Typically I plant my seeds right into my garden. The result is that only a few hardy plants will bloom, while seeds of more delicate flowers never manage to sprout. For example, every year I have great zinnias sprouting up everywhere, but have never had a single sweat pea grace my garden.
This year I decided to see if I could have a better outcome by starting my seeds indoors in early Spring, so they will be ready to transplant after danger of frost around mid-May.
Step 1: Planning the garden. I’m obsessed with Composition notebooks. I use them to make little notes on each seed I plant, so that I can track their progress throughout the growing season. That’s the scientist in me coming through, even in my gardening endeavors.
Step 2: Assemble supplies. Since this is my first time planting indoors, I decided to buy a pre-packaged seed-starting kit. This one was self-watering and came with detailed instructions. Like indoor seed starting for dummies. Using this kit turned out to be incredibly easy, but I would recommend also purchasing a bag of organic seed starting mix, as the kit didn’t come with quite enough soil to fill each planting well.
Step 3: Decide on which flowers and vegetables to start from seeds indoors. Most seeds I started were for flowers, my true passion. Only a few vegetables were started from seed, the rest will be purchased as transplants from a local nursery. I simply don’t have enough space to start everything from seeds, so since I know the local nursery will have plenty of vegetable plants, I used my space mainly for flowers.
Step 4: Plant seeds into seed starting kit. So simple when following the instructions included on the kit. Check the water level every few days. Keep out of light until seeds sprout. Then place near a window and rotate a quarter turn every day to ensure the sprouts grow straight instead of toward the light. This kit was self-watering for 10 days, after which, I simply had to replenish the water once or twice. I also used a spray bottle to mist the seedlings daily to keep them moist.
Day 1 Day 10
Step 5: Pinch off the weaker seedlings, monitor growth, transplant. Since the kit recommends planting 2-3 seeds per well (in case some don’t sprout), simply pinch off the weaker looking sprouts down at the soil level if more than one is present. Keep watering and rotating by a window for a few weeks. Then place flats outdoors for a few hours a day (in Spring weather) to harden them off gradually for a couple weeks. Then, when sprouts show at least two groupings of leaves and seem hardy (not flimsy), they will be ready to transplant to the garden. In my case, I began planting my seeds in April and hope to transplant by mid-May (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6).
Laurel Crowned 