It's seed-starting time :)

Hi, my name is Susan Moore, and I am clueless when it comes to starting seeds.

OK, not totally clueless. I know you start them inside then transplant them outside later. I understand the theory - I've just never been able to pull it off.

Last year I used small peat pots...but then I kinda forgot about them. So, I figured the seeds were not going to work and I would just reuse the pots for planting seeds directly into our straw bales. Well, it worked...in fact it worked so well that all of the seeds - including the ones I figured I'd offed in my pathetic attempt to start seeds inside.

But, this is a new year and I am ready to try again...so I did :)

 
This is my tray of seed starters :)
The ones at the top of the picture are disks of soil that you soak in warm water. They soak up the water and then you plant in them. The others are in toilet paper rolls. Since we started composing, I stopped throwing away my empty toilet paper rolls, because they go great in the compost bin. But then I saw this idea - either on Facebook or Pinterest, can't remember which.
 Start by cutting slits from one side to make a series of flaps. After playing around a bit I found I liked cutting 7-8 slits long enough so when folded down they would pretty much touch the other side of the roll.
 Fold them in...

 
 Then fill them up!
 
 But I got ahead of myself! To start with I dumped several handfuls of potting soil into a pan then added water to hydrate it. I found it soaked up much more water than I thought it would. I also used my fingers to break up the small clumps which otherwise would have taken longer to absorb the water.
 Toilet paper planters are filled and ready for seeds!
 But it can be thirsty work (wind gusts today are about 35 MPH), so have a beverage of choice available.
 Ready to plant!
 Tomatoes, chiles (lots of chiles), beans, and some squash are started. Next I covered them with soil.

 Remember my comment about the wind? Well, I think every elm seed for blocks around decided to visit our yard today. This little guy snuck in...but I have dispatched him. We have absolutely no need for elms!

Did you notice that rim of blue around the inside of my pan? Well, that is painter's tape. I set up a grid and kept notes of which seeds were planted where.
Here you can kinda-sorta see how I did the grid. It should work fine...as long as I don't lose my notes ;)

I still have lots of seeds to go, but I am running out of toilet paper rolls. So, perhaps I need to go buy some more peat pots...or something. And if all else fails I will be able to use last-year's technique of starting seeds in soil-filled peat pots dropped into the bales...but this time I will make sure not to double-plant them :)


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