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.

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.

So Many Worms!

I saw so many worms in the dirt where the beans grew last year. I wasn't sure if it was a problem or not - there were about 3 worms for every scoop of dirt. So then I searched & found this and sharing just in case you find an extraordinary number of worms in your dirt, too. People have started worm bins, too, in case you want more worms than you already have.

Organic Compost -Yes!

I was reading today about farmers' soil in this Food and Extreme Weather: It's the Soil, Stupid article. The differences between the 2 types of dirt - dirt vs soil - in the picture is obvious even without knowing much.

I live in a very tiny house, with a yard that's sadly small, but I do try to grow pretty flowers, tomatoes and strawberries successfully. A couple of years ago I bought dirt (called soil) - yes, paid money for dirt. But it's GOOD dirt: a mix of compost and topsoil. The dirt that came with the house sucks. Really. It's full of rocks and clay, so I had to buy dirt (oops, soil) to have something for roots to be happy growing in.

One problem I have is a huge shortage of money and dreams bigger than the days of summer, so buying more good dirt every time I want to grow more is simply not an option. So why not "make" good dirt (actual garden soil)? Enter the search for compost, is it worth it? How do I do it? and last but not least, how long does it take? It's not actually called dirt though, it's soil. Yet another word difference I need to remember is important.

With all the pages, stories, and guides online I like this one the most. So next I have to pick a spot and get going! Ugh... waiting for winter to end can be so frustrating! It's awfully cold to be working outside still. So planning is all I can do for now. Will update with pics as soon as the thermometer goes up a bit :)

Oh, and by the way, there's a big difference not only between dirt & soil, but also differences between potting soil and potting mix.