How to Grow a Garden

Regardless of what method of gardening you are using, there are some plants that need a little extra help in getting going.  Not because they aren’t capable of growing on their own sown straight into the ground, but what if your growing season is extremely short?  It’s best to give some plants a head start by starting seed indoors, usually around six weeks before your area’s last frost for the winter.

Starting seed indoors can be done a number of ways; you can take a deep dish of some type, lay some wet paper towels in the bottom, sprinkle seeds about, and then cover with plastic wrap and set in a sunny and warm place. Or, you can buy compressed soil pellets.  These are little discs of dry soil that are compressed inside a mesh that will hold the soil together after it expands when wetted.  Usually these come with plastic trays with a clear lid that become a miniature greenhouse.  You just tear a little bit of the mesh at the top so the soil at the surface is not covered, plant two or three seeds in the soil, place them in the trays, water, and place them in a sunny area. There are also peat pots, and even re-usable plastic six packs where you can put potting soil in and plant a few seeds, again placing in a warm and sunny spot.

More advanced gardeners may even have an elaborate system set up in a spare room or basement, or garage, with an entire shelf or counter top with trays of seed starting pots, and a grow light overhead, and possibly a heating mat made especially for seed starting, underneath the pots to warm them from the bottom up.

Another way that was introduced to me by my daughter’s preschool, is to take a few seeds and some wet cotton balls, put them together inside a plastic ziploc baggie, and tape them to a window, southern or western facing for the most light.  Having tried this method, as well as the peat pots and soil discs, I have had the most success with the peat pots and the ziploc baggies.  In my little mini-greenhouse with the discs, at least four of the little discs that I had sown some seeds into have produced nothing, and I placed about three seeds in each one.  But, that is still about 66% success, so it’s better than nothing.  In the peat pots, 95% of the seeds I planted, grew, and in the baggies, about 90% of the seeds sprouted, which I then transplanted to peat pots to continue growing in soil.  One thing I would suggest if you want to try out the ziploc bag method however, is to use large seeds, such as beans or peas.  Those are much easier to transplant out of the bag and into pots than the smaller seeds such as tomato or daisies.

If you’re looking for sources of peat pellets (the soil discs) with the mini-greenhouses, peat pots and even seeds, you can visit Burgess Seed & Plant Co.  Also, you can get $20 FREE off your first order at Gardens Alive!, they carry a number of organic vegetable seeds and supplies.

Some of the plants that may need to be started indoors and transplanted after the last frost are tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, peas and beans. Don’t forget that if you start seeds indoors, you will have to harden them off before they can be permanently moved out into your outdoor garden. This entails setting them outdoors, starting in full shade, for a few hours a day, and bringing them back indoors. Each day introduce them to full sun for a short period of time (like an hour or two), and gradually give them more full sun each day thereafter until they appear to handle full sun without issue. Keep in mind if you have them in very small peat pots, they WILL dry out very quickly, so keep an eye on the soil moisture. If they are wilted, bring them indoors and water the soil, by morning they should perk up again. Once they’re transplanted into the ground outdoors, they should be fine with your usual watering schedule.