When i ordered the greenhouse it was at the back end of my spending spree. I had already sprung for ppe, medicine, food supplies, a chicken pen, a chicken coop, chickens, dog and chicken feed, and many other things. I didn’t have money left to buy vegetable plants at the nursery. So i decided to buy seeds instead. I didn’t have a good history with seeds. Anything grown from a seed in my house usually died shortly after the first two leaves appeared. However, this time around, the stakes were higher. Maybe out of sheer desperation i would find a way to keep the sprouts alive.
In the tiny house there were only 384 square feet to work with. So, not a lot of shelf space to sprout vegetable seeds on. Originally i had them sitting in the window sills but when the sun hit the cups it turned the water to bath water and ended up boiling some of the seeds. It was no good. I needed a different setup. So, i used the dog crates as a counter space. I did so often when it came to cooking. I would set the cutting board or the pots and pans on top of the dog crates. I mean, they were the only flat counter-like surface i had in the kitchen and it wasn’t like the top of each crate was being used for something else. So, i repurposed the tops of the dog crates as a kitchen counter and placed up-turned toy box lids on top of them. I placed the sprouting cups on the toy box lids and filled them with well water. Then i placed a wad of paper towel in each cup, placing a few seeds on top of the paper towel in each cup. It was a modified method of sprouting seeds that my friend Luke’s mother had taught me as a child. She had placed an egg carton over a cup of water and cut a hole in the middle of the egg carton. The paper towel carpeted the egg carton and laid atop a paper towel that hung down from the egg carton into the cup. The paper towel drew up the water, spreading it along the length of the egg carton and keeping the seeds continuously moist without drowning them. Luke and i used to sprout beans in this way and watch them grow. However, we were city kids so back then we were just doing it for fun. Now it was a matter of sustenance. I needed food other than rice gruel and lentils. I didn’t have any egg cartons so i made do with the cups. I had taken one of each packet that was left at the dollar general, gotten carrot seeds at the walmart, and ordered a few seed packets online. It was a struggle to find seeds as they were all on back order because the whole country had the same idea. The grocery stores were empty so they’d make their own. I was late to the party. By the time i obtained all my seeds it was nearly summer. I could only sprout a few of the seeds i obtained because i had missed the planting season for the rest. I read the backs of the packages and sprouted whatever had an extended growing season.
Peas
Okra
Apple seeds
Cucumber
Squash
Rhubarb (one of my favorites)!
Fava beans