The days are getting longer, the weather is slowly but surely improving, and around here that means two things: Wishing in vain that we could afford to do something with our mud pit of a back yard, and getting a jump start on the gardening. If you followed our inaugural attempt at gardening last year, you may remember that we bought all of our plants rather than growing them from seed, due mostly to our procrastination.  We're a little more on top of our game this year, and January picked up some seeds to get things started indoors until we can put them in the square foot garden after the first frost.

I don't think either of us were extremely confident that we would have much success, given that we've never grown anything from seed before, and almost every plant that comes into our house ends up dead within a week.  Fortunately, though, our little seedlings are off to a pretty good start. The cucumber actually started sprouting up from beneath the soil after just two days and now, about a week later we've got green onions, green peppers, zucchini and chives a couple inches tall. Full disclosure:

If you think you might be up for it, it's not too late to get started. It's a little bit of work upfront, but by the time late June comes around it's completely worth it to be able to pick fresh tomatoes, jalapenos, and eggplant. The first step is pretty simple; You can pick up packets of seeds for a little over a dollar and starter soil / planter kits for just a couple of bucks.  Pick up a small spray bottle to keep them watered daily, and just make sure they get plenty of sun.  Keep them covered with the plastic lid until the sprouts are pushing at the lid, then get some sticks -- or straws in our case -- to keep it propped up.  If a lot of your seeds take root in a particular section, you may have to thin them out to make sure they don't smother each other.

In a few months they should be ready to transplant into the garden.  I touched on the square foot gardening method last year, but I'll follow up with some specifics next month. Stay tuned!