This is the season in west-central Florida to start from seeds a vast number of flowers, veggies and herbs, saving lots of money on plants.
But all too often good gardeners see that hopeful seed purchase result only in a crop of disappointment. There's an easy solution right in your kitchen.
Your refrigerator can provide new seed packets, plus seeds planted in small pots of soil covered with clear food wrap, with two or more weeks of the "cold stratification" that commercial growers have long relied on to boost their success and profits. This brief, false winter deepens the dormancy of seeds, so that when they leave the fridge after two or three weeks and are sown they burst into sudden growth.
Why? You are simply duplicating nature's transition from a Northern winter when seeds slept deeply in cold soil, to the glorious awakening created by the return of spring warmth and moisture as the snow melts.
Just keep all your seeds year-round in a meat or produce drawer (not the freezer) to add years of life to them (they die quickly if kept in a drawer or garden shed) and to guarantee that when you do plant them they have already had an extended period of cold stratification.
This works with store-bought seeds and those you save from your own garden. There are far too many plants to list here whose seeds love a long deep chill. Perhaps only true tropicals don't want it. And for some reason, onion seeds seem to be short-lived no matter what, so try to use the entire packet each new fall planting season.
Seeds need to breathe, so I store mine in paper bags or envelopes I get cheap at the dollar store. Envelopes provide ample space to write down the variety and the year you grew them, and are a great way to share any surplus with friends.
I sow most veggie and flower seeds directly where they are to grow. But I start the following in pots of good potting soil mixed 50/50 with mushroom compost, then transplant them when large enough to handle: tomato, eggplant, catnip, perilla, snapdragons, basil, "Blue Ensign'' bush morning glory, calendula, petunia and marigold.
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