Seed starting setup + What we are growing this year

Today I will be telling you about my seed starting setup as well as what we are growing this year!

• giving you a tour of my seed start set up,
• showing you my seedlings I will be planting in my 2025 summer garden and
• giving helping you mitigate two mistakes – As long as you plan ahead!

Also, please feel free to subscribe if you want to follow me along on my journey with my family on turning our cookie cutter house into our haven.  I will be posting gardening, cooking, health, décor, mother and wife-hood, and anything in between. So stick around!

My seed starting setup is pretty simple -it is a work in progress, I have a simple metal frame shelving unit, heat mats, and grow lights, I have three shelves right now, but I have an extra shelf I will be adding that I took from a second unit I built that I am going to be moving over to this one so I can have all these lights on the same timer or switch.

I have also been using soil blocking as my seed starting method, and the soil mix is from the Elliot Coleman book “New Organic grower.”  I just mix all of the ingredients in a tote, get it wet enough to have water come out when squeezed in my hands and soil block.  Using the soil blocker is a bit tricky but not too hard and you fill it until you can’t add more soil, then place it flat on the base you will be keeping it and push the handle while gently lifting up. There is a little divot on each block a quarter of an inch deep, perfect for most seeds.

My 2025 Seedlings I am planting in my summer garden

I will be starting with my pepper plants, as usual, I over planted but I don’t always have luck with certain peppers. And that rang true this year as well. I have my “tried and true” and quite a few new ones to replace ones that were disappointing in my garden last year.

Peppers

• First up are Cayenne. I did 2 of each from Botanical Interests and two starts from seeds from the dollar tree . Which by the way, I am never above, and while I am here – you can start a garden from the dollar store seeds. They are non-GMO and 25 cents a pack!
• Next up are Jimmy Nardello peppers. I was significantly influenced by the youtubers More than Farmers. These are Sweet Italian peppers and look like large cayenne, so do not mix them up! I got my seeds from Rare Seeds. These are a favorite of mine and the little one.
• Sweet Banana are a favorite of mine. I have had not great results with these but one issue was due to not labelling properly! I love banana peppers and pickle them or eat them right out of the garden!
• Cornito Arancia F1 is a new variety we are trying. I cannot seem to grow good bell peppers at all, and these should be a good option for substitution.
• Jalapeno is always going in my garden, we use these in so many. These are either Craigs Grande, or ADD IN OTHER NAME.
• Habanada – a new one for us, habanero without the heat. We had plenty of habanero last year and I don’t like the intense heat, but these may be boring. I will keep you updated.
• Sugar Rush Peach – these are something I had heard about from Acre Homestead. Plus we needed to replace the habanero I am not growing this year. Bonus – they are a pretty color.
• Last on my list – Carmen Sweet – these are also supposed to be a bell pepper substitute!

Tomatoes

First, I will be growing these mostly for preserving, so roma tomatoes are the bulk of what I am planting, and I had difficulties with Amish Paste, however, I am trying one plant of that this year. My tomato varieties are:

• San Marzanos – these apparently are the best for paste tomatoes and I have 8 of these, two may not be doing so amazing but I am hoping for a good yield this year.
• Chocolate Cherry – these are seeds saved from a few years ago, and the taste was amazing!
• Bumblebee Sunrise – another favorite cherry tomato and they are a beautiful orange and yellow striped fruit. These usually don’t even make it inside from the garden.
• Dr. Wyche – our slicer, last year they did ok but I chalk that up to location and not pruning enough. This year we will make sure it gets enough room and air flow.
• Amish Paste – as I said, this is the last year if it doesn’t do well in the new location as well, however, I watched a youtube where another gardener had the exact same issues as I did last year.

Not in our youtube video is Ginger, I bought a pound of ginger from Azure Standard, as they are grown in Oregon and not sprayed and I knew we shouldn’t have germination issues. So I used my 1020 trays and laid down about an inch of soil broke the gingers apart into about 1 inch stubs and covered with more soil and have been keeping it damp and on a heating mat, half of them have started growing and I think these will also be a beautiful addition to our garden!

Herbs and flowers

This is the first year seed starting herbs and flowers successfully. We have teas, mints, and other herbs and these all come from the teas and herbs seed packed my wonderful husband bought me.

• Basil – we have purple, sweet, and genovese basil
• Rosemary – a staple in our garden and we already have three large bushes but I wanted to try from seed.
• Chamomile – this is one I am most excited about, I can grow my own tea!
• Chives – an essential
• Italian oregano
• Flat leaf Parsley

Thank you for sticking around and I hope you enjoy my lists as much as I do and please let me know if you have any comments or questions! If you want to see why we made the switch to fresh milled, click here!

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