Yesterday I checked at our local ag extension office to see what the last hard frost date is in our area and discovered, much to my surprise, that it was a couple of days ago. As I've said since we moved here, this first year is a total learning experience. I am learning everything from the ground up (literally) and finding out the frost ends this quickly here was something of a surprise, but a nice one.
This means its relatively safe to start plants outside that are a bit frost tolerant, although I wouldn't plant anything outdoors considered truly sensitive (like tomatoes) for several more weeks, just to be safe. But everything I have gathered here should be OK to start.
The dish you see is where my heirloom tomato seeds are germinating, which will remain indoors for another six weeks or so and the warm weather arrives to stay. This is, by far, the best method I've used for starting tomato seeds. You take a moist paper towel, lay down your seeds on it, and then cover it with another moist towel. Within a few days (if you keep it moist and don't let it dry out) you will see exactly which seeds have germinated, and you can then plant those in pots and let them grow until they are big and hardy enough to go outside. There are also some bush bean seeds germinating in the same way in the other room.
The other seeds will pretty much be directly sown in the raised beds we have, and I will take whatever I get. I am hoping to get in a nice spring crop before I need to begin starting the serious summer plants -- zucchini squash, crook-neck squash, the tomatoes of course, and cucumbers. But I still need plenty of carrots and spinach, as I freeze those crops for use in things like casseroles, vegetable dishes and stews, which we eat throughout winter, so I'm hoping to get them in and get them harvested and out of the ground by about June.
It may be raining outside, but I'm feeling a strong case of early summer here indoors.
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