I found a neat planting calendar on The Old Farmers Almanac, www.Almanac.com to enter ones location and view the suggested times lines for planting various garden vegetables. Here I discovered that tomatoes, onions, lettuce and peppers need to be started the first to the middle of March (if starting indoors). Actually, onions could be started as early as the first of February, but here we are, the first part of March already. The first of March it will be when I start my onions.
Indoors or Outdoors?
Why start seeds indoors? I would like to give my garden vegetables a head start for the growing season. Our season here in northern Indiana is long enough to produce vegetables with out starting them indoors. Plants started indoors will be available for harvest sooner then seeds started outdoors. If I choose to start seeds both inside and out, I will have a longer time for harvesting and eating fresh from the garden. I like this line of thinking!
The Dirt
Take a walk with me out to the manure pile and previous manure pile location.
I am about ready to start a new pile, but want to use some of the dirt generated from the old pile before I do. The process of composting both animal and plant waste products produces wonderful rich soil from which to grow vegetables.
I am going to bring soil inside in a 5 gallon bucket to use for starting my seeds. Now one can purchase potting soil and do the same thing. I am all about using what I have available and for me compost is free. If you do not personally have the option of composting, sometimes a farm will allow you to get compost from their manure pile. A word of caution here, if wanting to keep everything organic, it would be important to know if drugs and/or antibiotics where used on the animals who produced the manure. I know I use a limited amount and so my compost is as close to organic as I can get it. I am ok with that for the time being.
Planting Seeds
Now is the time to place some of the soil into small containers. I have saved some of the pictured egg cartons to act as a green house for starting seeds. They trap the moisture, but once a seed is sprouted the lid needs to be opened. I have found they do best if transferred into a bigger container soon after sprouting.
After watering to make the soil moist, seeds may be planted shallowly. In this example I am planting onion seeds. I used my finger to hollow out a small spot in the soil to drop the onion seed into. After placing the tiny seed, I gently covered the seed with soil.
Now aside from keeping the soil moist and warm enough for the seeds to sprout, there is not much to do, but wait for the tiny little green sprouts of a new plant to poke its way up through the soil. These are due to sprout in 10 to 15 days so I added it to my schedule to check them on March 15(10 days) and March 20(15 days). Check back on A Country Girl’s Heart ~ Beats that Matter FB page for updates those days on the onion seeds progress.
This project has cost me nothing aside from the cost of the seed and a bit of rather easy work. I am always looking for ways to repurpose items like manure piles and egg cartons. What items to do have around your house that would allow you to start seeds with little to no cost to you?
