Seed Starting Junk

When it comes to starting seeds indoors there's a special charm in some of the junk that gets enlisted to the task. Some of that junk may remain immortal due to the immense character of the moment. Like the coffee can my grandmother planted an orange seed in.

The can came out of a junk pile by the barn. Grandma didn't have to punch any drain holes in the bottom of the can because half of the bottom was rusted out due to its prior duty of catching rainwater. The printing on the can was obscure but I could read the three pounds of hamburger for a dollar in the grocery ad of the newspaper grandma rolled the can up in. By the time grandma wrapped and tightened three bands of wire around this can and applied some gold spray paint its status had been elevated to a flea market treasure.

Junk does not stand up on its own and revive itself, but with a little nudge you are surrounded with little misfits ready for prestige.

The discarded egg carton is the cardinal of seed starting fame. If only all the stories could be told of the adventures of these little boxes. The amazing thing is the styrofoam versions of this junk has been known to return to the seed table year after year.

One year my son threw a pair of his old shoes in the kitchen waste can. I pulled them out, filled them with seed starting soil and sowed them with a packet of rose moss seed. "Dad," he asked, "what are my dirty old shoes doing in the window?" After the seeds sprouted and the rose moss established I took a couple long nails and hammered them onto a pole next to a bird feeder.

Summer after summer after Thanskgiving after Christmas after summer I watched grandma's golden coffee can. The first year a little sprout came up. The next year it was only somewhat taller. The next year it had a tiny trunk with microscopic branches and it just kept growing and growing. In its forgotton but remembered to be watered place a minature orange tree developed and eventually pushed out little green balls that turned into oranges. I was never successful in peeling any of these oranges with tweezers so I don't know how they tasted. But in my imagination in some other fairy world those oranges would have been fit for a queen.

Starting seeds indoors is a world of its own. I have held one junk coffee can and the joys it brought for over fifty years. Starting seeds indoors is unlike any other hobby.