Pots and Plows: Starting Seeds Indoors
Every winter I tell myself I will start earlier, and every winter the soil stays cold a week longer than the almanac promises. This year I gave up on promises and bought a heat mat.
Tomatoes, peppers, and onions go under lights first. Lettuce and kale can wait for the direct sow. The trick I learned the hard way: label everything the day you sow, because by week three every cotyledon looks the same.
Water from below, light from above. Most sad seedlings are drowned with good intentions.
By the time the garden soil hits 50F, the transplants are leggy and impatient. Hardening off starts ten days before the move — an hour of shade outside, then an hour more each day.