DIY Garden Projects, Yummy Recipes, & Crafty Goodness
Looking for a garden friendly favour for a spring wedding or a bridal or baby shower? These colourful seed packets a fun way for guests to take away a lasting memory.
These seed packets are even cuter when displayed on wire curlicues like butterflies fluttering around. Perfect considering they are filled with a blend of seeds for attracting butterflies! For the complete instructions on making these delightful favours, check out the full post at the My Own Ideas Blog.
Ah, Super Sow Sunday is almost here yet again. The day when gardeners get together to sow seeds during the Super Bowl. Many can multitask and take in both of these grand events or some may simply choose one. I know what I will be doing on Sunday though, preparing my gardening plans, planting some seeds, and chatting with all the amazing gardeners who gather for this momentous day.
If you are hoping to get your own seeds sown this year, and start your garden truly from scratch, then I have put together a guide covering the many essential posts from the Garden Therapy Seed Starting Series.
Of course, the best place to start is at the beginning with Seed Starting 101. This covers how to choose and plant your seeds, as well as information on containers, soil, light, water, and more.
If you’ve been busy saving heirloom tomato seeds and want a cute and simple way ensure they are labeled for the coming year then I’ve gotcha covered.
If you have been following along on the Seed Starting Series, your seeds will have been planted in homemade starters or store bought containers and germinated. Those baby plants may not be ready to hit the harsh outdoors yet but they do need to have enough light. This weekend project will help you fashion your very own indoor grow op with an inexpensive Ikea shelving unit and some utility lighting.
This the fourth post in the Seed Starting Series. Please have a read of the other posts starting with Seed Starting 101 for the basics, Seed Starting Containers: The Real Dirt – Part 1 for many ideas on making your own homemade containers, and Seed Starting with Mini Greenhouses on how to get outdoor seeds a great start earlier.
Part 2 of Seed Starting Containers: The Real Dirt checks out the pros and cons of store-bought seed starters from your garden center or supply store. Just like the homemade containers, there are many different options for starting seeds with purchased containers but not all of them will give your seedlings the best start. The prices range from frugal to just plain silly. Expensive doesn’t always mean best. Please have a read through this list of pros and cans so you can sort out the gimmicks from the goods.
Peat Pellets
These little pressed peat pellets are sold in small disks covered by thin netting. When soaked in water they grow to 3-5x in size and have a little hole in the top for the seed to go in. They are often sold in mini greenhouse kits with a black watering tray and clear plastic greenhouse dome. With these pellets you are growing a plug which is meant to be potted up to a larger pot or in the ground quite soon after the seedling sprouts.
Pros: fairly cheap if bought in bulk (but watch out for high prices in some shops), compact to store, fits nicely in seed starting trays (in many cases you can fit 72 plugs per tray), netting can carefully be removed providing a protected soil plug that can be carefully potted into a larger pot or the garden
Cons: too small to be useful for most seedlings, the netting should really be removed as to not stress the roots when they are tiny (technically roots can grow through the net, but in my experience the plants are smaller as the net restricts normal root growth), re-potting when seedlings are that small is unnecessarily stressful to the plant and they are easily damaged
Please note that peat moss is a controversial product. Some reports say that peat bogs are being over harvested and other reports show otherwise. For more information please check out Peat Moss and The Environment and The Myth of Permanent Peatlands.
Peat or Coir Pots
Pots made of pressed peat or coconut coir (fiber) that you still fill with soil before planting your seeds are becoming increasingly popular plus they on-trend with a push towards green, biodegradable products. The claim is that the roots can grow through the pot so they can be planted directly out in the garden. You should rip the top of the pot off to soil level when planting out however, because if the edges of the pot sit above the soil line, it will wick moisture away from the roots.
Pros: Large enough that you don’t need to repot the seedling right away, more sustainable than plastic (but see note on peat moss above)
Cons: EXPENSIVE, gimmicky, gives roots unnecessary struggle to get through pot to reach garden soil (some manufacturers call this “root-pruning” but I still find the plants are much smaller and less healthy than those without the root ball surrounded by a biodegradable pot
Plastic Pots
There is a wide array of plastic pots available for seed starting. You can use the nursery pots that you or your gardening friends will no doubt have stacked up somewhere from buying brand-sparkly-new plants. You can also buy a whole array of sizes and shapes for setting in black plastic trays. In general, bigger pots are best for bigger plants and plants that are delicate (that you don’t want to transplant too many times). Smaller pots sometimes come in multiples like 6 or 9, can be used for growing smaller plants, plugs of multiples (like lettuce and peas), or for seedlings that will move out to the garden in a very short time (like beans).
Square tall plastic nursery pots are my favourite way to start plants. I like that they have a deeper soil base, are large enough that you don’t need to pot-up seedlings before transplanting in the garden, and the square shape efficiently fits into black plastic trays. I also like plastic containers with 6 separate sections for growing many of one kind of plant.
Now, while plastic is not sustainable or biodegradable, I use the same pots year after year, washing them out at the beginning and end of the season. Some I have purchased but many I’ve just acquired so the cost is very low. I do replace my black plastic trays every few years when I can’t patch up the holes. I have found a place to recycle them though, so I feel a bit better about that.
Pros: cheap to free, reusable, variety of sizes, best possible start for plants in my opinion.
Cons: not biodegradable, not cute or trendy
Mini Greenhouse Trays
The peat pellets, fiber pots, and plastic cells can be bought in pre-made mini greenhouse kits that include a black plastic bottom tray with some grooves to drain off the water and a clear plastic dome to act as a greenhouse, which prevents soil from drying out and maintains humidity. You must remove the dome after the seeds sprout as too much humidity can lead to “dampening off”, a fungal disease that will kill the new seedlings. I have a set of these from when I was a seed-starting beginner and I use them year after year. They are a great investment and an essential seed starting tool for me.
Pros: neat, convenient, good system for germinating seeds, reusable
Cons: you will have to buy a larger dome if you want to keep using it past the sprouting stage as seedlings will quickly outgrow the lid, dome only useful for germination (after that high-humidity causes fungal disease)
Self-Watering Trays
If you are a forgetful gardener, or plan to be away when you’ve started your seeds, then a self-watering tray is a good option. The pots sit on a fiber pad that wicks water up from a reservoir below. You must soak the pad and ensure that the reservoir is full then the soil sucks up moisture from the pad when it’s needed. I have some and they stay very moist which is good for seedlings AND fungus. One thing to watch out for is mold growth or fungal disease starting on the wick. Keep the wick clean, washing occasionally and spray with a bit of hydrogen peroxide to kill fungus.
Pros: low maintenance, prevents seedlings from drying out
Cons: expensive to buy, promotes fungal growth
Heat Mats
Some greenhouse kits come with an electric heat mat that sits below the plastic tray. These can also be purchased separately. Heat mats claim to aid in germination by raising the soil to the optimum temperature. Some people use heating pads (that you would use for your back) but the temperatures are much higher on those so proceed with caution, you could easily cook your soil and seeds.
I always use heat mats for my tomatoes, it helps them germinate in just a few days as opposed to weeks and gets them off to a better start. Use the heat mat during the day and turn it off at night to simulate the natural cooling of the soil at nighttime. Remove the heat mat as soon as all the seeds have germinated and set them up with some grow lights instead.
Here is a photo of my set up, that include plastic pots in mini greenhouse trays (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, kale, tarragon, cilantro, spinach, radicchio) and some green self watering pots with individual greenhouse domes (different lettuce varieties and oriental greens).
For more information on the whole process of seed starting, check out Seed Starting 101 for a birds eye view of what’s required to start seeds.
Stay tuned for the next post in this series, Growing Seedlings Indoors, which will have instructions to build a DIY grow light set up like this:
Buying Guide
Sprouting is a quick and easy way to grow some nutritious, crunchy veg to add to your diet in the winter months. I’ve previously shared how much I love using my automatic sprouter but it’s just as easy with a mason jar and a windowsill. While I like my automatic sprouter for masses of alfalfa, fenugreek, clover, radish, and broccoli sprouts that grow tall and last for weeks in the tray, mason jar sprouting is a good choice for crunchy beans and peas. If you start today you will be adding them to the salad bowl or wok in about 4 days.
Many places sell a bean mix that contain a variety of different lentils, peas and beans. I used mung beans (these are the beans that sprout the long white bean sprouts you typically find in Asian food) and green peas as I like the combination of starchy and sweet favour. Plus they both sprout in 3-4 days so they are compatible for timing.
Fill a 1L mason jar 1/4 of the way with dried organic beans/peas. Cover them with water and leave on your counter to soak overnight, 8-12 hours. Cut a square of cheesecloth and secure it tightly with a canning jar ring. Strain off water and set back down on your counter. Rinse the jar contents now 4 x per day, straining off all the liquid.
After 4 days or so, the contents of the jar sprout and jar will start to fill up – it’s time to eat them! Add raw to salads and sandwiches or toss into stir-fries and soups. I have also heard of people adding them to smoothies although I’m not tripping over myself to try that one. Any other ideas on how to use these sprouts in recipes?
See this post featured at At the Picket Fence’s Inspiration Friday and North Coast Gardening’s Miscellany Monday.
Update: I buy my seeds from West Coast Seeds but you can also find them online here.
The weather may be warming a bit and it’s been many months since we had our green thumbs in the soil so it’s no surprise that folks are just itching to get seeds started. I’m hearing about or seeing a lot of different seed starting blog posts floating around the web, from rookies who picked up a kit at the local hardware store to seasoned pros with pretty sophisticated grow ops (no, not that kind). I’d like to share my experiences with all those super-adorable containers you can make at home (Part 1) as well as some thoughts on the store bought stuff (Part 2). So here goes, the good, the bad, and the ugly of seed starting containers.
Note: for more information on the whole process of seed starting, check out Seed Starting 101 for the basics. The following is more in depth on only one of the topics covered briefly in that post.
You absolutely, positively, do not need to BUY anything to be successful at seed starting. Well, besides your seeds (if you haven’t saved your own) and some great sterilized seed starting mix, you can find most of what you need around the house. Not every oh-so-cute Pinterest-worthy repurposed container gives your seeds the best start though. And some are just plain time consuming. Here are the facts so you can choose what is right for you.
These wildly popular little containers can be easily made but cutting strips of newspaper and rolling it around a can, glass, or a fancy-dancy pot maker to make cheap little starters. Make sure the paper you choose uses a non-toxic soy based ink, especially when growing veggies starts. Newspaper is biodegradable so you can plant your seedling out in the garden in the newspaper pot and it’ll break down naturally from the bacteria and other organisms in the soil.
Pros: cheap, readily available, plantable pot breaks down easily
Cons: can be flimsy when wet, can’t bottom-water delicate seedlings, time consuming to make many
These pots are a bit sturdier than the newspaper pots and again readily available. To make, cut tissue roll in half, then cut four ½” long slits on the bottom of one end, equally spaced to make 4 flaps you will fold over like closing a box. In theory the cardboard will break down in the soil so they can be planted out like the newspaper pots BUT not all soil is equal. If your soil doesn’t have the necessary elements to break down this cardboard quickly the roots will not be able to spread and the plant will suffer. If you do plant them in the ground be sure to plant the whole container, as if the lip stays above soil it can wick moisture away from the roots.
Pros: cheap, readily available, sturdy, hole in the bottom for drainage
Cons: time consuming to make many, too small to be useful for most seedlings, will likely need to be removed when planting.
These are so adorable aren’t they? Using a cardboard egg carton filled with soil giving 12 little cells to start seeds they you just rip up and plan in the garden like the toilet tubes. And the egg shells couldn’t be more precious. HOWEVER…I won’t even do a pros and cons list on them because that’s it for pros (cute) and never mind that you’ll have to remove the seedling from that shell and crush it before it hits the soil, they are just too darn small. For both the carton and the shell you will have to delicately extract that little seedling before it has its true leaves and plant it in a bigger, deeper container. I say, why not just start with a bigger container and save Mr. Seedling the stress?
They don’t have to be yogurt (shown here are cream cheese containers) but you get the picture. This is the equivalent of the plastic nursery pots. Just punch a few drainage holes in the bottom and Bob’s your uncle. My only suggestion is to check your plastic for food safety to make it isn’t toxic to yourself or your plants.
Pros: cheap, readily available, sturdy, drainage holes for bottom watering
Cons: Unless you are fairly new to gardening, you probably have more nursery pots than yogurt containers, not all plastic is safe to reuse
The box that you buy pre-washed baby greens in will make a lovely container. As will a chicken dome, or a cake tray. Anything that has a bit of a bottom on it and a wonderful clear plastic lid will create a mini greenhouse akin to what you can buy in retail. Cut a few holes in the lid for ventilation and check it often to make sure seedlings don’t succumb to the dreaded “dampening off”, a fungal infection that kills the seedling. You can either set all your little homemade containers in these or line the bottom with soil and plant directly.
Pros: cheap, readily available, sturdy, is a built-in greenhouse
Cons: not all plastic is safe to reuse, you must keep an eye on greenhouse domes and vent regularly to avoid dampening off, need to prick out and transplant germinated seedlings one by one which will inevitably cause some loss
Now these brilliant little things I just saw today on Pinterest but they are the same concept as the plantable seed paper I made for Valentine’s Day cards. For instructions on how to make them please visit the tutorial at 365 Days of DIY. I think these would make amazing pots to give plants as gifts using different coloured paper to tint the pot. I’m so inspired!
I haven’t used them personally so my pros and cons are based on experience with the plantable paper. Chime in if you try them and want to share your experiences.
Pros: cheap, readily available, sturdy, breaks down easily in soil
Cons: time consuming to make, takes a long time to dry
That’s my list. Are there more? Please comment if there are others out there that you have used and loved or hated. What it really comes down to is personal preference. I’ve tried many ways and I have my favourite, trusted, old standby seed-starting methodology, but you will have to wait for Part 2 for that one.
Speaking of it, stay tuned for Seed Starting Containers: The Real Dirt – Part 2 where I’ll write up the pros and cons on the store-bought seed starters out there: peat pellets, fiber pots, and more.
What’s better than a gift that sprouts up beautiful flowers or yummy veggies when planted? For this weekend project you’ll make plantable seed paper then turn it into Valentine’s day cards.
Materials:
Directions:
1. Shred or tear up a bunch of paper. Scrap paper, old craft paper, anything without a glossy finish will work best. To get coloured paper like the pink shown in this project, add one sheet of shredded red paper to the mix. Place paper in a big bowl or the sink and soak in warm water for 45 minutes to an hour. The paper should be soft and break apart easily at the end of the hour.
2. Scoop paper into a blender, filled about halfway full and scoop a cup or so of the water it was soaking in into the blender. Pulse a few times until you get a mushy pulp like that shown here. Add more water as needed to get this consistency.
3. Pour pulp through a strainer to remove some of the moisture. Don’t squeeze it all out or your paper will not form together very well.
4. Add the seeds and dried flowers and gently mix. Shown here are lavender buds, bergamot petals, and dried mint leaves for flecks of interest in the paper. Radicchio, Rhubarb chard, and Alta Globe radishes are the seeds I have chosen as each will produce an edible red plant and they can be planted at the same time (started inside now and they can be moved to the garden once they have true leaves). Other good choices are flower mixes, like butterfly or bee blends that attract pollinators to the garden and produce a variety of flowers.
5. Set up a few towels on a flat surface where you can leave the paper for a day or more to dry. Dump the pulp out onto the towel and spread out gently patting paper. You can use a rolling pin to flatten the paper out a bit, but be gentle as to not crush the seeds or break the pulp. Leave undisturbed to dry.
6. Trace and cut out woodland creatures out of the dry seed paper. Decorate cards with cute messages and with a few little glue dots, affix seed paper critter. Include instructions on how to plant the seed paper by copy /pasting or writing the following on the card back:
The critter on this card is made of plantable seed paper containing radicchio, Rhubarb chard & Alta Globe radish seeds.
Directions for Planting
Rip seed paper into many small pieces and spread throughout the garden or in a pot filled with good potting soil. Cover with 1” of soil and water regularly until you get yummy veggies.
It’s almost here! The event that we have been preparing for, waiting for, all year. Yes, this Sunday is SUPER SOW SUNDAY, the annual day that gardeners from far and wide get dirty and go online, sowing seeds together (virtually) on Twitter. This year boasts some great information to be shared and prizes to be won. It’s a great event that will have some of the most amazingly talented gardeners at your disposal, if you have questions about, well anything seed-related. More information can be found on Bren from BG Garden’s website or on the TweetChat website.
Last year in honor of #SuperSowSunday I posted about starting seeds outdoors under umbrella greenhouses, which is incredibly successful in my climate. As part of Delish Magazine’s Spring issue, I also wrote a piece on seed starting which I thought I would share here. Enjoy!
“I made this!”, I gloat while serving up a dish made entirely of food that I grew in my garden. Well, “gloat” is probably not the right word. I prance around like the fantastical wizard I am, cheering about my mad skills in making real food from tiny seeds. It took me months. I had some fatalities. But overall, it’s fairly simple to grow from seeds. And more importantly, it’s awesome. Here are some basics for staring your own seeds at home.
Choose Your Seeds
Starting seeds early in the season is a great way to save money on annuals, which are flowers, herbs, and vegetables that will flower or fruit in the first year. More advanced propagatrixes could also start perennials from seed in many cases, but it is a more difficult and time consuming process as perennials may need many months, or years, to reach the size of a nursery plant.
Seed companies in your area should sell the right seeds for your climate, but do make sure that you pick the right plants for your experience level. If you’re a seedling yourself when it comes to propagation, don’t bother starting watermelons in Northern Ontario. Many seed companies will also list a difficulty rating that will help to guide you.
Read the Packet
Following the instructions on the seed packet will give you the best possible start unless the growing directions read like my radicchio, “sow seeds a few days after a moonless night”, which may as well be gibberish. The majority of seed instructions will list everything you need to start seeds, like when and where to sow, planting depth and spacing, special watering requirements and days to germination. Some will also list special information like germination temperatures, repeat sowing, transplanting, and thinning. Following the instructions gives you the best chance of success, so those map-hating-instruction-scoffing types out there best pack away your stubbornness for this project.
Containers
You can start seeds in just about anything you can find around the house that will create a mini-greenhouse, or you can buy all sorts of interesting setups to best suit your needs.
Greenhouse Kits
Many different greenhouse kits are available now. Most will have a plastic tray with a clear plastic greenhouse dome. Some come with a soilless mixture for starting seeds like peat pellets that expand to a mini seed pot when soaked in water, others may have coconut fiber pots that you can be transplant right along with your seedling. Others may even have a heat mat that gently warms soil to improve germination.
The beauty of these kits is that you can start a large number of seeds individually in one tray (up to 72) and many are made for small spaces like windowsills. The drawback is that the seedlings will need to be replanted either in the garden or a larger pot in a few weeks. Leaving seedlings in small pots with no nutrition will cause unwanted stress to the plants.
Seed-Starting Trays
Garden retailers will sell many different types of professional grade seed starting trays, domes, and inserts with features like root training, moisture control, automatic watering, and grow lighting. Certainly many of these features have value in starting the year’s plants off on the right foot and can be used over and over.
Household Items
An inexpensive and creative way to start seeds is to use household items as seed containers. Lining a seed tray with pots made from toilet paper tubes, newspaper, or egg cartons will cost nothing. At times your family may think you’ve gone mad given how excited you will become when you get to take home the plastic cake dome from the party. But come on, that’ll make a really great greenhouse dome, right? Search for biodegradable paper products you can plant right in the ground or food safe plastic containers you can use as mini-greenhouses for your containers if you are on a budget.
Growing Medium
You can buy a pre-made seed starter soil or you can make your own with a mix of three parts peat, two parts compost, and ten percent perlite. This mixture is light and holds moisture well, so it is wonderful for helping seeds germinate. All growing mediums will need some time to absorb water, so add moisture and let it soak in for an hour before planting.
Be sure to use sterile mix if you are starting seeds indoors. Soil or compost from the garden will bring in all sorts of critters like soil gnats which will drive you freakin’ crazy as you run around your propagation trays like a mad person swatting and squashing an endless supply of teeny tiny flies.
Moisture
Germination will be best in a moist environment for most seeds, so keeping the soil damp and a greenhouse dome on top will keep the right amount of humidity for optimal germination. Keep the soil from drying out by checking it daily. Water gently, from the bottom where possible, so as to not damage the seedlings about to emerge.
Dampening Off
Dampening off is a term for a fungal growth which looks like fuzzy hairs on the stem of the seedling. This fungal growth will kill the seedling so it’s bad, real bad. To prevent dampening off, occasionally spray with a bottle of 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide and vent the greenhouse dome on a regular basis to regulate humidity.
Light
Seeds won’t need light until they emerge from the surface of the soil, but then they will need strong sunlight for most of the day to prevent them from becoming leggy (overly tall and spindly = weak). You can supplement a lack of sunlight with florescent lighting, either buying a set of grow lights made for seed staring or by making your own with florescent shop lights.
Thinning
Generally the seed instructions will suggest you plant 2-3 seeds per pot and thin out all but the strongest. This seems to be the thing that some gardeners have the hardest time with. If three strong tomato seedlings have popped up in one tiny peat pot, then the gardener rushes off to get tweezers and separate out the three wee plants and re-pots them all. More inexperienced gardeners may damage each plant giving none a strong chance at survival, so it’s best that you grab a clean pair of scissors and snip all but the strongest seedling in each pot and be done with it.
Hardening Off
As the seedlings grow into plants and the date to plant outside is getting near, it’s time to start hardening them off, or toughening them for their natural environment. I like to start by opening a window a few hours a day so they get a breeze. Then start moving the trays outside, out of direct sunlight, for a few hours. Start at one hour and gradually increase to a full day outside. By the time your plant date has arrived, you can safely transfer your tough little soldiers directly into the ground, with some delicious compost and a thorough watering, to brave the elements on their own.
Seed starting is such an interesting and magical process, especially for children, so it’s the perfect activity to do as a family this coming spring. The months that you’ve spent germinating and raising seedlings will be a series of trial and error, so expect some loss. Not every seed will germinate, not every seedling will survive being transplanted, and not every kind of plant will do well in your garden.
The gains will be clear when you have piles of leafy greens taking up every inch of your windowsills bursting to get outside. Starting the plants off yourself ensures you are in charge of the health of the plant and can control what goes into it. And the satisfaction you’ll feel from starting your own seeds is tremendous.
from Delish Magazine Spring 2011
