This is the first year that I’ll have managed to start seeds for my garden. Usually I have good intentions; I order seeds, get potting soil, get containers … and then I just lose track of time and before I know it, it’s too late to get my seeds started. I wind up buying plants from Home Depot or Lowes just to get things in the ground (or in pots). Now, while buying plans from the nursery is easier and less messy, the downside is that it doesn’t allow you to grow a lot of different varieties of things – and certainly not heirloom varieties or more unusual types of popular veggies. Usually the big box stores stay with the popular standbys..

This year I gathered up all the old seed packets from past ordering seasons, threw away anything that was expired or out of date, and began setting my seeds. I’m working with the larger sized pots this year. Each pot has 5-8 seeds in it and I’ll thin down as the sprouts come up.

So what’s in the pots above? So far I have:

• San Marzano tomatoes (for paste)
• Roma tomatos (my standby)
• Black from Tula tomatoes (something new)
• Slim Cayenne peppers
• Jalapeno peppers
• Sweet Chinese Giant red bell peppers
• Purple Long eggplant
• Baby Bush cucumber
• Marketmore 76 cucumber (for trellising)

I also planted my first batch of butterhead lettuce and spinach into containers on the back patio. The directions say to resow every 2 weeks to keep a constant rotation of fresh greens. This year I’m going to work on being really consistent with that, so I can eat salads from my own garden.

In the meanwhile, I also took advantage of a couple of things on sale at the nursery to spruce up the front doorstep. A pretty spicy, red carnation for each pot, surrounded by some miniature white pansies. The carnations are short right now, but as they grow, they’ll add height and color and the pansies should provide a pretty base!

I love the faces of the pansies !

And finally, I repurposed an old soup tureen as a planter for a basic house plant. I’m trying to add more green to the inside of my house – both for visual interest and to help keep the air clean and fresh!

There are a few more things that I want to add to the starters, and I’m toying with the idea of doing a potato barrel this year – especially if I can figure out away to put it in the front yard area where the HOA won’t object!