At this time of year, people start to get antsy! Many people start to reach out to us looking for seeds to plant, and wondering if they should start those seeds indoors, like, right now!
The answer to the second part is mostly NO, not yet! And in many cases, the answer is NO, don’t start them indoors at all. Most of the crops we know as “the 3 Sisters” don’t need (or want) to be started indoors. These crops are adapted to growing here during the growing season, because they have been grown here for thousands of years. For most of that time there were no greenhouses here, no grow-lights, no windowsills. The seeds were kept safe until the soil was ready to receive them, outside. Beans don’t like to be transplanted at all-some of them would die if transplanted. Squashes can be transplanted, but they don’t like it and will sulk for quite a while once outside. In my experience, there is no advantage to starting squash plants indoors, because the ones started from seed-in-the-ground (direct-seeded) will quickly reach the same stage of maturity as the transplants, and may even overtake them, just because their roots were not disturbed by transplanting.
We have already started our peppers (see photo), because they like to be transplanted, and are native to climes further south which get a longer season. We will start tomatoes in the waxing moon phase after Easter, for the same reason (although tomatoes are adapting rapidly now, and I suspect there may be no need to start tomatoes indoors in the near future). Around the same time we will likely start some brassicas and flowers.
The answer to the first part of the question -do we have seeds to share? If you are a Tyendinaga community member, look for the form to fill out on our website, and come pick up your seeds on the Spring Equinox, March 19. Otherwise, please be patient and consider making a donation: we are gradually building capacity and hope to be able to share more widely as we grow. We will have a small quantity at Kingston Seedy Saturday. Nyawen!
