Starting seeds indoors is one of the areas where gardeners can easily save money. Avoid buying peat pots or plastic flats by reusing common items you probably already have in your home.

• Plastic food containers, egg cartons, and the like: Seedlings don’t need a glamorous first home. Save greenbucks by sprouting multiple seeds in reused food containers. Small containers require less soilless mix (one of the priciest gardening supplies) and, if you plant in an egg carton, you can simply divide it up and pop the seedlings — carton and all — into larger pots, once the seedlings require more space.
• Newspaper: For “potting up” growing seedlings, plantable peat pots are great for adding nutrients to your container garden and minimizing transplant shock, but there is an easy and inexpensive alternative. Fold single sheets of newspaper into small flower pots using an origami method that has worked for me. The newspaper pots are surprisingly sturdy on their own, even when exposed to water repeatedly. Once your seedlings are ready for larger containers, simple plant them, newspaper and all. The paper will allow roots through and will soon break down in the soil, adding usable carbon to your containers in the process.
• Shoeboxes and aluminum foil: Tomato, pepper, and squash seeds benefit hugely from extra warmth and sunshine early in the growing process. To make an inexpensive seedling grow-box, line a shoebox with a slightly larger sheet of aluminum foil, allowing an inch or two to extend up beyond the boxes’ sides. Then fill it with potting soil, poke drainage holes in the bottom, and plant your seedlings. The foil reflects the sun and provides some extra insulation.
  
• Laundry detergent container: Compost tea is a natural and dirt-cheap alternative to commercial fertilizer that can be “brewed” in any sealed, opaque container — an empty detergent container fits the bill perfectly. Rinse it out thoroughly and economically beforehand by pouring a cup or so of white vinegar into it and setting it in the shower for a week or so. Read further instructions on making compost tea in this cheap and convenient container.

Add a Comment | Trackback | | RSS 2.0 | All Posts in Sustainable Living with a Garden