basement seed starting and medicinal herbs

with a snow storm in the forecast for the next 24 hours, i'm still struggling with believing that it is in fact spring. we did have some warm moments over the weekend during which i promptly headed outside to re-pot some houseplants. getting my hands in the dirt for the first time in many months felt so good. monday evening, i got my act together and set up my seed starting area in our basement. i wrote in detail two years ago about how i created this setup here.

i haven't gotten all of my seeds in soil just yet, but so far here's what i've planted:
tomatoes: ace bush, brandywine, big rainbow, yellow pear, sungold, matt's wild cherry
peppers: early jalapeno, hot mix
basil variety
african crackerjack marigold
lovage

i still have to plant kale, chard, calendula, zinnias, amaranth, clary sage, feverfew, chamomile, and more (i'm sure! i'm still on the lookout for some cherokee purple tomato seeds...).

this year, like last year, i will be planting more medicinal herbs and plants to use for dyes. some of the new medicinal herbs i'll be planting this year include lovage, clary sage, and feverfew. i've grown feverfew from plants before, but they didn't survive my front yard and i'd like to try again as it can be really helpful for migraines. these are a few of my favorite books on medicinal herbs. that i use for a reference.

what new plants are you trying this year? any suggestions for medicinals or dye plants?

basement garden

not too much happening at our garden this week.  the perennials are awakening and beginning to bloom; i've finally gotten around to uncovering them from their winter leaf blanket and it feels like everyone is breathing easier here and ready to grow. i planted some arugula and radishes last week and they are just barely beginning to sprout. meanwhile, in the basement, the seedlings are going nuts. they are almost all sprouted, with the exception of a few peppers, which are always a bit slower. and the zinnias, marigolds, and kale are beginning to grow their true leaves. it's so fun to pop down there in the mornings and check on these little guys and make sure they're all watered and happy. i'll be gone for a few days, so i'm really excited to see how much everything grows while i'm away.

seed starting and spring planting

so, i went ahead and did some early planting (thanks for the encouragement last week!). this weekend was beautiful so i finally sat down and took some inventory of my seed collection, i have a lot! i made a list of everything that i had, and i was only missing a few things that i wanted to plant.

i need (and want!) to do a better job of seed saving this year. it would be great to never have to buy seeds again, wouldn't it? another great way of avoiding seed buying is to swap and share seeds with fellow gardeners. these calendula seeds in my hands were sent to me for my birthday this past year by a dear friend who lives in oakland. it's so fascinating how different they look from the calendula seeds i saved from my own garden last summer (i sent her some of those in return). she didn't tell me the variety, so we'll have to wait and see what they turn out to be. i love that a piece of her will be in my garden this year.

as for what i planted? i can say for sure that it's way too much! but that's okay. last year i was happy to share some of my surplus seedlings and i know i'll be doing the same in a month or so. these seedlings are now taking up three trays under fluorescent lights in my basement. two trays are on heating pads and one (the chard and kale) is not. the lights are timed to stay on for sixteen hours a day. currently, i have plastic covering all of the trays to create a greenhouse effect, but as soon as they start sprouting (which some already are, after only two days!), i'll remove the plastic and bring the lights up a little further (they are suspended on chains from the ceiling so i can adjust the height as the seedlings grow).

i planted:
-silverbeet chard
-kale (dwarf blue curled scotch, lacinato, red russian)
-basil variety
-zinnias (red scarlet, cut and come again)
-amaranth
-tomatoes (cherokee purple, ace bush, yellow pear, sungold, matt's wild cherry)
-peppers (early jalapeno, bull nose bell)
-calendula ("leah's oakland", zeolights)

i also began my outdoor planting of early spring plants, arugula and radishes, but didn't get very far before the weekend was suddenly over (and i was down for the count with a bad cold). i'm hoping to plant some carrots, spinach, and snap peas over the next week.
shari posted some good seed starting links a couple of weeks ago here, here are a couple of my favorites: my post last year detailing my setup, you grow girl's instructions for setting up a diy lighting system, more instructions from you grow girl, another you grow girl list of handy links. i also referenced a few books i have: backyard homestead, and rodale's illustrated encyclopedia of organic gardening.

what are you all starting to plant so far this season?