Thursday, February 7, 2013

Grows: Starting Seedlings

Each year that I garden, I do a mixture of things for my plants.
I either start them from seed right in the garden, or buy plants already started.
It seems everytime I start seeds indoors, I bring them out too soon and they freeze.

So last year I did a lot of research to find out when to properly start your seeds inside.
I even used SproutRobot to help determine when to start.

And now the time has come to start sprouting those seeds, well at least for Tomatoes and Peppers. 
They need 8-10 weeks before frost to get started.

Starting seeds is so easy, I let Carter do it!

* I also, didn't run out and buy one of those little seed starting greenhouses!*
I've been given those before, and they are so flimsy and hard to move.
So I used what I had plus some.


As you can see I used pudding cups, you can use yogurt cups, little pots. 
Whatever you can think of.
Originally I had planned on just using potting soil, but my hardware store had these little peat pods for the green houses, for .25 a piece and they fit perfectly.


Next we labeled what the plants were, Peppers or Tomatoes.
And added warm water to the peat pods. 
Once they were fluffed up, (Carter loved watching the dirt "grow!")
We added the seeds.


Each pack worked out perfect for us, I had carter put two seeds per pod first. 
Then added a seed per pod until the pack was empty.


Lastly we put them in the window.

*Note: I have since put them in a gallon ziploc bag to create a greenhouse.*

I'll let you know how they grow! Hopefully by this weekend we will have some green growing!

Do you garden?
 Are you going to start this year?
The garden has become one of my favorite places to be in the summer! 


2 comments:

  1. I'm so jealous, we can't start seeds yet, our last frost is expected in late April. We are chopping at the bit to get started. Per your suggestion, I used SproutRobot last year and loved the help. This year I'm trying Smartgardener.com which holds my hand even more with suggestions on when and how to amend soil all the way to planting, harvesting and preserving seeds for next year. I'm eager to watch your garden grow so keep us all updated.

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  2. Julie-

    Did you check to see when you can start seeds? What zone are you? Our frost is Mid-Late May, and Pepper and Tomatoes are 8-10 weeks before you plant them outside.

    I signed up for smartgardener, but only played a little bit. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it because it seemed like you had to find the exact seed you were using and I didn't have mine yet so I gave up. But, I will be looking again to see if now that I have my seeds if it will help.

    I know you build those beautiful beds last year, can't wait to hear how your garden grows too!


    Felicia

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