Here in central Alberta, we tend to have short growing seasons. Because of this, it’s important to start some seeds early in order to have a successful garden harvest!!
My girls decided to sprout some seeds like tomato, pumpkin, corn, peppers, watermelon and cucumbers while I decided to just toss the seed into the starting soil.
To sprout the seeds, we placed the seeds in between dampened paper towel, which we then placed in a plastic baggie and placed it on the counter where it gets the most sunlight and warmth from the dishwasher/kitchen sink. We made sure the paper towel stayed damp, but not soaking wet because if the towel is too wet, it will mold rather than sprout. Once sprouted, we placed the seeds into the starting soil (meant for growing plants from seed) and water it twice a day.
The tomato seeds took about 10 days to sprout.
The corn and pumpkin seeds took 8 days to sprout.
The cucumbers took 8 days, but only about half sprouted and half did not, so we decided today to sprout some more!
The pepper seeds took about 14 days to sprout.
The watermelon seeds – we decided to sprout some today. I’ll update soon!
I also planted corn and pumpkin straight into the dirt and it took 8 days for them to begin to grow. The eggplant, cucumber and other seeds that I planted into the dirt have yet to sprout.
These are our tomato seeds (grape tomatoes) here in the damp paper towel and baggie which acts like a mini greenhouse! They are definitely ready to be planted!
Time to fill our little pots with some seed starting soil. We like using this style of pot because we can plant it straight into the ground and they will simply disintegrate into the soil.
Dirt is in the pots, and ready to become homes for some seeds! It is sunny outside today, so we did the dirt outdoors, but the air is quite chilly, so we took it indoors to plant!
Our tomato seeds sprouted wonderfully and we really should have planted them much sooner than we did, but they are planted now and should do great!
tomato seeds 
tomato seeds sprouted 
time to plant the tomatoes
Here is the first batch of seeds planted! We planted the sprouted grape tomatoes as well as eggplant, tumbler and mortgage lifter tomato seeds which will produce larger tomatoes. We planted sweet corn and a variety of pumpkins straight into the dirt.
We also sprouted bell peppers, sweet corn, a variety of pumpkins and pickling cucumber which we also planted today.
The pumpkin seeds we planted include sugar pumpkin seeds along with jack-o-lantern pumpkins and giant pumpkins — some that we had sprouted and some we did not sprout. We also compared our harvested pumpkin seeds with the store bought ones and so far, the pumpkin seeds we harvested and dried are doing so much better (and sprouted so much more) than the store bought!
We found our watermelon seeds today and decided we would get them ready to sprout. We are attempting to grow Early Canada and Jubilee watermelon seeds. We also planted some straight into dirt, so it will be a great comparison on which will sprout and grow first!
And here is the rest of what we planted today – the bell peppers, pumpkin, corn, pickling cucumber and english cucumber, strawberry crown squash along with some jalapeno seeds.
It will be quite interesting, and so exciting, to watch all of our seeds grow so we can plant them in the garden this spring! We have quite a few started so far, and we have more sprouting which will be planted in the upcoming days! I also have an onion sprouting and is growing wonderfully! I will be planting it soon into a larger gardening pot that can go outdoors later this summer. I am looking forward to eating fresh green onions again!
I had so much fun planting seeds with my girls and anticipating the upcoming gardening season — fills us with hope for a brighter day!
I simply love gardening! It is relaxing and such a great accomplishment when you can see all the hard work pay off. I feel it is important for us to grow as much of our own food as we can — definitely something pioneers did and something every homesteader (even us city ones) can do too!
Have you started your gardening seeds? What are you looking forward to growing this season? Please share with us in the comments! We always love to see what fellow gardeners are up to!!
UPDATE: March 12 – the seeds we planted March 2 and the ones we sprouted then planted are doing amazingly well!! Most of the pumpkins are growing quite good, most of the peppers are up, the corn is up and a few tomatoes are as well.
Oh that’s so fantastic!! Makes me want to try to grow a few things like pumpkins!
Oh we are so happy to hear – we believe strongly in growing what good you can! It’s quite easy to start!