Could it be... almost two years since I posted? 

Yeah, it could. But in the two years since, things have changed. For one, I retired.  Starting this blog back has been one of my retirement goals. 

Our empty-nest family has grown to include a rescue pup, named Teagan,

who is 20 months old and soon to include a puppy ( yes we've lost our minds) in addition to the two cats. (Doesn't Teagan have the cutest face ever?)

Last summer was my first retired summer and we are still eating things I froze and canned from the garden. I had some successes and some big failures last year, but I learned a lot and I am looking forward to sharing my experiences in and out of the garden with you this year.

So let's get started!

Today is about 12 weeks before the last frost in my part of New Jersey.  This is a good time to start onions and leeks from seed. I planted my leeks two weeks ago and they are up and under the grow lights.

This morning I planted onions. I planted 72 cells of Ailsa Craig Exhibition Onions, seeds from Pinetree Seeds. Ailsa Craig onions are sweet onions that can grow really large. (We'll see how that goes.) I was happy that there wasn't a ton of seeds in the seed packet. Onion seeds don't keep (you have to buy fresh every year) and I don't need  500 onions. 

I filled my trays, which I bought on Amazon here and the under trays here, with Espoma seed starting mix. I have much better results with Espoma that the one sold at the big box stores and Wal-Mart.There was enough for each cell to have two, and some have three and some have four because.... just because. 

I then covered the seeds with dry soil. The dry soil is a different color than the wet soil and it's easier to see if you've covered all the cells.

Once covered the soil got a good soaking. I use a spray bottle of room temperature water for this.

Then the tray was covered in plastic to prevent moisture loss, and since seeds need warmth, not light, the whole tray was popped into my kitchen cabinet that sits above the kick space heater.

I will watch the seeds daily and when they first start coming up they will be moved to light.