Starting seeds, part 2; and what's starting to grow!
Anyway, on to the indoor planting stuff, which is somewhat more intensive and forethought-requiring, but is very much worth the effort.
There are many plants that need a relatively long growing season to produce the parts we can eat. These are the ones that need to be started inside in this climate, much as I do love winter (we went tobogganing last Sunday, it was great fun!). All those nice big tomato and pepper plants you see in garden centres? Those were started indoors under lights months before they are sold.
The idea is that by starting seeds indoors before you can plant them outdoors, they get a longer growing season, and much more favourable conditions under which to start growing, so that the more difficult and/or sensitive part of their growth happens in a controlled environment. It is a learning experience, but not a fun one, to plant seeds outside and think it’s going great; then watch them all wilt and die when they get hit by frost.
And then I get plants! So far, of the seeds I planted this past week I have tomatoes and hibiscus sprouting, and marigolds and lemongrass that just started in the last 24 hours. And I just checked before I posted, as I wrote some of this earlier - and now there are tomatillos starting too!
(Photos should come later this week)