Sprouts!!!

Basil and Borage in their first days of life.

Last week, we received our seed order from Mountain Rose Herbs with much rejoicing! The arrival aligned beautifully with our crocuses peeking their pretty yellow and purple heads up and the sight of the first bee of the season.

I knew that I wanted to add some lovely new plants to my current skin care garden, but we also decided that we wanted to grow some medicinal plants that the whole family would benefit from. I also knew I wanted to involve my daughters in the growth and care of the plants. When I perused the many organic seed offerings from MRH, their Kidzherbs gift set was a perfect fit!

The Kidzherbs set includes 12 packets of organic seeds from the garden of Sena Cech: Basil, Borage, Calendula, California Poppy, Catnip, Chamomile, Fennel, Feverfew, Flax, Johnny Jump-Up, Lemon Balm and Love-in-a-Mist. It also includes a booklet, written and illustrated by Sena, that takes little ones on a tour of each plant, its medicinal uses and kid-friendly crafts and recipes. Plus, at $20 for the kit, the organic seeds alone come in at under $2 a package! We also ordered Yarrow and Burdock seperately.

My daughters and I planted the seeds last week with love and care into tiny peat pots (all except the Poppy and Burdock, which we will sew directly outside in a few months and Catnip, which we have growing like wildfire in our yard already). We placed them under a grow light (still not much sunlight happening around here!). Well, they didn't waste any time sprouting! We had several chamomile sprouts within 48 hours and the others followed quickly behind.

We used the Jiffy Greenhouse with the peat discs, made of Canadian sphagnum peat and wood pulp. While I would normally just sprout seeds in a flat or plain pots full of soil, we found it on sale for $5.99 at our local Meijers and it was an easy, affordable, compact solution for sprouting 72 plants! I will keep you posted on progress! Planting season is not far away!

I hope that you will sprout with me and keep me posted on how your plants are doing! Are you planting herbs, vegetables or both? Do you have a spot for a garden or will you be container gardening? Leave a comment below. I look forward to hearing from you!