If you started your seeds 2 or 3 (or more) weeks ago and they still haven't germinated, you probably wrote them off as a lost cause.

Maybe the seeds were too old. Maybe they got damaged by pests. Maybe they hadn't matured by the time they were collected.

Or maybe...

Those seeds actually needed LIGHT to germinate.

While our natural tendencies are to bury seeds beneath the soil, a good number of them (around a third of the seeds we commonly start) won't germinate unless they're exposed to light. Imagine that!

And not just any light. Many light-dependent seeds require a certain amount and quality of light that mimics nature, so in some homes, simply placing your seed trays in front of a window might not be enough to help them break dormancy.

If you're having trouble starting seeds consistently, or noticing certain seeds taking a reeeeaalllly long time to come up...

The challenge is when seeds have to be surface sown but ALSO require darkness. I've got a few tips on how to handle that in my blog post!

Seasonal Tips

7 Simple Fixes for Leggy Seedlings: How to Help Your Plants Grow Stronger Read more

6 Foolproof Tips to Germinate Hard-to-Start Seeds—Fast! Read more

The Simple Trick to Protect Tomatoes From Frost (Without Frost Cloth) Read more

Your Guide to Growing Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) Read more

You Can Transplant Hardy Plants Before the Last Frost in Spring—Here's How Read more

The Prettiest and Most Resilient Walkable Ground Covers for Garden Paths Read more

What happens to human creators in the age of AI?

I generally try to focus on home and garden content because that's what you signed up for (and it's WAY more fun to obsess over), but this has been on my mind and I feel it's important more folks understand what creators face in the age of AI.

I have a lot of thoughts to share (and maybe I'll write more in a separate blog post), but the gist is this:

Human voices are so incredibly important in the "information industry."

A couple years ago, the now-infamous Books3 database exposed 191,000 books that were used (stolen?) by Meta, OpenAI, and other billion-dollar businesses to train their AI models. The entirety of my books were ingested so that these large language models could, you know, learn about plants and cooking.

Anthropic just settled an authors' lawsuit but countless other types of content (including anything you've ever shared online publicly, like a photo, video, or comment) has already been used to train at least one LLM, and it's still early days with what machines can do.

Creators are losing their livelihood to AI scraping their content to generate zero-click answers and slop, and the ones who will survive this evolution are the ones working harder to diversify, innovate, and keep long-time readers coming back. I've been through enough shake-ups in the digital media space to know that change is the only constant.

The fact that I've been blogging for this long (16 years!) and still making a full-time living from it is remarkable.

I don't want to sound all doom and gloom because AI does have some amazing applications. But it falls short when it comes to respecting the work of human creators.

AI can serve up our words in a generic format, but you know what? It can't add the same kind of richness or provide real-life human inspiration the way creators can. It's people who keep the internet interesting and I'll keep writing my blog because I love the hell out of being right here.

So thank you. For also being here, forwarding my emails and posts to your friends, and making it possible for me to keep sharing expertise that actually helps humans (not just feed machines).

P.S. Not all seeds want to be buried in the soil. Check this list to see which seeds actually require light to germinate.​

P.P.S. Keeping track of all your seeds' specific needs when it comes to light, darkness, temperature, and more can be tricky. Write all those details down in one place with my Ultimate Garden Diary—a set of customizable garden logs, trackers, record-keepers, and journal pages you can mix and match.