Starting Seeds

On February 13 I started my seedlings. I chose the dehydrated soil pellet kits with a cover. In Southern Utah we share a climate more akin to Mesquite, NV and Moab, UT than the majority of the state of Utah. In February our average temperatures range from 30.6 degrees farenheit at night to 59.9 degrees during the day which means that we aren't out of the night freezes yet (see http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?utstge). However, I'm told that peas, onions, garlic, and some herbs can go into the ground now. So my intention was to get those plants into the ground before March.

The seeds that I have chosen to grow in starter kits this year include:

• Tomatoes (various varieties)


• Peppers (Bell, Sweet, Anaheim, and Jalapeno)


• Beans


• Peas


• Pumpkin


• Cantalope


• Cucumber


• Squash


• Watermellon


• Sunflowers


• Tomatillos


• Onions


• Garlic


• Cilantro


• Dill


• Parsley


• Marigolds

I've decided to throw marigolds around nearly all my plants as I have read that they are the wonder-drug for nearly all plants, acting as a natural insecticide to harmful insects as well as rodents.

It's been less than 2 weeks and already most of my seeds have sprouted and the peas are now large enough to be placed in the soil. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of work to do before getting to that point.