Under bright lights, seeds awaken

Kerry A. Thompson

We've finally got our seeds started for the season. This is our third year with our waist-high garden carts and it seems that things are a little more relaxed this year. (Or it might be that with Tom's new job, I'm left to my own devices to set the schedule for when things get done, which is more likely the case!)

A mix of new and familiar plants

The seed packs we're using are a few years old and I'm hoping they will still sprout healthy plants. In this spring's starter pots are seeds for several salad ingredients that have done well—lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and peppers. We're also trying again with delicata squash, which has also done well, and broccoli, cauliflower, and onions, which haven't yielded many plants, but were very tasty. 

I'm also hoping the tall orange marigolds that have been pollinators' favorite will do well again and I'm trying again with the calendula, a flower that didn't do well in past years, but here's hoping the third year's a charm. I'm also trying to start sunflowers in pots because planting seeds outside has been a nonstarter and I still have a dream of seeing tall sunflowers outside our windows with crowds of birds and bees hovering around them. The final seeds are new this year—lemon balm. I'm interested in seeing what that smells like and it looks like it might be useful for herbal remedies too.

There's something exciting and potent about the promise that these small pots under bright lights hold, sitting quietly in our growing closet, stirring, awakening, and stretching to surprise me with their leaves of green in a few weeks.