Spring is in the air....

Or at least, I hope it is. It has been a surprisingly warm weekend. Today, of course, it's cloudy with a chill wind, which is typical for the end of February. However, I prefer to think positively and see omens of spring time in the flooding sun porch and slightly receding snow pile. Hey, I can almost see the entire driveway now!

In the spirit of coming spring, I have started some seeds. It is so nice to play in the dirt, even though that dirt is in the form of little peat moss plugs that expand with water. I rigged up my new mini-greenhouse with a series of undercabinet lights from Walmart, each costing around $7.00, and now can start seeds with impunity even though natural light will only be coming from tiny, north facing windows. Taking a cue from Jenna, author of Made from Scratch (great book if you haven't checked it out yet), I made little plant starting habitats out of pop cans & water bottles. It is so easy!

To make little plant houses:
Gather up (1) clean and empty pop can; (1) clean and empty water bottle or soda bottle, at least 20 ounces; scissors; (1) expanded peat plug and (1) 2 inch peat pot.

Step 1: Cut top half of pop can off & keep the bottom half.

Step 2: Cut top half of bottle off & keep the bottom half.

Step 3: Put peat pot into the pop can.

Step 4: Put peat plug into peat pot.

Step 5: Loosen soil in plug, add seeds, cover and dampen with a bit of water.

Step 6: Cover all with the soda bottle. I recommend writing what is in the house on the bottle with a marker.

Tah-dah! See, so easy. I also recycled former chinese food containers & tomato plastic packs to start broadcast seeds in (for my onions & basil). As you can see from the photos, there is still plenty of room for the rest of my seeds to get started. Once they arrive, that is! So far, I have started Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomatillo; Green Sausage tomato; yellow onion; sweet basil; poblano pepper; red mercury pepper; and roma tomato (hybrid). It is so exciting to think I will have a lovely, full and happy garden this summer--and it all began here.