Finally, Some Seed on Dirt Action

I'm only slightly off schedule for starting seeds this year, but given the extended cold spells we have been experiencing, it's probably better to be late with the seeds than early.  At least that's my excuse.  It's harder to get in the spirit of spring when everything is frozen. Even so, last week I planted cabbage, lettuce, chamomile, fennel, egg plant, and onion seeds and everything has already sprouted except the egg plant.  Four inches of snow on the ground, but the garden is officially growing!  It has begun.  

At the end of last summer a gardener friend of mine visited all the local Dollar Stores and bought up a bunch of seed starting trays for twenty seven cents each.  He gave me three trays and told me to keep my eyes peeled for other end of season deals.  I never had a chance to take advantage of the sale, but I did use the trays he gave me for these early seeds.  It's been very handy when the temperature drops and I need to carry them into the house.  My early efforts to get my seeds organized are also paying off, as I knew which seeds to plant by looking at my notes on the front of the package.  And the plastic labels I cut from milk jugs are working perfectly.  So far, so good.  

I used an organic seed starting mix, and probably should have made it wet before I put into my trays because I had the hardest time making the soil damp without washing it, and my seeds, out of the tray.  This stuff floats, so now my seeds are sprouting in strange places instead of the neat grid pattern I laid out.  

I spread my gear on the big work table in the garage, which happens to be near where the cats have their meals served.   My proximity to his food bowl caused poor old Max to get very excited, and it didn't matter how many extra servings he got, he was convinced that the only reason I was there was to dish out more food and scratch behind his ears.  He can be very insistent, and the entire time I was trying to drop teeny tiny onion seeds in the little pots (all one hundred and forty-four) I had to work around him, his high pitched meowing, and his annoying tail.  

It's surprisingly hard to take good pictures of a wiggly cat with a cell phone, but that didn't stop me from trying.  

I have dozens of blurry cat photos like this one to show for my efforts.  But, encounters with animal life are one of the best parts of growing a garden, right?