Monday, March 19, 2012

Forcing Spring | Indoor Seed Starting

Are you impatient?
I think that would be an understatement for describing me.

I grew up in the southwest with a green thumb gardening granny
who I really didn't help all that much in her yard.

When I grew up, and still lived in New Mexico, 
I had a veritable small farm in my backyard.
It was AWESOME.

Now that I live in the Pacific Northwest
where we get snow
and lots of rain
and rarely ever see the sun

I get impatient 
for the 8 days of spring and approximately 17 days of summer
that we get every three years here.

That said, I LOVE 
that I can grow all sorts of great perennials and bulbs
(another couple of posts coming on that,
here's a sneak peek:


but most of all, I have just learned how to 
get my garden on inside.

So let me show you how I play God
and force nature to think that it is time to
push forth and prosper.

Or something like that.
Here's a bit of DIY on how to start your own garden
Straight through to how to create
your own little seed starting pots
by rolling paper.

No. Not that kind of paper.
Newspaper.

Come on now...

So...to start with, you need some pots to grow your seeds in.
You could spend half a million dollars on a seed maker like this


Or you could go ghetto fabulous
and break out the can of enchilada sauce.

























A month of Sunday papers and here are your pots.



Then, you need some seed starting medium.
There are a billion and one recipes (google it, or trust me - that's on you)
for seed starting medium.

Do as I say and not as I do.
This year, I really wanted to experiment a little
so I made a special blend of hot mess.

If you try this and it doesn't work,
don't blame your crappy growing season on me.

Just know that SOME of my seeds sprouted super strong and super fast
and others...I'm still wondering about.

Here's what I used:


Essentially, I used some enriched compost mixed with some starter fertilizer


I also mixed in some earthworm castings
and some perlite to make it a little less than impossible
for baby seeds to push through all that gunk.


Here's what it looked like as I mixed it up:



Now.
If you're not as industrious,
you COULD just get pellets.







































Personally, I always over water these
and end up with mold/fungus whatever the heck fuzzy stuff 
that doesn't necessarily make for good seedlings.


But.
I wanted to try these all natural ones this year.
I already know 
(partially)
how this story turns out.


I'll withhold judgment a little longer though.
You just never know what might 
"crop up"
(hahaha...I killed it!)
overnight.


So.
We have the pots, we have the filler.
Next time out,
let's get them filled and started up already.


What are you looking forward to growing this year?

**

Loving b3HD? 
Have a life and can't view the whole blog in one sitting? 
Then stalk us already! 
Scroll down, and become a follower!
Or fan our B3HD Facebook page
Promise not to stalk you back. Unless you want us to. 

***

No comments:

Post a Comment

You KNOW you have an opinion about it, already. So spill it. Spark up a conversation...