 Hi, I'm Rachel Wald with NDSU Extension in McHenry County. I'm talking to you today about starting seeds for your garden. The first thing you want to do is get materials ready to go. I have a waterproof pan, a clear lid, and then pots to pop my seeds in. I have peat pots or you can use egg cartons or plastic pots. I like to use the peat pots and the egg cartons because those are easily compostable and I can put those into my compost pile after planting. The first thing I do is plan my garden. So I want to make sure I know what is going where in my garden and how many plants I need to plant. That way I can plan out what I'm going to have at the end of the season and if I need to I'll start extra plants for my friends and neighbors. So the first thing besides planning out your garden is finding out what seeds you have available to you. A lot of seeds can be kept from season to season. So I take out the package that I have all my extra seeds in that I keep in a cool dry place to make sure that they are viable for the next year. Their germination rates can be lower the next year because they've only been tested from year to year to know how viable that seed is. So just knowing that going in and making sure that you make exceptions when you plant your seeds. If you don't have a seed stash ready to go make sure you get yours ordered or go to your local hardware grocery store or big box store to pick up the seeds you need. So the first thing you're going to do is get your cells ready to go. Add soil and move it around as I need. If there are any big chunks I do take those out. Making sure to follow the instructions on the back of the seed packets to know how much soil you need and the depth of which you need to put your seeds in. I take water and moisten the soil to get it ready for the seed bed and then I get my seeds ready. The seeds that I'm going to do today are tomato seeds. They're really small seeds. I use a seed starting mix to get them going. The seed starting mix has a smaller particle size to make sure that these small seeds can poke through. You can use just regular potting soil to get things started. I place two seeds in each cell. These seeds need approximately a quarter inch of cover so I take a little bit more soil making sure not to have too large of chunks and get about approximately one quarter inch over top of that seed. And then I'll add just a little bit of water. Sometimes I like to use a spray bottle just to moisten the top. That way it doesn't float that media around. As soon as you're done make sure you label those cells so you know what's going to be growing in there. Put your lid on and set it out of direct sunlight. We keep it out of direct sunlight until that plant pops through and then I'll take the cover off and set it in a nice south facing window with direct sunlight between six to eight hours a day. If you don't have a good window for that you can use either seed mats or grow lights to make sure that that plant gets what it needs. If you have any questions make sure to contact your local county agent on any issues that you may have. Thank you for listening.