I hope you enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2 of Starting a Vegetable Garden Cheaply and Easily from Dawn Smith with Crazy Organic Mama. I don’t know about you, but I certainly learned a lot about how to get a garden started from seed. Growing my own vegetables has been something I’ve always wanted to try but, well, how do I put this? Suffice it to say that Hubs doesn’t call me “Black Thumb” for nothing. If it weren’t for him, all the plants in my house would be either made of plastic or dead. Still, I wanted to give it a try so I talked Hubs into taking me to the home improvement store to get supplies. Here’s how it went…
Getting the Vegetable Garden Started
Rather than buy some fancy seed-starting trays, I started saving my empty egg cartons. They’re the perfect size for starting plants from seed. To prepare them I cut off the tops and poked a drainage hole in the bottom of each egg cup. I used the tops of the egg cartons as a coaster to place the cups in to keep water and dirt off of the window sill. I also marked the lid in order to show what is planted where. As long as no one rearranges anything we should be good to go!
Cutting the top off the egg carton. The lid will be used as a coaster for the plant containers.
Holes for drainage poked in the bottom of each egg cup
Choosing What to Plant
I knew I wanted some lettuce and parsley but beyond that I really didn’t know what I wanted to plant. Looking over the selection of seeds was pretty overwhelming but ultimately I decided to purchase seeds for plants I could grow in containers on my deck. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself so I settled on 6 types of plants – lettuce, parsley, spinach, beans, zucchini and cucumber.
Zucchini, Cucumber & Garden Beans seed packets
Lettuce, Parsley and Spinach seed packets
Getting Ready to Plant
The beans and parsley seeds needed to be soaked overnight before planting so I put them in a small bowl of water and left them to soak.
Parsley and Bean Seeds set to soak overnight
For the rest of the seeds I put some soil in each egg cup and planted the seeds based on the instructions on the individual seed packets. I watered the seeds and placed the planters in a sunny window in my kitchen.
Planting the seeds
Watering well after planting seeds in the soil
Containers placed in a sunny window
Now the hard part begins – being patient and waiting for the plants to sprout.
2 Weeks Later-I Have Plants!!!
OMG-I GREW something!!
OMG, y’all! I’m GROWING stuff! I’m so happy to show you how everything is progressing so far. I’m especially excited about the beans. I’ve never grown beans before so I’m really looking forward to eating these in a few months. Hubs and I both have done a good job of keeping everything watered and they get plenty of sun in the window I’ve chosen to put them in.
More veggies actually GROWING! That I PLANTED!!
In the coming weeks I’ll move them to larger containers and thin them out a bit. The rule of thumb where I live is not to plant outdoors until after Good Friday to avoid frost. I’ll keep everything in my kitchen until then, and will share with you when everything gets moved outside. Stay tuned…
Have you started a “save on grocery money” vegetable garden? I’d love to see how it’s going-please share in the comments. I’m really excited that I have a little bit of success to share and look forward to sharing more as the growing season progresses. If I can do this I ABSOLUTELY KNOW you can!
Be well and God Bless – until we meet again…
Woo hoo! Glad it’s going well for you! I’ve got all sorts of stuff started in my seed starting room, but we can’t plant tender stuff out until after Memorial Day here (sigh). I may have a slight problem (addiction?) as I have trays of bee balm, tomatoes, peanuts and peppers right now, but I have over a dozen other types of plants that will be started indoors in the next few weeks, plus I’ve got to get my beets, peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, etc., etc. planted outside soon too.
Just a little tip, if you don’t mind: You’re better off watering from underneath (into your trays) than from overhead. It probably doesn’t matter too much since your plants are already coming up and look good, but there is something called damping off (it’s a fungal disease), and it’s less likely if you water from underneath.
Thanks, Dawn. I’ve since moved everything to larger containers so I’m not sure I can do that now. Everything will be going outside in the next week or so-it’s warming up nicely here!
Wow that looks great! I too am about to plant some seeds for my garden – maybe it’s warmer where you are? Your seedlings look lovely and healthy anyway!
I live in Georgia so it may very well be warmer here than where you are. I’m about to tempt fate and start putting things outside soon. Thanks, Claire!
Kim,
Good for you for taking this on! I am one who buys my seedlings. The transition from winter to summer takes too long – and I can’t nurture the seeds indoors. Since today felt like 23 outside during my walk, I’m looking forward to getting out into the dirt when it warms up. – Janet
The advantages of living in the south, for sure! Everything is just about ready to go outside. I’ll keep you posted! Thanks, Janet.