It Has Begun!

I have a dream. I had a dream. My dream was to plant swiss chard and thyme seeds indoors and make them grow. My dream was is to turn:

(As the packaging suggests, these seeds were from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I strongly recommend them to anyone looking for weird (think blue squash and chocolate basil) or slightly different varieties. They sell vegetables, herbs, and flowers. They're into organic growing, if you're into that. They even sent me a free packet of sunflower seeds for ordering from them.)

 

and

 

Into food.

The "making them grow" part is still a dream (albeit ever closer to reality), but I planted said seeds last night, so I am one step closer to growing my first foods!

The variety of chard I ordered is called "Rainbow" (also known as Bright Lights and Five-Color Silverbeet, as it's a relative of sugar beets). If you look at my blog's (current) header, that's a picture of rainbow swiss chard. I think it's beautiful, and chard is one of my favorite vegetables--definitely my favorite green. And I have read that it can be grown indoors for baby greens. So I'm trying it!

Apparently soaking the chard seeds in warm water for 24 hours before planting aids germination and helps prevent root rot, so I'm soaking them as I type.

I know I'm not sowing very many, but this way I have plenty more in case something goes south with this batch. Once these are done imbibing that water, I'm going to plant them in this (possibly with a tray of some sort under it):

However, I did actually plant the thyme. I planted it in a basket (we'll see how that works as a container) that's sitting on my heater. You see, a heating mat would be nice, but that would cost money, so I just laid some cloth over my heater to insulate it and put the basket on top of that. Here's the cloth (some strips I cut off of some sweats today--I'm DIYing this thing).

And here's the seeds on top of it!

In addition to planting new crops, I transplanted some older ones into better containers. These little seed pots were generously donated by my mother. I was going to use coolie cups, but I'll save them for another time.

First, the spinach. Cameos by Scott's hand.

This one's looking a little leggy. It never hurts to try, though.

Next is the zucchini. It's actually getting a new home in a few weeks, where it can go outside and possibly produce fruit.

I also finally transplanted my wheat into this colander. Maybe I didn't do the best job, but I think it will work. It's crooked because it's been growing toward my window and thus light.

Here's the class photo!

And here's what my windowsill looks like now:

There you have it. My lilliputian bounty is on its way. Have you ever tried growing any of these plants indoors? What are your favorite seed suppliers? Have you ever had to rig a makeshift growing apparatus?

Next post: more greenhouse pictures (plus the planting of my Bright Lights)!