By Reggie Solomon

Even if it’s freezing outside, bundle up and transfer potting soil to seed trays outdoors.

I planted my second seed tray of the spring today with seeds bought earlier this week. I prepared three trays of tomatoes, basil and edible flowers. Because the weather outside was cold, I prepared the trays inside — meaning I transferred soil from the potting soil bag to the seed trays indoors.

I won’t transfer soil to seed trays indoors ever again — it leaves quite the mess, even if you try to do it carefully.

Save yourself the clean-up headache!

By Reggie Solomon

Get a headstart on the growing season can be starting your plants indoors in seed trays.

You can find seed trays at your local home and garden store or online.

How to Pick the Appropriate Seed Tray
Seed trays tend to come in one standard base tray size but with varying-sized cell spaces.

Generally speaking cell size should mirror the size of the seed and the size of the seedling to be transplanted.

The larger the seed, or the larger the seedling to be transplanted, the larger the cell space you’ll need. The smaller the seed, or the smaller the seedling to be planted, the smaller the cell space you’ll need.

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By Reggie Solomon

Trellising is an ideal way to utilize the often overlooked vertical space in your urban garden.

You can find pre-made trellis systems from gardening supply stores or you can build your own.

I’m building using Mel Bartholomew’s square-foot gardening trellising system that is constructed from half-inch steel electrical tubing. In addition to providing more vertical growing space than off-the-shelf trellis systems, this system is also more inexpensive.

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By Reggie Solomon

Twelve days after placing my online seed order with Burpee, my seeds finally arrived.

The print date on my receipt was April 13, so I really don’t understand why it took them so long to process an order made on April 4?

There was no indication that anything I ordered was out of stock so I’m really perplexed.

I won’t get an opportunity to assemble seed trays until the weekend so this is going to put me even further behind. An email or some notification from them to apprise me of the delay would have been nice. I took a look at my electronic receipt and it indicates I should have received the order within 7-10 days.

One would think a seed-provider company would know time is of the essence when it comes to growing seasons.

Oh well, here’s to planting.

By Reggie Solomon

It can make you feel like a kid again.

Few deliveries have occasioned as much joy as the one I received today.

After returning from lunch I found two big Johnny’s Seeds boxes waiting for me on my office floor.

I’m really impressed with how fast I received my Johnny’s Seeds order since I only made my online order the Wednesday evening before the Good Friday holiday.

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