Seed Starting Tips Part I: Containers

Spring is here! And across the world, gardeners of every age are getting ready to plant their gardens - whether they're growing containers of herbs on the porch, a plot of vegetables, or a sunny bed of flowers.  Nurseries, garden centers and even drugstores are stocking up on potted plants and seedlings to sell, but those of us who like a little more variety, and maybe want to plant a larger garden cost-effectively, will know to pass up the potted plants and head over to the seed rack.  Buying seed to start yourself will give you far more plants for your money, as well as offer many more varieties - usually varieties of heirlooms and other neat flowers and vegetables you can't find as seedlings in pots.  Plus, starting your own seeds is always so much more rewarding!  And with a little patience and practice, it's really not difficult to get the hang of!

With that in mind, I wanted to address a series of seed starting issues, step-by-step, and pass along a few tips.

Containers for Starting Seeds

Unless you plan to sow seeds directly into the ground (a perfectly viable option), planting in containers will allow you to keep a closer eye on germination and give your seedlings a little extra protection.  Seedlings in containers can be easily moved into a protected area if there is heavy rain or an unseasonably hot day, then transplanted into the garden when they're big enough to take better care of themselves.  So, you're going to start your seeds in containers... but what type of container?  Really, mostly anything you can find that's two to four inches deep will do, as long as it's clean (so disease isn't spread to your new seedlings) and allows drainage.    

I'm a recycling, reusing, composting fanatic (not to mention avid do-it-yourself-er), so some of my favorite seed starting containers are also the simplest solutions:

• Reused nursery flats, pots and six pack containers: Wash and disinfect with hot soapy water and rinse in a dilute solution of water and white vinegar.  (Or bleach, but bleach is pretty nasty, unnecessarily harsh stuff, both on your skin and the environment, and vinegar works fabulously as a substitute.)  Rinse and save for next year or recycle them after transplanting.
• Paper egg cartons:  Avoid the polystyrene (Styrofoam) ones, all the time, always.  Once it's created - from chemically altered fossil fuels - the stuff sticks around forever, filling landfills and polluting ecosystems... So really, just avoid it altogether, in every form.  Besides, paper egg cartons are biodegradable, so there's no need to even transplant your seedlings.  Just pull or cut apart the individual cups and plant; the seedling with grow roots right through the carton, and will be even happier for not having had those little roots disturbed in transplanting!           
• Yogurt cups:  Wash and punch holes in the bottoms for drainage.  Rinse off and recycle (or save for next year) after transplanting.

• Milk or juice jugs/cartons:  Cut off the tops, punch holes in the bottoms, and plant.  Cardboard cartons can be composted after transplanting, and plastic jugs saved for reuse or recycled.

• Cereal boxes:  Cut out one large panel (the front or back) and tape the top flaps closed.  The cardboard does start to get soggy and break down after a couple weeks, but by then the seedlings should be ready to be transplanted.  And, the best news, soggy cereal boxes can be composted when you're done with them!  Hooray!

Next up... How to make your own seed starting mix!

First Harvest & Fresh Bouquets!!

An exciting day indeed!!

The first full harvest at The Old Flower Patch took place this morning!  Buckets filled with beautiful old-fashioned flowers and wildflowers... how can that not make you smile?

The harvest this morning included Shasta daisies, yarrow, blanket flower, larkspur, feverfew, cosmos, cornflowers, sweet peas, and snapdragons.  And this is just the beginning!




Clearly, I'm very excited to see how these first bouquets turn out, and even more excited to share them with you!  Enjoy!

 

Cornflowers! My very favorite "weed"

Cornflowers, officially known as Centaurea cyanus and sometimes better known as bachelors buttons, are one of my very favorite wildflowers - there's nothing else quite like cornflower blue!

 

Once so common a wildflower in England, it was actually believed that in bad crop years, grain seed that was sown came up as cornflowers instead!  The pesky weed grew so thick amongst the corn and grain that the edges of sickles were dulled from reaping fields choked with cornflower, earning it the old name Hurt-sickle. 


Even so, it was grown in gardens in Tudor times, and a wide variety of colors were in cultivation before 1630.  Today, it's one of my favorite cut flowers, blooming faithfully through the spring and summer. 

First Blooms & Fast Growth!

Old-fashioned cornflower - the very first bloom!

The Old Flower Patch is blooming!!

Well, I think as of this morning there were two blooms... But everyone has to start somewhere!

In addition to those two little blue cornflower blooms, other plants are starting to grow very quickly with the heat we've been having the past few days.

I can't wait to see more blooms as we get closer and closer to summer!



Zinnias

Hollyhocks

Cosmos

Work Day!

Well, every day is a work day, I guess, but yesterday was an especially big day, as Eric was able to help me finish laying drip tape in the second half of my flower patch. 


We layed 16 rows, with two lines of tape in each row spaced 18 inches apart, giving me 16 3-foot wide rows, each between 50 and 80 feet long. The emitters are spaced 9 inches apart, which works out well since 9 inches is usually a good spacing for most types of cut flowers.

 

Now the rest of the field is ready for planting!!

And once again, a big thank you to my dear Eric, the busy, hardworking Masters student, for taking a few hours away from his books to help me with my project!!

Benefits of Borage

Borage (Borago officinalis) is an ancient plant, grown as far back as the days of Dioscorides and Pliny (around 50 A.D.), and has seen many different uses over the centuries.  In Mediterranean countries, where it grows in abundance, the name borage is spelled with a double 'r,' indicating that the name probably comes from the Italian borra, and French bourra, meaning hair or wool, both of which are derived from the Latin burra, meaning a flock of wool, referring to the furry hairs that cover the plant.

 

Borage is an excellent companion plant for vegetable gardens, especially planted with tomatoes as it is supposed to repel tomato hornworm, and with strawberries and squash.  It reseeds quite freely, (which I think is great, but those who like more formal garden beds may find annoying) and was a common kitchen garden herb in the 1800's.  The flowers are edible and make lovely garnishes, plus they're just pretty! 


The little star-shaped blue flowers of borage bloom early in the season, and the plants continue on doggedly until frost, attracting bees and other pollinators to the garden, as well as predatory wasps that prey on harmful insects.  And when the plants give up at the end of the season, toss them in the compost pile! 

From antiquity to present, growing borage in your garden is a must!

Wildflowers!

Wildflowers are incredibly uplifting.

Growing under the toughest conditions - rocky crevices, bone-dry sand, bogs, alpine slopes - where none but the most daring gardener would ever dream of planting a flower garden, wildflowers seem to defy all odds, and everything every gardening book tells us about "moist, fertile, well-drained loamy soil."  And yet, each plant is perfectly suited to its environment.

 

When I get discouraged, squinting at the dirt to discern tiny flower seedlings from the ever-encroaching weeds and wondering how I am ever going to make them grow, I remind myself of wildflowers, growing on "less than a little," and thriving!  Most of our flowers are, after all, no more than weeds and wildflowers that someone took notice of one day, propagated and developed (some more than others) into garden plants. 

 

And so, I take heart: if the wildflowers can do it, surely with a little aide (mostly in the form of supplementary water and soil nutrients) my flower patch can too thrive and bloom, against the odds!