Brie Williams
19.01.2024 - 23:45 / backyardgardener.com / Frederick Leeth
A giant invasive plant known as “Millennium Madness” sprouted worldwide last year. It was particularly bad in the United States and positively egregious in the New York metropolitan area. And, as if Millennium Madness was not bad enough all by itself, there were rumors that it was infested on a grand scale with the dreaded Y2K Bug. While professionals in a host of countries spent months trying to think of ways to eradicate the Y2K Bug, ordinary people were rumored to be aiding the rapid growth and spread of Millennium Madness by watering local specimens with vast quantities of bottled water that they had stored in their basements.
Fortunately, Millennium Madness proved to be a tender plant, and from Fiji to Brooklyn, it began to wither on the stroke of midnight, December 31, 1999. Most of the Y2K Bugs died without producing offspring—mutant or otherwise. All the people with leftover bottled water will have to save it for
next summer’s drought.
Now that we no longer have to worry about the spread of Millennium Madness, we gardeners can focus on the beginning of the new gardening year. The catalogs have been arriving since before Christmas, and it is high time to think about seed starting. Orders should be going in now for plants that need to be started indoors. If you want early pansies, start them as soon as possible. For other flowering plants, vegetables, and herbs, it’s still a good idea to order now and then sort out the planting dates when the seed packets arrive.
I love seed starting because it forces me to get organized. I am not lucky enough to have a greenhouse, so all my seed starts under lights in the cellar or on top of my microwave oven in the pantry. And since the cellar is the least well-kept part of my house,
Brie Williams
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Growing with Rachel
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
I have given up indoor seed starting completely on several occasions. The first time it happened I was a novice gardener. I had ordered seeds of just about every plant that I saw in the garden catalogs without thinking about such practical things as gallons of potting soil, hours of daily watering, and square feet of windowsill space. It also did not occur to me to determine whether or not I had room in my garden for even a fraction of my seedlings. My chaotic efforts eventually produced some wonderful plants, but the process was so exhausting that I said: “Never again.”
If you’re constantly tripping over wayward shoes in your entryway, battling piles of paperwork on your kitchen island, or stepping on LEGOs (ouch!), it’s easy to fall into the frustration a cluttered space can cause.
It has been estimated that a 10m (30ft) row of spinach supplies just about the right amount for a family of four during the summer months. But one sowing is not sufficient. Fresh young foliage is demanded and where spinach is much appreciated, successional sowings should be made fortnightly between late March and mid-July. For later autumn supplies and for pickings in the following spring, a sowing should be made in a sheltered position in mid-August.
Japanese Maple seeds have a very hard outer coating as do many ornamental plants. Under natural conditions, the seeds would have to be on the ground for almost two years before they would germinate. All that happens the first winter is the moisture softens the hard outer shell, and the second winter germination begins to take place. For all of this to happen in the proper sequence so the seedlings sprout at a time of the year when freezing temperatures or hot summer sun doesn’t kill them, takes a tremendous amount of luck. You can improve the odds by controlling some of these conditions, and shorten the cycle.
A seed is an embryo plant and contains virtually all the materials and energy to start off a new plant. To get the most from one’s seeds it is needful to understand a little about their needs so that just the right conditions can be given for successful growth.
Some people get their kicks from designer labels, others from rummaging through flea shops, or collecting obscure Japanese comics, vintage tractors, handbags, dolls, beer-mats, Star Wars merchandise or whatever else. Me, I get mine from ordering seeds.
There are dwarf and taller pea varieties. Although plants of the short, dwarf varieties may be grown without supports it is the custom to provide all garden peas with supports of some sort. Twiggy brushwood of the height the plants will attain is much liked by gardeners.
When and How to Start Seeds in a Greenhouse