IT'S SPRING TIME!

It's finally starting to feel like spring around these parts, and all things green are starting to turn up in the garden!  My seedlings have been spending more time outdoors, in preparation of the transplanting in a few days.

 

The fruiting fig tree that I thought was dead has even come back to life!  That tiniest of fruit buds on the tree has put a smile on my face everyday...

My favorite seeds to watch germinate are the colors and textures that comes from Swiss Chard...

I also ordered some hop rhizomes from Simple Earth Hops.  After planting them a week ago, new shoots are coming up everyday!  I need to get my act together on building a trellis...

 

 Columbus shoot

 

 Nugget shoots

Karma has also been enjoying the nice weather.  Her favorite past time is sunbathing on the picnic table...

 

NEWSPAPER SEED STARTING POTS

I've been doing a lot of research on how to actually start to grow my seedlings indoors. I'm all for the most sustainable and economical method, and when I came across some Twitter posts regarding creating seed starting pots from newspapers, well, that just made sense.

I started looking up various garden blogs regarding the topic, and found a bunch of different tutorials on how to make them. Today, I'm going to share how I made my newspaper seed starting pots, using the Chicago Reader (the only actual print "newspaper" I read).


I started by using the full length of the Chicago Reader pages, and using a 5" height. I read that it's easier to find something to use as a base to roll the newspaper around. I looked around, and the thing I came across that seemed like the best idea was an empty Wallaby yogurt container that was in my recycling. The 5" height was more than enough to wrap around the container and have enough to still fold under securely at the bottom.


Once I had cut all my strips of newspaper, I began the wrapping process. The newspaper wrapped around the container enough times where I felt that once it was filled with soil, it wouldn't fall apart.


I then folded the ends of the newspaper (or what was being rolled around the container, but wasn't touching the container). I used a little piece of masking tape at the moment to make sure that shit was staying down and together. When the time comes where I fill it with soil and plant the seeds, I plan on taking the tape off.

FINISHED PRODUCT!

BAG FULL OF SEED POTS!

This whole project went by super fast, and I feel awesome knowing that these newspapers can be put to good compost use when it's all said and done. Next step is getting together the soil mixture! Oh and getting those grow lights....

SEEDS.

I splurged. I don't want to share how much I spent on seeds, but I will tell you it was a lot. It was worth it. I regret nothing.

It all started with Mr. Brown Thumb's post on giving floral seeds instead of flowers for valentine's day. It started with these:


Once I had actual seed packets in my hand, I needed more. Earlier in the week I had been doing a lot of research of places to purchase my seeds, seed swaps, heirloom seeds and everything in between. I couldn't make it to any of the seed swaps (not that I had any seeds to swap since this is only my second season), so I just decided to purchase my seeds this year.

After much research, I decided to go with Botanical Interests. I used some of their seeds last year (Save the Bees mix and Squash mix) and was really happy with the results. I can't tell you how thrilled I was, after a long day at work, opening my mailbox to see this:



This was what's inside:



I am so excited! Seeds for days! I am now trying to get together my growing station, and figure out where that is going to be set up in my tiny apartment. Thanks to all my Twitter garden peeps for helping out with this project! I have been learning a ton so far!