Starts

These are my flats of starts for this year. They are sitting in my south-facing sun porch. It would be better if I had a place to put them inside, but we don't have many sunny windows in this house, and all of them are taken up by my absurd number of house plants.


Nothing has sprouted yet, except the garbanzo beans that I put in a little water a few days ago.
They are beans from the local co-op, and about 3/4 of them sprouted. I planted about a dozen. I also tried to sprout black beans from another grocery, which just swelled up and started smelling funky. I bet most beans from co-ops will have a least some level of germination. It's just as well, because a little internet research told me that I almost certainly can't grow black beans in the PNW. Garbanzos will be a stretch, but I think it can be done. The guide to shell beans I found on Mother Earth News seems incredibly comprehensive.

I'm excited that my garbanzos sprouted, though! Tomorrow I will go to the co-op and get more varieties to try. For way cheap, compared to buying seed packets. Even hippie beans are less than $2 a pound, and seed packs with twenty or thirty beans are at least a dollar and a half.