Starting Seeds-2013

I admit it. I'm sick as can be. You won't believe it,  but I've caught a terrible illness that is striking homesteaders, farmers, and gardeners all over the place this time of year. I've got a bad case of...SPRING FEVER! I decided to start some of my early spring veggies. They can be planted in a few weeks, so I need nice, strong, hardy seed starts soon. (I'm doing my best to rationalize this so feel free to snicker)

I'm starting off with broccoli,  cauliflower,  cabbage, and brussels sprouts.  My newspaper pots (make your very own here) are pretty large, but I'm happy with them because that's one less transplant to worry about. I only filled them halfway because I'm sure my amateur attempts at seed starting will yield some leggy seedlings. Leggy just means they will grow long and skinny because they'll be reaching for light. This is fixed easily enough by burying them up to the first leaves to get rid of those skinny stems. Leaving room in my pots will allow me to do this if necessary.

It's been 6 days since I started my seeds and I have plenty to report! It all started on day 4.

Day 4

One broccoli seed

Day 5

I doubt you can see all of them. I have 5/5 broccoli plants,  4/5 cabbage plants, and 1 brussels sprout plant. I promise they're there! Just squint real hard.

For day 6 I had another brussels sprout and finally saw one cauliflower!

"You're using that for what??"

I love upcycling. You ever seen that person with a tire flowerbed or a bracelet made from magazines.  Yup, that's me! While I'm not admittedly too creative with my ideas (that's why I love pinterest) I love the idea of making trash into treasure. This year I'll be trying to incorporate this with my gardening.  How the heck to do this, you may ask. Well, the beautiful world wide web is abundant with ideas, I will answer.  Let me tell you, I'm excited!

So here are some great ideas!

* Make newspaper or toilet paper roll pots. Check out my how to here

* Turn milk jugs, 2 liters, and juice jugs into cloches. My friend Mary has a very informative blog post on this very thing. It's really great and I highly recommend it. Check it out here Homegrown on the Hill

Photo courtesy of nwfoodandfarm.com

* I'm using an old (clean) litter box and disposable cake pans to put my pots in for starting seeds.

* Use cardboard and newspaper for lasagna bed gardening

* You can also use milk jugs to put bigger plants in

Upcycling is really fun and it's wonderful to do.  You can minimize your impact on the earth and maximize your gardening potential at the same time!

What have you upcycled? Got ideas?  I'd love to hear your own experinces and ideas.


Thanks for reading!