Guys, it’s gardening seasoning! What better way to kick off the season by learning how to make your own seed starter pots!
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It was a long, long winter here in our neck of the woods. I mean, it’s Canada so winter is long anyways, but this year it seemed to drag on longer than usual. We dealt with more freezing rain than I can remember in one winter and ended up with layer after layer of ice that has been taking forever to melt. It wasn’t uncommon to hear of people having an injury from falling on the ice this year as there was just so much. I took a few falls myself.
It’s still not completely melted. But, it’s getting there. Another week or so and I think we will finally be free of winter!
Needless to say, I am so excited to finally see the ice and snow melt away so that we can celebrate gardening season. Weirdly enough I am one of those people who doesn’t mind winter for the most part, but maybe because I live in a homestead now I just couldn’t wait to begin all things related to spring out here this year.
I am already dreaming of watching my lilac trees bloom. And of course, I am dreaming of getting my hands in the dirt and gardening.
The other day I was ready to plant some of our seeds. I grabbed my seed trays, also known as washed out meat and salad containers, and was about to get started when I realized I actually didn’t have any seed pots to put the seeds and dirt in.
When you live out of town it’s either you wait until your next trip to grab what you need, which could be a week away, or you become veryresourceful.
Well, patience isn’t my strong suit.
I knew I could easily make seed starter pots so I got right to work.
Maybe you want to skip out on buying the seed pots this year. Maybe you want to be as absolutely frugal as possible or you want something that is biodegradable without the added cost. If that’s the case, then these seed pots are for you.
I’ve got two to share with you today. One is made out of toilet paper rolls, another is newspaper. Either one is a great option. However, if you want to buy you seed pots and save some time, you can grab your biodegradable seed pots here. Of course, if you want seed pots you can reuse each year, you can get these ones.
I prefer the biodegradable ones. Not only are they great for the environment, but they are easy to use. I’ve struggled with reusable plastic seed pots when I need to transfer the seedling. I have had a hard time getting them out and transferring them gently with minimal disruption to the seedling as possible. With the biodegradable ones I don’t have to worry about that. I just pop the whole seed pot in the ground.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN SEED STARTER POTS
Cut 1/4 or so of the toilet paper roll so it’s a little shorter.
Fold the one side in.
Fold the other side in.
Fold the corners in on top of that.
As you can see there’s a small space at the bottom. I found this to not be a problem and the dirt stayed in place in the roll just fine.
Flip it over. At this point I like to kind of flatten the bottom by putting my fingers in it and pushing down into a hard surface. Once they have dirt in them and are all compacted together in their seed trays they should have no problem standing up.
The second seed starter pot is with newspaper.
I cut my newspaper in half. Then I fold that half into a trifold. It is one of the smaller sized newspapers so you will want to adjust this to the size of newspaper you are working with.
Take a cup and roll the newspaper around it making sure there is excess paper sticking out at the end over the bottom of the cup.
Fold the newspaper against the bottom of the cup to make a “floor” for your seed pot. You will want to crease it well at the bottom of the cup.
Take the newspaper off the cup and while holding it together at the seams, fold over the top of the newspaper inwards.
Carefully place the seed pot into a tray waiting to be filled. The newspaper can be pretty tricky to work with. As you see here the side is sticking out. (My work is nice and uneven too, but you know, I’m okay with not having perfect seed pots. 🙂 )
Some people like to use a bit of tape for that but I didn’t want to forget to take the tape off before I put it in the ground so I just put the newspaper seed pots next to each other snugly and was very careful.
And that’s all there is to learning how to make your own seed starter pots. You can put all your seedling pots in a tray ready to be filled with soil and seeds!
I think gardening season has to be one of the best times of the year. When we plant our garden we all have high hopes for what we will harvest at the end of summer. Gardening season is a time for dreaming!
Last year we harvested quite a bit from our small garden, but this year the plan is to go much bigger and plant a ton more. One of my favorite things we are adding to the garden this year is pumpkins. We also are adding sunflowers which I am so excited about.
I like to plant mostly vegetables, but I do like to add a few flowers. Last year I grew dwarf zinnias and I loved being able to pick some every few days and put them in a vase on my dining room table. This year we are planting full size zinnias. I love the brightness of these flowers.
There is something so amazing about harvesting your vegetables at the end of the season. All that hard work pays off eventually and to be able to be self-sufficient in this way is awesome. We continue to try and be more self-sufficient every year. Of course, every year, no matter what it is, whether it is gardening, harvesting maple syrup, or raising animals, you learn from mistakes when you don’t yield as much food as you had hoped for.
That’s just part of the experience of homesteading. Last year Our cucumbers and tomatoes did amazingly well. Our broccoli and peppers did not. I discovered my peppers were too shaded as I had them super close to the tall tomato plants. This year I hope to have better luck with these two crops. However, in my area it seems many others struggle with broccoli so we will see if there is improvement on that crop or not!
What about you? Are you a gardener? What do you like to plant?
