1. You find a sunny afternoon with nothing to do and bring out your seedling kit.
2. Whereas Noah took two of each, somerville kitchen is content with one of each. 24 different seeds went into 24 individual containers.
3. Unlike previous seedling attempts, this year's seedling project included the identification of each with striking pink stickers (how else can you tell the difference between pumpkin, gourd and squash?).
4. Forget this business of putting the seedlings indoors - what will happen when their roots are ripping through and it is still cold outside like our June? somerville kitchen just leaves them outside from late March and let them take their natural time.
5. The tough part of the process is when they start growing up. Questions with no easy answers such as "where should each plant go", "should we wait for this seed to come up before planting the one that is already growing", "what about slugs if moved to the earth too soon".
6. Well, you hire a jardin strategist for answers: cats.
"I advise that pumpkin does not block my jardin space and be planted in a large pot and let it climb on the garage roof. Value-add is that nasty Heckle stops hanging out on the garage roof and bugging me every morning"
"I recommend all the vegetable mini seedlings like tomatoes, okras, peppers and cauliflower go in the ground as soon as possible - imagine the quick return on investment with all that rich soil (and the fun of watching slugs get smashed by paws)"
"And I suggest, after last year's invasion of spaghetti squash, to keep them outside the jardin - they can grow out of the compost bin in the alley and climb up the garage roof as well, creating pumpkin-spaghetti squash synergy".
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