Seed Starting as MOTHER's Gardeners Do It

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The Abels recommend as ideal a flat mix that consists of the following (by volume, not weight):

5 parts leaf mold (or compost)
4 parts good topsoil
2 parts sharp sand

You can gather leaf mold (decomposed leaves) on. a visit to a forested area-but don't take it all from one place. Leave some for the plants growing there. (The Abels simply make their own leaf pile, harvesting the "ripe" mold from the bottom.) The soil should be the best topsoil you can gather. And sharp sand is the coarse builders' sand that's sold at hardware or lumber stores. (Smooth creek-side or ocean sand packs too densely when wet.)

If you use any compost, it should be from the best, most thoroughly processed batch you have. Olivia says she prefers compost made entirely from vegetable materials, adding that flowers definitely don't start as well in manure-based composts.

In practice, the Abels actually use a 5-4-3 mix instead of the usual 5-4-2, to compensate for the fact that our Eco-Village topsoil is very clayey. Feel free to adjust the formula yourself to suit your own particular experiences or growing conditions. (For example, Kerry and Barbara Sullivan, our previous gardeners, used a mix that consisted of 6 parts leaf mold, 4 topsoil, 1 sharp sand, and 1 compost.)

MOTHER's gardeners say that-contrary to the popular opinion that one should bake potting soil-you won't need to sterilize this mixture. (Baking your mix kills all the beneficial bacteria, as well as any harmful ones.) You shouldn't have to add any store-bought "supplements" to fortify the growing medium, either. Your mix will supply all the nutrients that your seeds will need.

Before you start stirring up your first batch of flat mix, you should sift the compost, leaf mold, and topsoil through quarter-inch-mesh hardware cloth. The fine particles thus produced will give the starts' roots room to grow. For this task, our gardeners recommend building a simple sifting screen by tacking a piece of 1/4"-mesh hardware cloth onto a simple frame of laid-flat 2 X 4's. (They added a hand-protecting rim of 2 X 2's to cover the cloth's sharp edges.) You can make this aid any size you want-Walker and Olivia's is designed to fit conveniently over a wheelbarrow.

Sift each coarse ingredient through your screen (this'll be easier if the materials are dry), mix the correct spadefuls of each one and the sand on a hard surface, and you'll be ready to plant!

OVERSOW AND UNDERCOVER

First, line the bottom of your seed flat with partly decomposed leaves broken into small say, quarter-size-pieces. This will cover the cracks in your tray bottoms so that soil won't fall through, yet will still provide necessary drainage. (Alan Chad wick always used potash rich oak leaves for this to entice roots down for a nutrient "extra.")

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