What I didn't know before was that each type of seed has its own character - each is a little bit different from all the others.
And when you look closely, quite beautiful.
See for yourself:
Tomato seeds are dried versions of the ones what you see in all tomatoes.
They are also tiny. Not quite as bad as carrot seeds, but handling them well requires a certain level of finesse & fine motor skill which I sadly lack.
When my fingers operate on the level of a tomato seed they seem awfully blunt and unwieldy.
Kale seeds are tiny black bouncy balls. They like to hop and bounce about & they just don't want to stay put.
Lettuce seeds are small, flat, grey teardrops.
And my favourite: swiss chard seeds. These things are so odd, unexpected, and irregular - grooved and shrivelled, like miniature walnuts.
They're also bigger than the others- which means that they're far easier to plant.
Seeds are so hard and small, it's hard to believe that there's a tiny plant embryo hidden inside each one, waiting for the right time to wake up and grow. Waiting for - water, warmth, and air. That's all they need, I know. It has been happening for thousands of years.
But when you bury a seed in the earth, it feels almost silly to expect that such a little fleck will ever come to life.
So we sit and hope and wait for the little miracle which is a seed's germination to begin.
We watch & worry - were they buried too deep, did the soil get too compacted, is the temperature right?
Will they grow?
All I can do is watch and see.
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