On seeds and seeding

Today's post is late because I stayed up late watching the Olympics and planting seeds. Yesterday was a good day for finding some fairly good deals on seeds and accessories.

Surprisingly, or maybe not surprising at all, I found my best deals at WalMart. They had racks of seeds, all well-priced. There was a seed display, priced at 20 cents per pack. On another aisle, there was a larger display for $1 per pack and the organic seeds were $2 per pack. They also had onion sets and potatoes that were well-priced.

I do prefer organic seed but there usually isn't as much to choose from, so I am OK with using some non-organic seed. I just treat them organically from planting to harvesting. I don't know what others do, but leave me a message below, letting me know why I am right or wrong about this.

Also, the starter peat trays were on sale. They were just $6 and I haven't found any this cheap at other local stores. I really love them, too. I used them last year for some tomatoes and they worked really well.

Back to planting seeds. What you are supposed to do with these trays, and what I will do in the future is pour warm water on the little discs until they are soft and then put in the seeds, from 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch deep, according to the package directions. I didn't do that because I wanted to pour in the seeds on top of the peat openings in front of the TV (watching ice dancing) and then take the trays into the bathroom and pour the water in. I didn't want a mess on my carpet.

This didn't work quite as well as I had hoped, because the seeds floated and I then had to catch them and poke them down into the peat after it had softened. I am sure I will have a few seeds coming up in the trays rather than the peat but I do have some extra seeds to replace the ones that floated away. I really did make it harder than it should have been. The last time I did it I think I read the directions -- not so this time!

I put the trays in my bathtub because I have plenty of wonderful light there. It is kind of nice being able to wash the mess out of the tub, too. Then I covered the trays with the plastic covers and I will water them in the mornings and evenings. I will have to keep them quite moist until they come up. Then I will have to take care not to over or under water them. At some point I will either move them to the basement or the garage, depending on the weather.

I am thinking many of the plants will take four to six weeks before they can be planted. I may have to transfer the tomatoes to some larger pots but I know seeding the plants will save me so much money and I will get the kinds of tomatoes and other plant I want.

I did find this little garden helper at Tractor Supply. They really didn't have very much else. It was disappointing, really.

Last year we looked for an owl to place in our corn garden to scare the crows away. We have heard it is very effective and believe me, after our corn disaster last year, we really need all the help we can get. The crows devoured our seed each time we planted.

We went several times to look for a garden owl at Lowe's or Home Depot but they were sold out. Watch out crows, this little guy is going to be protecting our corn this year. I think this little fellow looks very determined which mirrors the way I feel about having corn this year.