working out doors

Ever since I was a young boy I always had an love for the outdoors and working out doors.  It probably helped that I grew up on a dairy farm in rural Ontario.  On both the farms we lived on my mom had a huge garden!  I guess huge is a relative term, but I remember for most of my childhood that we grew, processed, canned and froze most of the food we ate.  I still remember a time (in my teen years) my mom coming home with Ragu sauce to try it for making spaghetti.  Before that she, I imagine, had always used her own canned tomatoes.

So one of the down sides of growing up on a farm where we grew virtually all our own food was come harvest time, of any or all the types of veggies, you would eat that veggie for almost every meal, or at least lunch and dinner.  I remember coming in for lunch from working in the field during haying time, exhausted, and once the table was cleared a huge bushel of green beans was dumped on the table and we were not allowed to leave until all the beans were de-ended and snapped in half!  I also remember having whole meals consisting of corn on the cob.  We would have a 5 gallon bucket on the floor at the corner of the table where we would toss out finished cob into and the thing would be full at the end of dinner time.  Now mind you I did grow up with 2 brothers and three sisters, and usually there was a farm hired hand around too.  But still that was A LOT OF CORN!  Still to this day every time I eat corn on the cob I think about that.

Well enough about the past.  This spring is the start of the third season that I have started growing my own plants from seeds.  It was recommended to my by a close friend to use the Parks Bio Dome  to start my seeds.  This product is hands down the best option to start seeds.  It is MUCH better than those flimsy, plastic, throw away seed starter kits that you buy at your local nursery.  They are more money to start with, but the only thing you have to purchase the next year is seed starting soil.  I also purchase most of me seeds from Park Seed.  Their selection is fantastic for both flowers and veggies and you can purchase almost every veggie and herd in an organic seed as well.  I have about a 95% germination rate on all my seeds.  If I do not have at least an 80% germination rate I will contact them and typically if you are not satisfied they will replace your seeds!  Their customer service is fantastic!  Another good source for organic veggies is Seeds of Change. 

The pics above are current seedlings growing in my basement.  Top one is cilantro and next one is impatiens.