Here is a cheap way to take advantage of my experience and grow your own tiny baby garden starts.
Since you wont need a whole package, you’re able to definitely go in with a friend.
Ask in your localFacebook garden group, which will also act as your support group throughout the journey.
(Gardeners are surprisingly generous souls.)
(The same for peppers and basil.)
you could certainly buy somesix packsorfour-inch pots; you might even have some from last year laying around.
Youre going to needseed starting mix, which youll need to purchase.
Seedlings require a special blend that has great drainage but no nutrients (weird, I know).
Youre going to need a tray.
Pictured is a 1020 tray, which youve seen at your nursery.
Its going to hold your seedlings and help you to bottom-water them.
Itll work just fine.
Lastly, you need sun.
Well get to that.
How to get started
First, pack your containers with moist seedling mix.
Throw some into a mixing bowl and get it just wet enough to clump when you squeeze it.
Once its consistently moistened, pack it into the container, and tap it down a few times.
You want it full, but dont pack it in like its brown sugar and youre making cookies.
In the case of peppers, tomatoes and basil, the answer is 1/4 deep.
I use a pencil, and poke it into the soil every 2 inches and drop in one seed.
Plant twice as many seeds as you think youll need plants.
Now were going to put the seedling containers into the tray.
Loosely cover the container with plastic too.
Finally, add a 12-cup of water to the tray, as opposed to pouring it into the soil.
This is bottom watering.
So nNow we need to talk about sun.
Sun provides plants with two things: light and heat.
Since were inside, we need to fake both.
You dont want to bake your seedlings, just warm them up.
Hanging them by a window isnt enough.
Arc that lamp so the light is right over your seedlings.
Turn it on first thing in the morning, turn it off when you go to bed.
You could leave it on 24 hours a day and it wouldnt be a problem.
When you see condensation on the plastic wrap, thats a great sign your mini-greenhouse is working away.
Within two weeks, youll start to see your little babies pop up.
Once 50% of the tray is germinated, take the plastic off and turn off the heating pad.
Once the plastic is off, water every morning, remembering to only add 13-inch of water or so.
The soil should remain slightly moist, but not wet.
Keep that light close to the seedlings, and let them grow.
While you could add some fertilizer to the water at this point, youd be okay without it.
Again, ask around online for four- or eight-inch pots, as gardeners often have them lying around.
When you up-pot, do so into the same seed starting mix.
(What is the point of any of this if youre not posting it to the gram?)
The world is a trash fire.
Take the whimsy where you’re free to find it.
