Seeds

Planting from seed is a wonderful adventure, full of anticipation, failures, triumphs and surprises!
I decided to plant some seeds in our vegetable garden in February. Last chance for a few sugar snap peas, I hadn't managed to put in earlier. And last chance for a bit more lettuce and spring mix, which never does as well as we get into late Spring and Summer. Late Winter is a good time for carrots, chard, beets, and turnips. The last two, I am trying for the first time.

I've had very good luck with carrots, maybe because we are not far from the LA river, and our soil is silty. My mother-in-law was a prolific gardener, but could never successfully grow carrots, so I feel blessed! There is something so dramatic about pulling a big carrot out of your own tended soil! For one thing, you never quite know how big and well-shaped a root vegetable will be until you pull it out of the ground. The seeds are known to take a while to germinate, and just when I almost lost hope this time, there they were! It took about 3 weeks.

Spring mix seed was casually thrown 

I began to muse about seeds and seedlings. Planting seeds is a wonderful act from many perspectives. It ties us to all the human beings who have harvested seeds from a plant in order to have that plant where they can tend it and reap its harvest.
Planting seeds is an act of hope, no doubt! It is a plan for the future, a hope that all will go well, and knowledge that much of the success is completely out of our hands!
When I first created my raised beds, I could chuck some seeds in, and for better or worse, they'd pretty much come up, grow and give me fruit (or veggies!). But then the skunks and raccoons figured out what I was doing, and started digging for worms, grubs, etc. So my seedlings were constantly disturbed, and my success rate plummeted.
Looking at one of my tomato cages recently, I realized that a very cheap solution was to buy some rolls of wire, and put them over the beds temporarily while things get established. I've begun the process, and it's working! Will customize the wire for each bed, and be able to use it year after year.
Some of the plants I've grown from seed that have been super easy:
Alyssum, California Poppy, Lupine, Spring Lettuce/Meslun Mix, Nasturtium, and Borage.