Garden Chronicles: Seed Starting

I like saving money, so if there is a way to get something for less, nine times out ten, I’ll go for that route, regardless of if it means extra work. When researching how to start a garden I found that some people buy their plants from a nursery while others purchase seeds earlier in the year and raise the little plants themselves. The latter is the more cost effective choice so I determined that is the route I would go.

More research had to be done to learn the process and materials needed, for I am a total amateur at this gardening stuff and have no experience whatsoever. In my research I found that there are many types of containers, different recipes for soil, and various pieces of extra equipment like greenhouses and sun lamps. If you are reading my Garden Chronicles because you also are a beginner at this, then you may find these resources to be helpful as they were great tools for me:

• The Ultimate Seed Starting Guide
• Egg Carton Greenhouses
• How to Start Seeds in Eggshells
• Superfast Way to Start Seeds (wish I would have found this one sooner)

Obviously, I went with the egg shell containers because (1) it’s free and (2) they decompose well and supposedly provide nutrients for your plants.

Here are the materials I gathered:

• Egg shells and cartons
• Seed starting soil
• Seed packets
• Saran Wrap

I’d been collecting egg shells for quite some time in preparation for this project. They still had some egg remnants in them, so I decided to boil them to clean them out.

Next, I had to pick out the most in-tact halves so the dirt would stay in them and placed those back in the egg carton.

I wanted the soil to be moist enough, so I laid it out in a pan and spritzed water over it. I’m not sure if that’s proper, but it seemed like the right thing to do. It felt good to put warm moist soil into my little egg containers.

Do you know about Sprout Robot? I just discovered it recently, but it’s really cool because it gives you the dates to start different seeds indoor or outdoor based on your zip code! So, I looked that up and saw that this week is when tomatoes and bell peppers should be planted. Well, that sure makes things easy!

I placed about three seeds into each shell and pushed them down to the depth prescribed on the packet with a pencil.

How do you like my cool spray bottle? It has three different settings, so you should be jealous 😉

In my research (i.e. scrolling through Pinterest) I saw all these cool DIY greenhouses, but I’ll be honest, I have no idea when one should use a greenhouse and what they are for. I mean I get the concept that they direct sun towards your plant to warm it, but that’s about as far as my knowledge goes. Anyway, I was able to find that in the case of starting your seeds a greenhouse helps in keeping the soil moist and humid, thus you’ll have to do less watering and have less of a risk of drowning your plant.

I just used some saran wrap for my “greenhouse”. I hope it works.

Once the little seeds were all tucked away and watered, I gave them a spot on my kitchen windowsill with my Mason Jar Herb Garden where the sun shines and they are out of my little one’s reach.

Hopefully they grow beautiful big plants that give us lots of yummy food come harvest.