Growing at the Speed of Life - A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden

concept hard to grasp; surely when smoth­

ered in soil there’s no air? But here I was so

wrong : the whole point of fine soil is that

there is plenty of air, providing it isn’t satu­

rated with water that has nowhere to drain.

■ Te m p e r a t u r e : To keep the germinating

seeds at the right temperature, you can use a

specially designed heat-pad arrangement

that is thoroughly waterproof (don’t use the

one you bought for that back pain!) and linked to a temperature-sensing device,

allowing you to regulate the soil temperature. There’s a range between 63ºF and

75ºF that works best on vegetable seeds. All you have to do is set your tray of

freshly planted seeds directly on top of the waterproof pad and plunge the ce­

ramic sensor into one of the small pots. When the soil temperature reaches 70ºF,
the pad will turn off; it’ll kick back on when the soil cools slightly.

■ Light: Some seeds, especially really small ones like lettuce, need

some kind of light source to help them germinate. Without light

they will emerge, but they reach out for whatever glimmer they

see and get tall and straggly instead of developing sturdy stems.
Good greenhouse centers have excellent safe grow lights, very im­

portant in a watery environment!

■ Feeding: At their earliest stage, the seed has its

own life support system and needs no added boost

from outside until it has six leaves. It is at this time
that the transplanting should take place.

MY NEED-TO-KNOW LIST • 31