I’m so frigging excited! I ordered my Back to the Roots Organic Garden Essentials Vegetable Seeds Variety, and Organic Flowers Seeds Variety on Christmas eve, and they’re finally here! 7 weeks from our last frost date in Livermore! I’m seeding everything out that wants up to 10 weeks before transplanting, so here’s the list:

• peppermint
• ‘evergreen bunching’ onion
• ‘English’ lavender
• ‘Italian’ oregano
• ‘Italian large leaf’ parsley
• ‘sensation mix’ cosmos

For my seeding mix, I’m using Burpee Organic Coconut Coir Concentrated Seed Starting Mix. This mix is great because it arrives condensed, rehydrates very easily, and supports seed growth really nicely. Plus it’s renewable resource.

I learned the hard way that when I water the top of the seed mix, I sometimes flood my seedlings out or knock over seedlings. So now I water my seedlings from the bottom, by filling my seed tray liner with an inch or so of water and soaking the bottom of the tray and seed starting mix. This coir draws the water right up without the seedlings becoming waterlogged.

I’ll be starting more of these Back to the Roots seeds in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to see them start to come up! Evidently some of these herbs have a long germination period, so I’m in for a bit of a wait on some of these. I’ll seed a few squares of lettuce and some more peas out in the garden today too.