, San Marzano [seeds straight from Italy - I don't mess around]
Climbing sugar-snap peas
Rhubarb Swiss chard, Bright Lights (rainbow) Swiss chard
Nutri-Red carrots
White Snowball Cauliflower [from the 5/$1 bin – nice find]
Indigo Radicchio [bolt-resistant, perfect for our Zone 6]
Tuscan Lacinato Kale [an impulse buy while placing the online order]
Early Choice Sweet Yellow Corn [my daughter’s pick]
Catnip [her choice as well, although I didn't disagree. Nor will the cats.]