"Lila I'll try to remember to open the blind on the door that is the sunny side of the house. It wasn't getting much except fluorecences at the store 20ft high & it was on the floor. I like the rocker too found that at K-Mart many…"
Starting Seeds The Frugal Way~
Hi All,
I recently joined this group first and foremost because I am frugal as can be and to make new frugal friends as myself. I am getting itchy fingers to start my indoor seeds..yes I know it's probably a bit to soon, but I am going bonkers. I have all my seeds ( I'll probably get more) I always do..can't help myself!!LOL. I grow mine in the styrofoam cups and label them with a marker on the cup or I use plastic knives,all bought from the Dollar General of course and poke a hole in the bottom.. I use a mixture of the light potting mix soil, seeds that need to be soaked I soak overnight I soak, in the same cups I will be planting seeds in or some seed with hard coats I nick them, I rinse out the cups first and reuse them in. All of the cups are placed in boxes I have cut down to about 4 inches high just enough to hold them. Another idea is to get those plastic containers that you see at gas stations, I beleive they have milk or juice holding them at one time the ones that are about 10 inches wide and 4 inches high..I've snagged them before as holders and they work great, most stations will let you have them for free. Mostly I plant veggies or annual vine seeds that would normally take forever to grow planted in the ground come spring or special annual flowers I like.. I grow all these in my dungeon like basement on a large bench that use to be a mans work bench for doing whatever they do on those benches.. and on shelf that have lights installed underneath the shelves. I suspend lights with cheap chains and s hooks over the large bench table. I usually don't cover my seedlings and my basement is pretty warm. I do mist them though. The perennial seeds I put in 4 inch pots that I have saved and reuse them over and over, I wash the pots really good so the are squeaky clean, I add the soil mix and an inch or so of gravel or grit on top so the seeds so they stay put when I move them outdoors.. I soak the flats in the tub in about 2 to 3 inches of water until it has all absorbed then I place them on the north side of the house and let mother nature take it's course until spring,then I move them to a temporary holding beside my garage where the tempurature stays the same pretty much or if I get lucky right to their new homes. The ideal cover is snow of course but most make it through! This is my ritual every spring and my seeds I have are either leftovers or ones through plant and seed exchanges etc. If you have clever and cheap ideas and pictures of your seedlings please post them, I'd love to read and admire the photos too. I'll post some pics of the process soon, first I have to vacum the area HA!. Sorry this was so long.
Happy Gardening- Rene~
I recently joined this group first and foremost because I am frugal as can be and to make new frugal friends as myself. I am getting itchy fingers to start my indoor seeds..yes I know it's probably a bit to soon, but I am going bonkers. I have all my seeds ( I'll probably get more) I always do..can't help myself!!LOL. I grow mine in the styrofoam cups and label them with a marker on the cup or I use plastic knives,all bought from the Dollar General of course and poke a hole in the bottom.. I use a mixture of the light potting mix soil, seeds that need to be soaked I soak overnight I soak, in the same cups I will be planting seeds in or some seed with hard coats I nick them, I rinse out the cups first and reuse them in. All of the cups are placed in boxes I have cut down to about 4 inches high just enough to hold them. Another idea is to get those plastic containers that you see at gas stations, I beleive they have milk or juice holding them at one time the ones that are about 10 inches wide and 4 inches high..I've snagged them before as holders and they work great, most stations will let you have them for free. Mostly I plant veggies or annual vine seeds that would normally take forever to grow planted in the ground come spring or special annual flowers I like.. I grow all these in my dungeon like basement on a large bench that use to be a mans work bench for doing whatever they do on those benches.. and on shelf that have lights installed underneath the shelves. I suspend lights with cheap chains and s hooks over the large bench table. I usually don't cover my seedlings and my basement is pretty warm. I do mist them though. The perennial seeds I put in 4 inch pots that I have saved and reuse them over and over, I wash the pots really good so the are squeaky clean, I add the soil mix and an inch or so of gravel or grit on top so the seeds so they stay put when I move them outdoors.. I soak the flats in the tub in about 2 to 3 inches of water until it has all absorbed then I place them on the north side of the house and let mother nature take it's course until spring,then I move them to a temporary holding beside my garage where the tempurature stays the same pretty much or if I get lucky right to their new homes. The ideal cover is snow of course but most make it through! This is my ritual every spring and my seeds I have are either leftovers or ones through plant and seed exchanges etc. If you have clever and cheap ideas and pictures of your seedlings please post them, I'd love to read and admire the photos too. I'll post some pics of the process soon, first I have to vacum the area HA!. Sorry this was so long.
Happy Gardening- Rene~
Views: 21
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Anita Barnwell on -
Hi, Rene, I enjoyed reading your blog. Yes, I'm thinking about starting my seeds too. We've had a few days of nice weather. It's 72 outside right now. I'm torn between going outside and finishing the clean up that I didn't do in the fall or starting the seeds. I can't decide whether to buy seed starting mix or make my own. I have some left over from last year, but probably should start fresh. I did have some problems last year with what I think were fungal gnats. I was thinking about buying one of those heat mats for seed starting, but found instructions for making one from tube/rope lights at Dave's Garden. We had one that we hadn't used and the Christmas decorations hadn't been put away, so my husband rescued the lights and we bought a couple of plastic containers that look like under-the-bed boxes and made two. I can't wait to see how they work. Last year I bought a seed pod press (don't remember what they called it) from Johnny's Select Seeds, but by the time I gathered all the ingredients to make the mix, I was out of the mood and just used the seed starting containers that I've used for the last few years.....those with the clear (now yellow tops). I also have some that I bought at Walgreen's a few years ago that have 12 spaces for seeds. It comes in two pieces....one for the soil and seeds and one to hold the other container and water. I made a little greenhouse out of them with mini-blinds and saran wrap. That seemed to work pretty well If I do some this year, I'll post a photo. Old mini-blinds cut into 3-4 inch pieces also make great markers for seedlings.
-
-
Permalink Reply by Rene Brown on -
Hi Anita,
I was admiring all your beautiful photos on your page. Thanks for the reply...WOW your 72 degrees right now, I'm sooo jealous..hehe, no just kiddin, I can dream though! I don't know what it's like to garden in Texas, it must be nice to have it so warm already though. I never use warming mats, I guess because I can lay towels down underneath sometimes, only if it seems really chilly and like I said my basement, although it's a borderline dungeon draped in cobwebs and dustbunnies for nicknacks..Its still warm enough to let the seeds pop up. Let me know how your heating mats work out, do you have a link to the blog on the selfmade mats? I was thinking about joining Daves Garden at one time but few years back I joined Gardenweb instead, I had super good luck on there. I guess I use the styrfoam cups because I plant everything in there and let it grow and I don't need to transplant into bigger containers, they go from point A to point B. The old mini blinds is a good idea too. Keep me posted. Thanks, good luck and Happy Gardening! Rene~ -
-
Permalink Reply by MAE LUCERO/zn 8 GA on -
Hi Rene, I joined this group because I'm a frugal gardener too. I'm doing the same way you do to start seeds. I recycle solo/plastic cups (washed and cleaned of course) to start my seeds. I put them in dish pans ($1 at dollar stores) to keep the moisture for hybridized daylily seeds. I re-use them to start some vegetable seeds. The cups that I have now are going to be used for years to come.
I use plastic forks/knives to label daylilies and rooted plants.
At my work, we throw away at least 20 1-gallon plastic water jugs everyday. I take some home, cut the top but leave the handle part, put holes at the bottom and presto they are flower pots for daylilies that i thinned out and rooted plants to share. It's so easy to move the pots away from frost bec of the handle. -
-
Permalink Reply by Jo Bowling GA Z-7B on -
Hi Mae, you have some very good tips. I especially like the plastic water jug idea...nice to have a handle. I am interested to learn more about hybridizing daylillies. Are you part of the daylily group? Can you recommend a website where you learned how to hybridize daylilies? I've recently become interested in hybridizing iris, also. I had some come up from seed and bloom this year. Very interesting to watch the blooms develop and look for the parentage in each bloom.
MAE LUCERO said:Hi Rene, I joined this group because I'm a frugal gardener too. I'm doing the same way you do to start seeds. I recycle solo/plastic cups (washed and cleaned of course) to start my seeds. I put them in dish pans ($1 at dollar stores) to keep the moisture for hybridized daylily seeds. I re-use them to start some vegetable seeds. The cups that I have now are going to be used for years to come.
I use plastic forks/knives to label daylilies and rooted plants.
At my work, we throw away at least 20 1-gallon plastic water jugs everyday. I take some home, cut the top but leave the handle part, put holes at the bottom and presto they are flower pots for daylilies that i thinned out and rooted plants to share. It's so easy to move the pots away from frost bec of the handle. -
-
Permalink Reply by MAE LUCERO/zn 8 GA on
-
Hi Ms Jo, I just learned hybridizing daylilies from reading online. I’m not a member of any daylily club. There are a lot of information from different websites on plant selection to growing and everything in between. I don't have a lot of varieties to choose from so my hybridizing is very limited. Last year was my first time to do it. I'm hoping they'll bloom this year. It’s very easy and simple and I believe once you start doing it you'll be hooked. All you need is patience like everything else in gardening. Your post about hybridizing iris is very interesting. Maybe someday when I have different varieties of iris I could do the same.
By the way, the city where I live is the city of daylily in GA.
Jo Bowling said:Hi Mae, you have some very good tips. I especially like the plastic water jug idea...nice to have a handle. I am interested to learn more about hybridizing daylillies. Are you part of the daylily group? Can you recommend a website where you learned how to hybridize daylilies? I've recently become interested in hybridizing iris, also. I had some come up from seed and bloom this year. Very interesting to watch the blooms develop and look for the parentage in each bloom.
MAE LUCERO said:Hi Rene, I joined this group because I'm a frugal gardener too. I'm doing the same way you do to start seeds. I recycle solo/plastic cups (washed and cleaned of course) to start my seeds. I put them in dish pans ($1 at dollar stores) to keep the moisture for hybridized daylily seeds. I re-use them to start some vegetable seeds. The cups that I have now are going to be used for years to come.
I use plastic forks/knives to label daylilies and rooted plants.
At my work, we throw away at least 20 1-gallon plastic water jugs everyday. I take some home, cut the top but leave the handle part, put holes at the bottom and presto they are flower pots for daylilies that i thinned out and rooted plants to share. It's so easy to move the pots away from frost bec of the handle. -
-
Permalink Reply by Wendy Hime on -
I love it when I see someone who is as crazy about growing as I am. I think it is better than almost anything in the world:)
-
-
Permalink Reply by Mary Howell on -
Me to Wendy. That;s my passion too.
-
Latest Activity
Contributing GardenerCatherine Cronin (Ireland) commented on Catherine Cronin (Ireland)'s photo
This came on suddenly, 2 days before there was no Pumpkin
"Pumpkin, from a seed of a pumpkin my daughter bought for last Halloween! 2 out of 6 seeds germinated and they are now outside........I am amazed :)"
"Love that rocker Vickey and your little wood framed raised garden beds!:)...Hey Cindy post a pic of that cute bunny, I love bunnies:).......Nitey Nite guys see ya tommorrow."
"
Hey friends!--I hope you all had a great MemDay wknd.We all rested and where rained out most of the week.This high humidity(80%!) is quite taxing esp when the temps go up to the 90's it wrecks havoc w/ my sinuses and gives me brain haze…"
© 2012 Created by Garden-Share.
Powered by
