Swiss Chard Delight

Hey Robin -- thanks so much for posting this!  It's excellent information and brings back fond memories of my garden in the mountains west of Denver, Colorado.  I have the strangest memory -- I can remember many, many things before age 2 (but then new technical terms now, not so much!), and recall swinging on my swingset looking at some dirt that didn't have grass/weeds growing in it and recalling seeing seeds at the grocery store on one of those round racks that spun.  I asked my mother if I could plant some seeds and that's how our family's garden started.  Years later when she retired after 12 years of teaching fourth grade at our local elementary school, she doubled the garden by adding another large area up at the base of the mountainside -- the other garden was down near the creek and was much cooler than the one just a hundred yards away, so different things grew better there. 

These types of vegetables were things which grew well for us.  I'll always appreciate the healthy way my family of origin approached eating and nutrition, and currently am doing a little to help a local organic community garden affiliated with a public school -- the first in our area.  That's 'our' Monica Cullinane's 'baby'/project as her children go to that school.  You busy moms who make time to make things happen for the health of your families and extend that knowledge to others are a true blessing to Lumigrate's readers and other contributors.  Thanks for all you do here -- I really appreciate it! ~~ Mardy

(Mardy's note: This is added here as it 'feeds in' (pun intended) with what Robin posted this spring (2011) which Alice wrote about spring of 2010.  Many hands, light work ... and much learning!)

It was with great delight that I opened my little bag of treasures this morning. No, not silver, not gold, stocks or bonds, precious gemstones, or cash. My treasure is the little seeds sprouting on coffee filters.

Three days ago I put some herb and pepper seeds on damp coffee filters. I opened them this morning to see precious little sprouts emerging from the sweet basil and the parsley seeds. I once used paper towels for this process but the coffee filters are much more durable and easier to work with.

Okay, I know, you want instructions, so here goes.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Coffee filters

Plastic Bags

Permanent marker or ball point pen

Shoe box or other container for seedlings

Knife

Foam cups, egg cartons, seed starting tray or other container to transfer the sprouted seeds

Potting soil

First decide what plants you would like to grow in containers, on a window sill, under a grow light or in the garden. Purchase good quality seeds packaged for this year. Old seeds will sprout better on coffee filters than in soil, so if you have some old ones, try them. However, you will have a greater assurance of success with new seeds.

Mark your coffee filters with a permanent marker or ball point pen with the name of the seeds. Dampen the coffee filter by spritzing or sprinkling but do not leave it sopping wet. If you get the filter too wet place it on a paper towel to absorb some of the water. Place the seeds on one half of the filter then fold it in half and put it in a plastic bag. Leave the top of the plastic bag open. Place your bags in a shoebox or other container and place in a warm place. Check your seed package for temperature requirements for sprouting. I have had good luck at room temperature. Some tropical plants may need warmer temperatures to sprout. In this case you can put them near a light or on top of the refrigerator. Other seeds may need cold storage (inside the refrigerator), before sprouting, check your package.

After preparing the seeds for sprouting, wait three days, but be sure the coffee filters stay damp. Sprinkle or spritz with water as needed to keep the filters damp. After three days check the filters daily for sprouted seeds. When you see sprouts emerging, transfer the sprouted seeds to containers prepared with a good potting soil by very gently lifting them from the filter with the blade of a knife.

My advice to you is to buy a good quality potting soil, don't skimp on this item.

Prepare pots or trays for transferring your seeds by wetting potting soil or seed starter mix before putting it into the container. I put some potting soil in a bucket and add hot water just enough to wet the desired medium. Hot water makes dampening the potting soil easier than using cold water. Be sure to let the mixture cool before placing the sprouted seed in the soil.

Now is a good time to recycle those plastic containers that everyone has. Yogurt cups, sour cream, cottage cheese tubs or any plastic tub can be used. The plastic containers like the ones for strawberries can be used by lining them with coffee filters. Foam egg cartons can be used by cutting the top from the bottom at the fold, making a hole for drainage in each cup with a knife and placing the top under it to act as a drip tray. Be sure to mark your container with a permanent marker with the variety of seed planted. If you don't have any of empty food containers, foam coffee cups are inexpensive and also make good substitutes for plastic flower pots, just make a hole in the bottom for drainage. Use your imagination, just remember to make sure you have holes in the containers for drainage. One year I bought spray paint for plastics and painted the outside of large yogurt cups with beige paint prior to preparing them for planting. This was simply for aesthetics and is not needed if the labels on the containers do not bother you. The lids can be used for drip trays. Once painted, they looked like flower pots.

Place the sprouted seed on potting soil in the pots, cups or trays you have prepared. Cover with potting soil according to the size of the seed. Tiny seeds can be placed on top of the potting soil without covering. Small seeds need just a slight covering of soil and larger seeds need to be placed a little deeper into the soil If your seeds already have leaves, make sure the leaves are above the soil.

Your containers can be placed under a florescence light in a garage or a spare room or on a kitchen counter under an under cabinet light. You can also place them in South facing window sill, just turn them ¼ way around each day. In a warm climate the little seedlings may be placed outside. When big enough they can be transplanted into flower beds, the garden, five gallon buckets, or flower pots for the spring and summer growing period. You may also grow them on window sills or under grow lights. Container plants can be brought indoors during next winter, put near a South facing window and will be ready to go back outside next year.

Herbs are so nice to have growing at home for tasty meals. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash do well in containers if you don't have a garden or can no longer plant a full garden.

Try this method of starting seeds for cost savings and for varieties that may not be available to you as plants in your area. You can choose certified organic seed, or heirloom seeds and have plants you cannot find in stores.

There are many good seed sources available on the web. Here are two that I have used with great success.

http://www.gourmetseed.com/c=7gVsPw9UDU8J3ybiknymMeAK0/

https://www.superseeds.com/

It's wonderful, being here on the cusp of Lumigrate celebrating a second 'anniversary', for seeral reasons.  One is seen here with Robin posting something which provided a perfect opportunity to bring up /back something from Alice from the previous spring.  I hope it connects everyone as much as I feel connected to the people who provide information at Lumigrate.com.  In a perfect world we'd be able to get together and make a salad together and sit down and enjoy the conversation, and for now we're appreciative of the relative closeness we share simply by being part of the same effort related to health and well-being by interacting at Lumigrate. 

I hope this information inspires people of all abilities and health levels to make their days filled with goodness, as Robin and Alice have so beautifully shared in this piece.  I hope my input facilitating does it justice! ~~ Mardy