onions on my mind

I don’t know about you but February is fierce. Maybe it’s the length of time we’ve been living in isolation plus the combination of cold/snowy/icy/gray weather that we keep getting, but I’m getting restless. I can feel that we are on the brink of a new season and rhythm and the anticipation is making me excited. But the lesson I am always trying to learn in life is to enjoy what’s in front of me. Not try to rush to the next chapter.

For this reason, February feels like the perfect month to hibernate. It’s only four weeks. It may be the last chance to justifiably stay inside all weekend before longer days and nicer weather arrive. So, in that vein I’ve been working on my garden plan, getting more detailed with when I’m going to seed start and sow each crop, when I’ll harvest, and what I’ll plant next. As mentioned in the cool/warm post, I’m trying to get the most out of my space by rotating through three cycles: Spring (cool) –> Summer (warm) –> Fall (cool). This isn’t something I’ve done before and probably would have been overwhelmed by last year but I’m stepping up my game due to the increased ‘at home’ time the pandemic has afforded. When life gives you lemons… right.

The first thing I needed to seed start is onions. Last year I used onion sets so this is an experiment. I will likely do onion sets in March also but figured why not get my shelves and lights set up in February so I am ready to go when I need to start tomatoes and peppers in March.

Here’s what I did nice and simple –

  1. I bought two 8-quart bags of MiracleGro seed starting mix for $4.99 each (egads! Sacreligious, I know but let me explain). I’m going to use this for half of my seed starts and a regular mix from Fox Farms to see what the difference is. Since I want my garden to be 100% non-GMO and pesticide free, this shouldn’t matter because seed starting mix should be devoid of organisms anyway.
  2. Filled my 5 oz arugula clamshell with about 2 inches of potting mix.
  3. Spaced about 25 Gladstone onion seeds on top of the potting mix.
  4. Sprinkled aboutanother cup of potting mix on top of the seeds.
  5. I misted the potting mix with a little sprayer and then closed the lid so it would stay warm and become like a greenhouse inside.

The seeds should germinate in 7-10 days but I’ve also read to just leave them alone and keep the soil moist and they’ll germinate when the time is right.

  • Bag of Miracle Gro seed starting potting mix
  • Empty 5oz clamshell container for seed starting
  • eight silver gladstone onion seeds in palm of hand
  • seed packet for gladstone onion resting against 5oz clamshell filled with seed starting potting mix

What are you seed starting in February? Next on my list are hot peppers and cauliflower.

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