Eggshell Seed Starters

I confess I'm not this cute & clever when I'm starting seeds yet using Eggshell Seed Starters for starting seeds indoors seems like a fabulous idea for people who are indeed good at being cutesy with their seed starting!

It does seem more logical to be able to transplant the entire seed starter container, whether it's an eggshell seed starter or paper egg container seed starter because those can be set directly into the dirt. However I have tried the egg container method before and not been successful with it at all! The humidity levels here are too high and I tend to over-water, so for me the paper (or cardboard) of the egg containers tend to attract mildew.

I prefer the plastic seed starting containers that I find free from time to time. They look like this when I'm cleaning them & filling the cells with seed starter soil:

Yes the upside down containers are drying though not sure why I dry them before I fill them up with seed starting soil just to get them wet again. It's just become a little routine - out with the old, in with the new! Once the seeds are sown and sprouting they look promising:

Those are ice-cream sticks for seed labels, which work wonderfully! I do use Sharpie pens because even with weeks of watering over the sticks the plant names remain easy to read.

Brief Yet Useful Container Reference

This is a 2 page PDF that has a great reference charts on page 2 for planting vegetables in containers:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/pm870b.pdf

Garden Soil vs. Seed Starter Mix

I've been testing different seeds with seed starting mix and the garden soil from the backyard. Much to my surprise only 1 of the seeds sprouted in the garden soil from the raised garden beds in my backyard. I just had tested this soil and it came in at about 6.5 pH. This is the same soil the tomatoes, strawberries, beans, cucumbers, dill, carrots, onions and cauliflower grew wonderfully in last year. The strawberries are even still alive and looking good after resting in this same soil over the winter.

However, it is plainly obvious that seeds prefer seed starting mix. Out of the 40 or so containers I filled and planted seeds in, only 5 of them with the seed starting mix had zero sprouts. There was only 1 sprouted in the containers filled with garden soil. I'm really very surprised. But also very glad I tried both ways. Can you imagine if I had tried with out using the seed starting mix? I'd have been so very disappointed.

Window Boxes Simple

I just read: "Using window sill flower pots inside of the window boxes eliminates messy plant transfers."

Funny how it never dawned on me that I don't have to fill window planters with dirt, just put pots into the boxes & nobody will know the difference - except of course me, when I don't have a mess to deal with for transplanting time.

Container Sizes for All

Oh how I want to share this great resource http://greyduckgarlic.com/Container_Gardens.html since I'm always forgetting which size pots to use for which things I'm trying to grow. It seems like every time I go to transplant something, I'm back to Google to find another page showing me what to use. This is a great one to bookmark I think!

2 Liter Containers DIY

I love cheap that works, and have been trying to figure out self-watering containers that actually work well. Here's one that uses 2-liter containers - big plastic soda pop containers. Interesting and super cheap, too. :)

I'm a Newest Fan!

I cannot explain how simply brilliant I think this is: http://katsmama.com/2011/04/30/inside-out-self-watering-pot/

I also cannot explain how very rarely I subscribe to anything via email, but this katsmama.com blogger just solved something so simply that has been so hard for me, that I've wasted so much time on, I'm so thrilled, I subscribed via email. Seriously. Wow. I can't wait to read the whole blog there!

Pots on Posts

Around the Internet today I found a very cute idea (here: http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/06/recycled-tin-can-flower-caddy.html) using tins as pots and screwing them on to wood. That's the easiest way I could explain it so check the link for the really cute end product, it's way more cutesy than I can do.

I hadn't thought about using screws through pots before. I had just used nylon string to hang a few pots I had. But the idea was too good not to try - albeit in my own super-cheap not-so-cutesy way.


I did use 2 screws instead of just 1 because my faith in a single screw holding up a gallon of wet dirt isn't too great.



I think it doesn't look too bad - surely it'll be great with little plants growing in it, or maybe cascading over the edges.

I decided to add more pots after I stood back and looked and pondered.



I'm looking forward to growing some good things in this new area I started making today. Hopefully this gives someone else some ideas, too, like the other blogger's idea helped me think of screwing pots on to these ugly posts.

Coffee Cup Herbs

Do you have too many coffee cups? I sure do! Now here's a neat idea to use them as herb containers: http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/05/hanging-coffee-cup-herb-garden.html. I really wish I'd seen this before I spent so much time looking for traditional planters! There always seems to be not enough room on the cupboard shelf for all the cups I've gotten over the years.

Barrel Planter Idea

This barrel planter idea is too clever for me, because it requires tools I don't have. But if you're a little creative you probably come up with a few ways to be able to do this with just a few changes, too: www.designsponge.com/2011/06/diy-project-recycled-barrel-planter.html I'm now disappointed that last week I missed out on a randomly found free half-barrel on www.craigslist.org! Now I'll have to look for one on purpose. :)

I'm Pro Containers

I really love container gardening. I like knowing exactly what type of dirt is where, what plants belong and what mysterious plants don't. When I first planned to make raised garden beds, it wasn't just for some usual reasons: not having to bend over so far, gopher proofing bottom layers with wire mesh, keeping track of past and future crop rotation placements, etc. It was because I really have very little idea of what's a weed and what's not a weed until it's got a few leaves on it. There's no way I'd just plant a few seeds in flat dirt in rows and keep the weeds from starving the plants I intend to grow. So I'm always on the lookout for new container ideas.

Maybe after I'm a bit more experienced I'll be more comfortable throwing seeds into miniature ditches in the ground, but until then, I'll stick with containers. From paper rolls and empty yogurt cups and old cartons, to free nursery pots and scrap wood screwed together randomly to make all shapes of boxes, free planting containers are everywhere! Mostly I find them in the grocery store in the shapes of plastic food containers that are easily cut with a utility knife, and on Craigslist.org where there are people almost every day giving away free pots of all sorts. Sometimes they're just moving, or cleaning out a shed. Other times it's free nursery pots overflowing from a landscaping company - or even a nursery itself!

The big containers (raised garden beds) I have so far in my very small backyard were all put together using free scrap wood. So long as the wood isn't treated or painted on the inside with old lead paint it seems to be okay. I used all sorts of screws, and nails, basically whatever I found laying around or super cheap (or free) on Craigslist.org. If I get free wood with screws or hinges attached, I just undo them and save them for later. Mason jars are a great way to store all these things without fear of rust or getting poked through a plastic or paper bag.

I have found dozens and dozens of free pots online also. I try to keep looking only very close to my own neighborhood, otherwise the price of gas defeats the purpose of finding free things. Ordering from Amazon.com and getting free shipping is sometimes a much simpler option for the same cost as gas spent driving around picking up little items here & there. But I'm getting better at being patient and more frugal each week. I've learned to look for larger quantities of free items at a single close location, or finding things "on the way" so I don't have to make multiple trips. So far, so good.

If you're going to be searching on craigslist, too, try looking for more than just "free pots". Sometimes people use different phrases in their free item titles and descriptions such as: nursery pots, plastic pots, plastic planters, hanging planters, half-barrels, seedling containers, etc.

If you're not sure what size pots, planters, or containers you should have for whatever you're growing, check out this extremely useful factsheet: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1647.html.