Southern Lady's Vintage

Today was a beautiful day here! This time of the year the local gardening centers start calling out my name so today I stopped in one of the local gardening centers to check out all the new bedding plants that are coming in. I can not help but want to get these hands into the soil when I see all of the beautiful bedding plants! Color, color everywhere!!

One thing that I love to do when I have the time is to grow my plants from seeds or from cuttings. During the winter I order seed and bulb magazines and dream of what I will be planting the upcoming spring season. It kind of helps to tide me thru the winter months to keep my mind focused on what my garden will look like come spring. And there is just something about planting a seed and having a beautiful plant grow from it that makes my heart sing!

When I was looking at all of the beautiful bedding plants I realized that along with everything else the price of them has gone up. Makes me wish I had gotten an early start by sowing my seeds indoors this year! A lot of seeds can just be sown directly into the soil once it warms and all fear of frost has passed. But if you want to get an early start I thought I would share a few things with you. I have planted seeds in about anything I can find. I save all of my seedling trays from year to year making sure that I clean them well and sanitize them so that my plants have a healthy start. But many times I run out of seedling trays and have to be a bit more resourceful for containers to plant my seeds and put my cuttings in. So here are some of the methods that I have used in the past. If you're a gardner you probably know about every tip here, but if you are new to gardening you may learn a bit!

1. Save those egg cartons! I shared this tip with you in my prior post but thought it worth mentioning again. Although any of the egg cartons can be used to plant your seed, I prefer the biodegradeable cardboard ones. When you get ready to transfer your plants to the garden you can just put them right along with the plant into the garden.

2. Cardboard toilet tissue tubes and napkin tubes can also be used to plant your seeds. Just cut and fold in the cardboard on the bottom to hold the soil and insert your seeds. Again, biodegradeable so plant it right into the ground once your seedlings are ready to go into your garden.

3. You can even roll newspapers and fold them to make a bottom and use the newspaper seed starting pot to plant your seeds. And when the seeds have sprouted you can plant it in the ground because it is biodegradeable too! Do NOT use newpaper for food type seedlings because of the ink used in the newspaper printing, but I do use them for flower seeds.

4. Save your film cannisters and medicine bottles. Wash them and dry them well and you can reuse them to store seeds in for next year's plantings. You can type labels and tape them onto the containers to identify the type of seeds, the date that you collected them.

5. Eggshells can be washed out and you can break away the tops of the eggshells, insert your seed starting soil and plant your seeds in them. Again biodegradeable!

6. Save your popscicle sticks. They can be washed and recycled. Write the name of the seeds, the variety and the date sowed on the popcicle sticks.

7. Recycle plastic containers from yogurt, butter, non-dairy topping, etc. Wash them well and then sanitize them by soaking them in a 10% bleach solution for ten or fifteen minutes so that they are clean and free of any kind of germs. Make sure that you put holes in the bottom of the containers so that they have adequate drainage.

8. To check larger seeds for viability soak them in water for a few hours. Some seeds have a thick coating and may need to be nicked prior to soaking. You can accomplish this with a pair of clean, sterile nail clippers or by slighly sanding the surface of the seed with a bit of sand paper. In most instances the seeds that are still living will sink to the bottom and the ones that are not usable will float to the surface.

9. I always try to plant more seeds than I need because all of them will most likely not germinate and also because I want to be able to choose healthy seedlings when I begin to thin out the weaker or smaller ones.

10. To make sure that your seeds have a good start once you have them sown keep them in a warm spot and make sure that the seeds do not dry out and that the soil is evenly and consistently moist. Make sure that you check them every single day. Some of the seed starting trays come with a clear cover to help keep the moisture and humidity in. You can also use clear Saran wrap to cover your containers to help with moisture. To keep the soil moist I use a misting bottle to spray over the soil instead of trying to keep the soil moist by watering because those little seedlings once sprouted are very fragile. If you are anything like me when you see those little seeds sprout you will rejoice and be glad of a job well done!

One of the plants that I love to plant here are the Wave Petunias. Oh my goodness what a glorious display of color! And the little plants spread out like crazy!! When I saw the price of them this year I sure did wish I had started them earlier from seed. I may start a few of them from seed anyway but I have a feeling that I most likely will be purchasing them directly from the local nursery and paying the bigger price. Sometimes life just happens and we don't have time to do all the things that we intend doing!

I hope that you found a tip or two to help you along in your seed starting adventures.

Til next time......

Lots of love,
Barbara