I ordered my seeds early this year, and I’m grateful for that, as I heard of so many seed shortages and shipping delays not long after my order was placed. I printed my seed starting chart based on a very conservative frost free date for my area, sorted the seed packets by type, and gathered all the containers that I’d been saving over the last several weeks.
The seeds were poked, sprinkled and counted out into the moistened soil and then covered over for a little heat and moisture retention, and the first sprouts poked up only 5 or so days later. Now our kitchen counter is covered with seed pots and many need to be transplanted into the next size up.
Planting the seeds into saved egg cartons gave me vivid flashbacks to sitting with my grandmother in her upstairs back bedroom while she tended to seedlings placed on trays by the windows. She never had a very large garden, but she grew things every year. My oldest daughter said that she, too, has seedlings growing in saved egg cartons. From my grandmother’s back bedroom window in Pennsylvania, to my dining room window in Delaware and my kitchen window in Maine (and Texas when we lived there), to my daughter’s sunroom in North Carolina. I don’t know when my grandmother started gardening, but I’d say we easily have over 70 years of starting seeds in egg cartons. Isn’t it funny how something so simple can unite generations.
