Anne Fletcher

Here's a method my friend taught me:




It's a seed tray made from old fence wood (which I think he ripped on the table saw to make it tidier) with dividers made of cardboard.  You can customize it every time to make plugs that are the size you want.  Then, when you give away seedlings, you can just wrap them in paper for their journey, as long as they don't have to travel too far.  Or, if you have a lot of fence wood, you can just give away the whole box because they're so cheap and easy to make.  One torn down fence could provide you with seed trays for years!

(In the background is one of the the self-watering seed pots that I make to get your seedlings through the tricky first few weeks.  Admittedly they're not the least expensive option out there, but they usually pay for themselves over time because your seedlings are more likely to stay alive!  They're on sale right now with code POTS2026 for 20% off through March 1, 2026.  Here is the link to our already discounted factory seconds: https://ortakitchengarden.com/collections/factory-seconds-1.  Use the code to get an extra 20% off the already discounted price.)

Here's the recipe I've used for years:

4 parts coco coir
3 parts perlite, 1/8" size
1 part worm castings or finely sieved compost (I make both at home, and use whichever one is ready)
tablespoon - handful of soil from the vegetable beds (just a little bit relative to the overall volume of the mix you're making)

The coir and perlite make a great texture that both holds water and drains, and is fine enough for small seeds to germinate easily.
The worm castings add a little nutrition and microbial life
The garden soil inoculates the seed mix with the microbiome the seedlings will encounter when they're transplanted, helping them develop their symbiotic relationships early on

Hello!

It's getting to be seed starting season, and I'd love to help you succeed with your seeds this year!

I've been growing from seed for about 15 years, and have failed at in just about every way imaginable over that time.  Let me help you avoid all the pitfalls!

Here's a link to signup for my FREE 1-hour class on Wed Feb 4th at 3PM PST / 6PM EST: https://ortakitchengarden.com/pages/permies-seed-class-org-landing-2

One of the ways that I succeed now is that I make self-watering terracotta pots that keep seedlings perfectly watered while only filling them about once a week.  

I will NOT be using the webinar as a sales pitch for my pots. (I really hate classes like that!).  I will, however send you some helpful newsletters and a product discount if you do decide you might like to try what I make, which you can take or leave as you choose.

Here's what I'll be covering in the class:

- How to choose which seeds are right for YOU.  Landrace?  Heirloom? Hybrids?  What do those terms even mean??

- How to set up an indoor seed-starting station economically.  (Hint: if it's called a "grow light" you're probably paying too much for it.)

- How to troubleshoot and avoid common pitfalls before they happen.  Ask me how I know.  

Hope to see you at the online class!  

In the meantime, if you have any seed starting questions, add them to this thread and I'll do my best to answer them.

This is a really great pamphlet!  If you are doing another version, you can use this graphic I made for beginner seed savers:


It's from a 4-part series I did on my blog a few years ago.  I took the perspective that beginner seed starters shouldn't try and save seed from F1's right off the bat.  So I didn't even suggest that as a possibility.  I've found, in teaching about seed saving, most beginners have a hard time grasping open-pollinated vs. F1.  Going much deeper into genetics and breeding tends to turn them off entirely.  Your information is more complete, however, and I appreciate that!

The blog series is probably more information than you want - you were going for brief, after all! -  but feel free to borrow if you like.

We had a hard summer, with too much going on and some family stuff, which meant I didn't get all my seeds started and transplanted out in time for a good winter garden this year.  

Here's what's working anyway, that have been thriving despite more neglect than usual:

- Chard, Bietola a costa fine, an Italian heirloom that has more or less become perennial in my garden.  (Berkeley hills, very mild winters.)

- a pretty purple kale (I think it's this one from Wild Garden Seed) that's still going strong about 18 months after being planted out.

- Mizspoona, originally from Adaptive seed, but I've been saving seed of my own for a few years now, always saving from the plants that are last to bolt.  Now, many of my mizspoona plants last around a year or so before bolting.  It's by far the easiest green I've ever grown.

- Lamb's lettuce / corn salad / mache, which has been self-seeding for a few years now, and always appears just after the rains start.  It's not much in terms of volume, but it's tasty!

- Alexander's, which I'm trying harder to like.  I love it as a plant - so productive and beautiful, but I haven't warmed up to the flavor yet.  Anyone have any recommendations for how to prepare it?

- Parsley

- Perennial herbs that are pretty much always available for harvest year round, and find their way into cooking most days: winter savory, Syrian oregano, marjoram, bay leaves - which we have by the armload because the bay trees are borderline pests, mint

- beets

- lemons

- lettuce

So many varieties already sold out!  Will mark my calendar next year to be an early bird.  Thank you all for posting about this resource!

I've purchased excellent seed in the past from Giving ground seed who carries and grows out some of the Lofthouse landraces -- if it's sold out above, maybe Giving ground still has the one you're after?  Of course it's not free this way, but maybe better to support a seed farmer and save yourself a year's wait!

I'm doing lettuces right now, and getting ready for tomatoes, probably next weekend.  I also just sowed seeds from a Persian sweet lemon from fruit from a friend's tree.

Last year I grew some tomatoes bred by Kanti Agarwal and Steve Peters of Seed Revolution Now - you can get a few of their varieties via Adaptive seed in Oregon - and they were super successful.

Bred specifically for California with our dry climate and wide temperature swings from day to night (both things that tomatoes generally don't like), they're the best tomatoes I've grown here in the Bay Area.

I've also got rhubarb going!  Mine have about 4 or 5 true leaves already.  They're  "success"and "ebony" from French Harvest Rhubarb Seed in Australia.  Germination was fast and easy.  "Success" is the one Californians rave about - it can take more heat than typical for rhubarb and seems to be very vigorous.  "Ebony" has beautiful dark stalks, and may or may not like my climate.  But it was so pretty I decided to take a risk!

People often ask me about whether to raise monarch caterpillars indoors, and if so, how

According to Xerces, it's not a great idea to raise them indoors in large numbers because that interferes with natural breeding.  However, they make an exception for education and children.  It's very worthwhile to raise one or two caterpillars indoors to show kids the magic, and hopefully raise future butterfly enthusiasts!

Here's a blog post I wrote showing how to raise a monarch caterpillar indoors.

Distilling 12 years of my failures into a blueprint for your success.

I killed seedlings so you don’t have to. 🤣


Seriously though, I've been running a company helping gardeners start seeds for 12 years, and have put all the basics into one, easy-to-read resource.

You can click here to enter your email address and have the ebook sent to you.  (I'd love it if you sign up for my newsletter while you're at it, but it's not required to receive the pdf!)

❤️❤️❤️