By Tim King 

Special to the Leader

It sure is nice to have some more daylight lately. Ever since we’ve turned the clocks back, the sun seems to shine just a little warmer even if the air temperature is still only in the 30s. Since the sun is going to be working a little harder for us, its time to get some seeds started.

This year, I decided to take a slightly different route.

First, you should know that the seedlings that I started two weeks ago are now practically bursting from the pan I planted them in. That’s right, instead of going with one of those fancy “every seed gets their own little section of dirt” seed starter trays, I went with more of a general broadcast strategy this year. But, more on that later.

Over the years, I found it nearly impossible to successfully grow seedlings in those little made just for starting seed containers. I just don’t have the patience or discipline.

For one thing, I hated trying to hand pick one or two tiny seeds into every single one-inch square of soil. Not only was it a painfully monotonous task, but also made for a clearly stated letdown when certain seeds failed to do their thing. 

Call me a fatalist, but it’s difficult for me to really enjoy the accomplishment of producing 10 little seedlings while looking at two barren sections where nothing has emerged. 

It also doesn’t help that I’m not necessarily the most regimented, detail-orientated guy on the block. I’m more of the “Our life is fritted away with details - SIMPLIFY” kind of guy. 

Unfortunately, this doesn’t usually work out well for growing seedlings, since there is very little room for error. Give them too much water and they will wilt, give them too much sun too quickly and they’ll dry out and die. At a minimum, it requires day-to-day attention to get the soil right while also maintaining a safe environment for growth.

I’m sure there are people out there who have the luxury of having a dedicated space in their homes just for germinating seeds, but that ain’t me. 

While there are a fair number of plants that do actually live in our very active household — surviving the ever curious fingers of my 4-year-old son, numerous paper airplane assaults and “accidental” juggling ball bombardments from my 9 year old, my living room is really no place for delicate plants trying to survive their first days above ground.

Problem is, it’s also the room that gets the most sunlight during the day. Because of this, the seeds gotta go where they gotta go. It’s as simple as that.

Ironically, there seems to be a direct correlation between the delicate balance needed during the early spring growing season with the exact same time that kids are bouncing off the walls, sometimes literally, from a long winter spent mostly indoors. This is a recipe for disaster. 

Because of this, whatever I use for growing seedlings has to be both sturdy and mobile. That’s what gave me the idea to use a lasagna pan. As I said earlier, I wanted to take a simpler approach to growing seedlings this year. Here’s what I did.

First, I started off with a pouch of mixed flower seeds, including both annuals and perennials. Then I dumped a two-inch layer of potting soil into a big (disposable) aluminum pan that you would normally cook lasagna or a turkey in.

Next, I not so carefully tossed in the seeds by the handful and covered them with another one-inch layer of soil. After adding some water to the mix, I snapped on the handy-dandy clear plastic cover and was done in the same amount of time that it usually takes me just to separate out the seeds into their individual one by one holding cells.

What’s more, the heavy-duty pan was solid enough to easily transport down to the cellar where it spent a few days keeping warm and dark next to the furnace.

When I retrieved the pan a few days later, its lid was nicely dappled with condensation and a virtual “lawn” of tiny little sprouts of all types and sizes had emerged! Now, perhaps some seeds didn’t take, but I’ll never know. There’s more than enough that did. 

My first guilt-free spring egress.

The seedlings are now a few inches tall. I’m wondering how to give these little guys the breathing room that they’ll need to survive. Luckily, I think that the three inches of soil will provide enough room for roots to grow for several more weeks. 

My other concern is how I will actually transplant them outside … then again, I might just take the whole mix and dump it right into the garden as is. After all, these little guys will have been together for weeks and months as seeds and then seedlings. Why shouldn’t they live out the rest of their days living in the same spot as well?

Since my initial success with the wildflower mix, I’ve also splurged to buy two more $2.99 lasagna tins. One has a package of mixed zinnia seeds and one for marigold seeds that have been secretly harvested from spent blooms over the last few years.

In another four to six weeks, I hope to be able to move some small but strong plants outside. The best part is that all I’ll need to do to prepare for next year is rinse out my tins and store them until next season – try that with a flimsy, multi pack plastic tray or peat container.

At the end of the day, the most important thing to me is that I actually got my hands dirty and got something, anything to grow while watching the snow fall (again) outside my living room window. I am content, for now.

Tim King is a freelance writer who sees the forest and the trees from his home in Scarborough. He can be reached at - sylvan.sauntering@gmail.com