Although the outside weather merely hints at the milder days ahead, indoor conditions are ideal to begin planting. The long winter wait has come to an end and I can finally rub soil between my fingers again. It's time to plant the first seeds of the season. 
Soil blocks are a great medium for starting seeds under grow lights in the basement. When transplanted into the outdoor garden, tender new roots do not have to struggle past barriers (as with compost-able pots or pellet netting), or become damaged (when removed from plastic pots).
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| Eliot Coleman suggests this soil block starter mix in The New Organic Grower: |
3 (10 quart) buckets of coco peat*
2 buckets of perlite
1 bucket of garden soil
2 buckets of compost
1 cup each of blood meal
1 cup of colloidal phosphate
1 cup of greensand
½ cup of lime
Mix thoroughly.
* I substitute coco peat for peat moss as a sustainable option.
By shaking the soil and compost through a screen, large clumps, rocks, sticks, and pits are removed.
 The large pieces would inhibit a young seedling's ability to emerge from the soil. |
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| Moistening the mix makes pressing the soil into compressed cubes easier. |
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| The soil block's spring mechanism releases the "pot-less" containers. |
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| A small indentation on the top of each block awaits its seed. |
Watching seedlings emerge from the blocks is the closest I can currently get to gardening while I wait for the snow to melt away, and the soil dry out--to become "workable".
