Starting Seeds

Patience, Patience...
by Ognom Gardens & Weaving

    Despite today's sunshine and the noticeably longer spring days, one need remember back to only last Sunday's freezing rain to know that it is not yet time to start planting the garden.

    At Ognom Gardens, however, we have to start early, germinating seeds inside, then separating the young plants into individual pots so that some can be sold at market and others can receive a couple more weeks of temperature controlled coddling before being hardened off and eventually planted in the gardens to produce produce, herbs, and flowers for market.

    Hardening off plants involves gradually exposing the young seedlings to outdoor conditions so that they can better handle wind and natural sunlight.

    Some plants require being started indoors six to eight weeks prior to the last frost.  Others require less of a head start, and a few, such as carrots, radishes, corn, and lettuces will be sown directly outdoors after the last frost.

    Ognom began placing orders for seeds in January.  Some of our favorite providers of heritage seeds are Seed Savers, Baker Creek, and our neighbors Zac and Phil.  We also get seeds from Gurney's, Burgess, and Rural King.

    This year we germinated over ten thousand seeds, expecting to sell or trade about one thousand of them as starters and plant the remainder in the gardens -- that is those plants that we do not end up donating to charity or youth gardens, which can also add up.

    This year we expect to give away about 300 tomato and marigold plants at the Seward Community Sustainability Fair held at Faith Mennonite Church, 11 April, 2015, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

    Ognom tries to recycle materials for starting plants in two ways.  Our favorite recycling project is to make biodegradable pots using recycled newspapers.  But, we also reuse pots and plant-pacs donated by customers or from our own purchases.

    To make a seedling pot out of old newspapers, simply cut the newspapers into 3 1/2" strips.  Using the PotMaker from Lehman's Non-Electric Catalog, wrap the paper strips around the wooden form, then press into the base, creating a pot that you can fill with soil.  The pot is biodegradable, meaning that to plant the seedling, one simply has to insert the seedling, pot and all, into a small hole dug with a trowel.  Lehmans.com

    For our personal use at the Farmers Market, we tend to focus heavily on tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, melons, beans, cucumbers and squash.   We also start perennials and wild-seed-perennials indoors for plantings at the rental units and other properties we own or maintain.