I’m writing this from the position of being in full lockdown in Northern New Zealand. There’s a pandemic sweeping the planet like a big, nasty broom. As an observer, I’m living through the most amazing time! (I’m hoping to remain an observer… )
But it’s also a very scary time. People are fearful for their health, their loved ones, jobs, financial situation. Entire cities and countries have been confined to lockdown. Essential workers are on the frontline, like it or not. I applaud them… my lockdown is a privilege, not a prison.
We have one designated shopper per house (me) and I never thought I’d risk my life for ice cream, which somehow, my family views as essential. “25 kg’s of dried chick peas are essential!” I respond. Having fresh produce in my garden is important, even if it’s just some sad looking parsley. This post has nothing to do with quilting, and everything to do with being proactive about your food security, using your resources wisely, and saving money on food.
It’s time to get busy and have a go at growing vegetables from seeds.
In the longer term, you can transfer them to pots, window boxes, old buckets, your garden, but if you’re in a confined space, get creative!
Why germinate seeds, rather than buy plants?
Seeds are like wee bombs of genetic diversity, and the more, the better in my book. There’s always a lot more varieties of your desired food available.
1) They’re much cheaper, per plant.
2) It’s just plain old FUN watching them come up.
3) Often, you’ll have enough to share and what better way to help your community bond during this crisis than the pleasure of growing food together with physical distancing!
4) Some seed mail order companies are classified as essential services, you can order them, now. (Do this. Right now.)
USE WHAT YOU HAVE
Because I’m in lockdown, I’m assuming you are too, so the following guide will try and use what you might have around the house already. If you’re a hard core minimalist, this might not be for you… because this is all about “use what you have”.
1) Get, or make, seed raising mix. Make your own by finely sifting some soil from potting mix or anything else you have available. A ratty old piece of fine mesh chicken wire can make a fine sieve, or, in a pinch… a cooling tray with square bars from your baking cupboard. For soil, think dead and dying house plants… or even what’s under your lawn. You want a fine, light mix, so take out any bigger twiggy, bark like, or clod like bits. Add about 20% fine sand, and about 5 – 10% vermiculite, if you have it. The sand drains the soil and stops tiny roots from rotting, and the vermiculite holds and slowly releases moisture to stop sudden dry out of your baby plants. Don’t get too hung up on this though, because mother nature has this covered waaaay before we even tried agriculture.
2) Find something you can use as a germination tray or wee pots, that you can drain. You could use empty toilet paper rolls (biodegradable and you can plant them right in the ground), yoghurt containers with holes in the bottom, the tray you use for kitty litter, or reuse those 6 cell ones that seem to collect in your garage if you’ve ever been to a garden centre. Again, get creative!
Fill these to about 5mm from the top with your lovely seed raising soil mix.
You are now ready to sow.
Seeds like to be planted about as deep as the seed is big, which means mostly close to the surface layer of your pot. Bigger seeds, like cucumber, beans and peas like to be a bit deeper… they also do much better when sewn direct into the dirt they’ll stay in, if you can manage it.
When to plant vegetables:
This is totally dependent on your area, climate, micro climate, whether you have snow, heatwaves… (and who knows that these days?). New Zealand has a temperate, sub tropical climate and we can grow our food in winter as well. Do some local research, but in general, hot summer vegetables are things like capsicum (peppers), tomatoes, eggplants, beans, chard, more tomatoes, melons, squash like zucchini, squash like pumpkin, basil, more tomatoes, spring onion, cucumbers… umm… I’m getting hungry now. Cooler weather vegetables are more like lettuce, coriander, peas, brassicas like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage… leeks, onions, garlic, radishes, beets, swedes, turnips… we are going into winter and this is what I’m planting now. Choose open pollinated seeds if possible, and consider which season your part of the world will be experiencing over the next few months, and how severe that’s likely to be.
As you can see, the seedlings are sprouting! All I did was press them into the soil, sprinkle vermiculite on top, put them on the kitchen bench, and water them every evening. Yes, it looks like a sylvanian forest.
How to plant plants
I will need to transfer these into bigger pots or separate them out and fertilise them before they go into their forever homes. Depending on my amount of available soil, some will go into their forever homes at this stage. That’s when they have at least one pair of their proper, grown up leaves. Here’s how I’ll do it:
1) Lever the entire dirt mass out of the pot with anything, a spoon, a butter knife, paint stripper knife, a shoe horn… just try not to damage the roots too much. Put the whole plug into an empty ice cream container with a couple of centimetres of water in the bottom. Gently tease the plants apart. Talk to them gently in a soothing voice while doing this…
2) Have their next home prepped and ready… if you’re growing on a balcony in containers this might be their last stop before the dinner table! Don’t talk about this in front of them.
3) Once you have teased the plants apart, make a hole in the soil you’re planting into, just a wee one that you can place the plants roots in. Sometimes I just stab the dirt with a butter knife and wiggle it, leave it in the soil, and slide the plants roots down next to it. Then I gently remove the knife and press the soil gently around the roots. I aim to plant at the same depth or a little deeper than the plant was growing. By now your poor plants will be in total shock and the only thing they’ll need is a gentle but thorough sprinkling of water. They are too young to cope with full sun right now and will need to be closely monitored, kept not too dry and not too wet.
4) Water them once daily. They are also like a snack bar for every slug, snail, bird and rat within a 5 mile radius, and you will need to protect them. I use any slug pellets, and physically cover them with netting or chicken wire. Use a rat trap if required. Any tips on this, please leave a comment!
After a few days they’ll be ready for some gentle fertilizing. Growth boosting possibilities are endless! I’ve tried: anything commercial I have on hand, diluted; rinsings from any kitchen jars and milk bottles, collected and diluted; seaweed from the beach, soaked and diluted; weeds, soaked, fermented and diluted… you get the idea… for your young plants, dilute it.
I hope you try growing food plants from seed, it’s a great diversion from quilting, feels good, and tastes great when harvested.
There’ll be some more posts coming up about growing food, please subscribe with your email address if you’d like to know more. If you like this post, share it with those you love!
With much love,
quiltingoctopus
