January Garden Update and Seed Starting

The seed starting has begun! These are the varieties started today:

Vegetables - Germination updates in italics. Almost everything did really well and I noted the exceptions below. I'm pretty sure older seed was the cause of almost all the problems.

• Broccoli - Early Purple Sprouting, Rapini, Romanesco Italia
• Cabbage - Brunswick, Cour Di Bue, Hilton, Tete Noir (poor germination, will purchase new seed for next year), Violaceo di Verona
• Cauliflower - Purple of Sicily
• Cucumber - Dar
• Eggplant - Mitoyo (2/3 germination rate), Rosa Bianca
• Kale - Nero Di Toscana, Ragged Jack
• Leek - Bleu of Solaise, Giant Musselburgh, Primor
• Lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson (didn't germinate, bought new seed), Bronze Beauty (poor germination, only had a few), Brune d'Hiver (seed was too old and didn't germinate), Butter King (poor germination, only 1/3 to 1/2), Cimmaron, Flame (poor germination, only had a few), Merlot, Mervaeille des Quatre Saisons, Parris Island Cos, Rouge D'Hiver
• Melon - Petit Gris de Rennes (loved the heat mat and I over planted a lot expecting the same poor germination from last year)
• Pak Choi - Green Fortune
• Pepper - Quadrato d'Asti Rosso, Ring of Fire, Sheepnose Pimento, Tam Jalapeno (these all did much better with the new heat mat)
• Spinach - Monstrueux De Viroflay (seed was too old and didn't germinate, bought a different variety)
• Tomatillo - Green Husk
• Tomato - Black Krim, Black Vernissage, Blue Berries, Brad's Atomic Grape (2/3 germinated), Cour di Bue (sad little seedling, new seed if I grow this variety next year), Green Vernissage, Kellogg's Breakfast (poor germination, only about 1/3 probably due to older seed), Martino's Roma, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Pink Brandywine, Pink Bumblebee
• Watermelon - Orangeglo (realized too late I only had 2 of these seeds, got one plant from them so it will be a loner mixed in with the other watermelon), Sugar Baby

I'm using 1.25" cell seed trays for the smaller plants. For the larger plants, I had a bag of plastic shot glasses someone brought to a summer barbecue and left at my house. They are 3 oz and were very easy to pierce with an awl to make drainage holes. I can write on them with a permanent marker which comes off with some rubbing alcohol so I can reuse them next year if they work well.

I'm seeing signs of life in the garden already. The daffodils and tulips are starting to come up, the bonsai trees and blueberries have buds starting to form and the rhubarb is already coming up. The artichokes never really died all the way back so they have some nice foliage and I have been picking slugs off of them. Once some of the very heavy rain lightens up, I will start working on the last untamed section of the back yard. I'm very excited to get started!

Rhubarb waking up