I have "starts" for sale most Friday's now for the next couple of
months.

See a picture here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=331648220202664&set=a.18667515...

A 'start' is a jiffy pellet planted with seeds of my choice.  I began
this practice a couple of years ago with sunflowers because they 1)
are sometimes a challenge for people to start, and 2) they don't like
having their roots disturbed and are more likely to suffer form
transplant shock.

Sunflowers are just plain happy plants and every living thing seems to
enjoy them.  The birds (Lesser Goldfiniches provide acrobatic displays
while eating the seeds and bugs upside down), bees, butterflies,
humming birds (even the bunnies and squirrels although I try to limit
their munching), and us humans.  Besides the pollinator draw they
provide to the garden, we humans can eat the flower petals, the large
variety seeds, and steam or saute the unopened flower buds and the
pared disc (related to the artichoke the sunflower cooked this way
tastes like mild artichoke hearts).  Personally I can't have enough
sunflowers in the garden.  Just watch where you plant them so they do
not produce too much shade for the plants that need a lot of sun.
Like corn you can companion plant sunflowers with beans and squash.
The sunflower was called the 4th Sister in descriptions of the Three
Sisters Native Peoples planting practice.

After the success of the sunflowers I expanded to other seedlings
because I found it an inexpensive way to give folks a choice of buying
1, 2 or 3 only of something rather than a six-pack AND the plants
could be available faster to folks - it is a short cut for those who
have trouble sprouting seeds, while minimizing transplant shock.

I can't always tell you what I will have each week, because it does
depend on sprouting success, but I hope to have sunflowers every week
some basils, tomatoes, eggplant and tomatillos.  I will also have
"Uzbek" melon and sugar peas for a couple of weeks.  The Uzbek is
nicknamed "water candy" and there is no better nick name for it and
luscious melon like honeydew only better with a super sweet white
flesh.

Starts are $2/each or 2 for $3.

SPROUTING SEEDS,

The biggest challenge for a lot of folks is once you plant the seed,
you can't let it dry out until it sprouts and has its first 'seed
leaves' - then you can start decreasing the watering.

When I sell the "starts" this time of year I try to remember to
explain to folks that you need to water the transplant each day for 5
days and then start cutting back to every 2 days, then every 3 days
etc. so that you encourage the roots to go deep.

Some of the Starts will be frost sensitive until our last frost, but
can be planted with a poor man's cloche cover (gallon jug with the
bottom cut off and cap removed during the day to vent excess humidity
and heat).  Other Starts will be fine with our cool nights as long as
we do not get the killing freezes we did last year (which was an
anomaly - usually only happens every couple of decades).

The temperatures, by the way, in our gardens dipped down to 22 on
February 2 and 3, 2011, and 27 on the 4th BRRRR!  We had ice that did
not melt on the shady parts of the garden for days after that.

SIX PACKS

I received some nice feedback on my question if you could design a six
pack.

--Mixed Basils (I will work on those this and next month)
--Mixed Greens for the fall - this is like the mixed greens you can
purchase at nurserys in the fall and winter, only different.  There
will be separate plants of a mix so you can space the plants out and
choose which varieties you want for the salad.  Some days you might
want a light and sweet mix and some days you might want something more
robust.  I will look at some varieties and list my suggested mixes and
ask you all for feedback so I can ready them for fall planting.

If you have any additional six-pack ideas let me know :-)

Have a great day, folks,

Catherine