Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
What to plant? I bought petunia, impatiens and pansy seeds yesterday. I then went to check my trusty Seed Starting Date Calculator, which I use to ascertain when is the earliest I can start my seeds indoors. The calculations are to be based on the first frost-free date for Palmer, Alaska, which I arbitrarily decided was May 1st.
The reason I settled on that date was that I knew that date was when I was determined to start planting outside no matter what the weather looked like. Also, since I would only be starting in a limited number of locations, I knew that if we were going to have a super cold night, I would just run out and throw a sheet over the little darlings, as that generally works.
Once I had chosen the frost-free date, my trusty seed starter calendar told me when I could start my petunias, pansies and impatiens. Sure enough, the dates to start them indoors was February 20th to March 6th based upon my frost-free date of May 1st. Which means I am right on time.
I next tramped out to our shed in the backyard where I had neatly stored our handy-dandy seed trays with the transparent domes that I used last year. They are not quite as pristine as last year, but we all know that gardening is dirty work.
I also brought in two bags of frozen potting soil and waited three days for them to defrost. Once the soil was defrosted, I proceeded to fill a seed tray and put in the tiny, tiny petunia seeds which are sold for $2.79 per packet and have a total of 21 seeds per packet, which comes out to 13.29 cents per seed. Of course, that is for coated seeds which are still pretty tiny. Unfortunately, I had only purchased two packets as I had expected more than 21 seeds per packet. I headed back to the store to get more seed packets as I wanted to plant a complete flat of 72 plants. Last year I planted some petunias and some pansies in the same flat and they did not get along well.
Next, I went back to my trusty internet to check on something else and discovered that I should not have used my plain old potting soil, but should have used Burpee Organic Coconut Concentrated Seed Starting mix, 16qt. for only $12.76, if I expected good results.
Well, it was too late for the petunias as I had already planted them in plain old defrosted potting soil and certainly was not going to try to find the little buggers and replant them in the special OCC seed starting mix.
Sent my sweetie out to get some OCC for the pansies and the impatiens. Then I read about using sterile containers and distilled water. That sounds a little bit like overkill to me.
While checking out planting times for the pansies, I found out that pansies have been used since Shakespeare's time as a love potion. Wish I had known this back when it would have been useful. In the play, Midsummer Night's Dream, Cupid created the potion by shooting an arrow into a pansy which turned the pansy from white to purple so that the juice becomes a love potion. Based on the play it seems to have caused a bit of chaos.
The information about the pansy was interesting, but didn't seem very useful for me at this point in my life. It did make me curious enough to check out the petunias and impatiens.
It turns out that the petunia is a very useful plant. Both the Maya and the Inca believed that the scent of petunias had the power to ward off underworld monsters and spirits. Now that sounds like something I could use, as I have never liked underworld monsters or spirits and we live next door to a woods. I was excited that I now had a way to keep those monsters away from the house.
The Incas would also gather flower-buds together and make magical drinks. Unfortunately, the recipe for this drink has been lost or just not available to Alaska gardeners. Also, according to “New Age” folklore, Petunias will only thrive where there is “positive energy” and will not grow in places where there is “negativity”. Hmm… We shall see about that.
So on to the Impatiens. For those of you Alaska people who are into natural remedies, you would be interested to find out the impatiens contain an anti-inflammatory and fungicide that is an active ingredient in Preparation H (not sure if that is useful information). The plant can also be used on bee stings, stinging nettle and poison ivy. I don't know if you just pick the flowers and rub yourself or what! So, will not be treating myself until I have done further research.
Now, back to the planting. Certainly hope this article has been enlightening, educational or at least entertaining for all of you actual or potential Alaska gardeners.