Now, to the point of this post. I know NOTHING about seeds. Hell, if I plant a garden, I usually pick up the plants at Home Depot or Lowe’s and come home and transplant them in the dirt or the pot and nurture them to fruition. Sprouting / germinating is going to be a whole new animal for me. So, I did a little research. Since I did not plant in the spring, I thought I might plant for second harvest in the fall to see what I can do. Before I do that, however, I need to do more research. Here are a few sites I found to help me get started… I also have several PDF books I downloaded. I will try to post them following this post.
Here are the sites:
Germinating:
- Gardening Know How: How to Germinate Seeds at Home
- eHow: How to Germinate Seeds
- Primal Seeds: Sprouting
I am thinking that Sprouting the seeds will be the hardest part for me. I have grown a small garden in the past on the deck of my apartment with success, but the sprouting requires a higher level of attention, it seems.
Once the plants are sprouted and growing, I also want to know when and how to harvest the seeds from them, so that I do not have to buy more seeds next year. This too is an area I am a complete neophyte. Well, with the help of Google, I came across this site that will explain to you when to harvest the seeds from each vegetable plant in the garden. Pretty cool if you ask me. Just saved me months of trial and mostly error.
Harvesting Seeds:
- Vegetable Seed Saving Handbook — I may try to download the whole site and turn it into a PDF for myself…
Well, let this be part one of the “Heirloom Experiment.” I will post more when I start this little project…
Did you have any luck with this? I was thinking of a garden this spring, but I might just go with the ‘pre-made’ plants instead of starting w/ seeds. Let see if I can get that to work first!
Actually, I put it off to this spring, which is right about now… In the next couple of weekends, I will be heading to, dare I say, Home Depot or Lowes to take a look at some bags of soil and containers for the deck. I may go to a more local store for the soil however. Not sure I want to support Monsanto by buying one of their products