Seeds
DIY Seed Trays
I’m such a cheap bastard sometimes. I don’t event want to pay for those fancy little seed trays if I can help it, even though they only cost me like $2-3 each.
I’ve tried the re-usable plastic ones but they fall apart the first year you use them. I’ve tried the biodegradable cardboard ones that you can just plunk right into the ground but those cost more like $0.50 per pod, so multiply that by 24 in a tray, then multiply by 8? And with two or three crops a year?
Dude, if I had that kind of money on my hands I’d have my own Guatemalan boy-toy gardener named Eduardo.
The good news is that you can DIY and save your dough for more important things like booze, red licorice, and boy-toy gardeners. So if you can’t reuse from last year, or maybe you just want to get a little creative, here’s the low-down on some cheap DIY options:
Easiest method: Buy eggs that come in a cardboard box. Check it out! Those little egg pods are perfect for holding seeding soil and seeds until they sprout. Then you can just cut the seams with scissors and plunk them in the ground. Sweet! The egg carton seed tray.
Can’t find cardboard cartons at the store? If you wind up with Styrofoam egg cartons on your hands you can still do the same thing, but you’ll need to carefully pop the seedlings out before planting and keep re-using the tray. If the tray breaks, bust it up and put it in the bottom of your planter for better drainage instead of rocks. Done.
Funniest Method: So maybe not everyone eats eggs. Fair enough. You’ve still got the funniest method to fall back on. Everybody shits right? Well save those toilet paper tubes for a rainy day, girl. You can take your tube collection and bust it up into little seed pods.
Go get a 2-4 flat from the liquor store (as if you don’t have a few kicking around already, right?). Stand your cardboard tubes on end in the flat and then cut them in half at the waist to double your capacity. Fill each tube with dirt, apply seeds, water and wait. Just be sure they’re not too deep in the tubes so they can get light.
Voila- the toilet paper seed tray.
Warning: you’ll need to be careful not to jostle the tubes around and spill the contents, so if you want to get fancy, you can create little bottoms for each tube. To keep it eco, chop up your unbleached coffee filter collection instead. Flat bottom filters work best.
Stand each tube up in the filter, pull up the sides, wrap a band around the tube to secure it and add dirt. This is a great option if you have a wad of free coffee filters at your disposal from your crappy minimum wage job.
Either way, these suckers can go directly into the ground once the seedlings start. And won’t it be great to know that your garden is just chock-full of toilet paper tubes?
Saddest Method: We’ve all be down and out before. Hit rock bottom. Life’s in the gutter. That’s where this method finds its inspiration. The gutter seed tray.
If you’re feeling pent-up and destructive, go tear a downspout or gutter off your house. If it’s a downspout, cut it in half on the long side. Cap the ends off with whatever works- a piece of cardboard, a stone, piece of wood, plastic cap. Fill it with dirt and plant your seedlings in a nice little row, then place a long piece of saran wrap over the top to keep it warm and moist while it sprouts.
This is the best method if you’re planting something in rows because once it’s ready to go in the ground. Here’s the cool part: just dig your little trench, lay the gutter inside, take off an end cap and gently- I said GENTLY- slide the tube out from under the dirt so everything lands as it is in a neat little row, ready to go. So slick.
Got a better method? Leave a comment.
When to plant…
I tend to over do it every year and plant at least 20 things all at once. Then I forget when to plant my summer crops, and things are late and nothing goes right.
One of the handiest tools I’ve ever come across to help keep the garden on track is the West Coast Seed catalogue. Their yearly seed catalogue is free at any store that sells their seeds, or you can go onto their website and order one for free. It has all of the tips you will ever need to grow your own food organically, and their yearly planting calendar is a life saver. It clearly shows what needs to be planted and when, all at a glance.
I’ve taken the liberty of scanning a copy here, but be sure to grab a copy of their catalogue or view the online version. This is all timed for our funny west coast weather.
A word about that. We are experiencing some very cold weather for this time of year in Vancouver- in fact, it snowed a bit today (no April fools joke, my friends). I would say we are about two weeks behind where we normally are and my spring bulbs are just barely starting to peek open right now. So if you’re a bit late according to this schedule, don’t sweat it. I just started my broccoli, cauliflower and leeks… oops.
Saving tomato seeds
It’s ripe, it’s perfect and it holds the key to an even better crop next year.
Saving your own tomato seeds each year can save you loads of money and also ensure better growing success year after year.
You can begin to control your tomato crops by selecting seeds from the very best tomatoes on the best performing plants you have. Given that our seasons tend to be a bit short in Vancouver, I like to select my seeds from one of the earliest tomatoes on my best performing plant. Theoretically, this helps ensure your tomato plants set their fruit nice and early the next year.
You can also select for size, colour, fragrance or plant qualities, whatever you like, bearing in mind that you won’t be inventing a new breed of tomatoes any time soon of course.
Here’s what to do:
After you’re done chopping that beaut for your boccocini salad, scoop the seeds that remain on the cutting board into a jar and fill with a bit of water so the seeds are floating. Cover the jar with a coffee filter so some air can get in there. Leave the jar in a warm, out of the way place for 2-3 days. This puppy’s about to get stinky.
Cracked Pot Pix
