By planting your own garden starts you can save a lot of money! I started doing this myself last year and it is much easier than you would think. Last year I saved around $50 by doing my own starts instead of buying the plants at the nursery.
I save all the containers that I previously have bought with flowers, veggies, etc. and I use those for my seeds. I first plant them in the smallest containers (like you buy flowers in packs of 4 or 6) and then when they get to be 4-5 inches tall I transfer them to larger containers so they can grow to their maximum potential. Just look how my starts this year are doing so far:
This year I planted 4 tomato plants ( 2 roma, cherry, beefsteak) marigolds, watermelon, tomatillo, 2 green peppers, 2 kinds of jalapenos, basil, rosemary, and nasturtium. Everything else I plant I will do from seed. I may still purchase a few plants but with what I have done on my own here it will save me quite a bundle!Remember my post awhile ago about gardening? The method I use is called Square Foot Gardening. It is perfect for small areas. In that post look at my garden from last year. I grew almost ALL of that myself...either from seed or doing my own starts!
It might be a little late to do your own starts this year, but think about it for next year. It is worth it.
2 comments:
Marne, all of my tomato starts are only about 1/2 inch tall...they stopped growing. I don't know what to do- they are still green- and so I am hoping they start up again...do you know what happened? My broccoli seems to be somewhat ok- it has been in the garden for almost a month and they haven't changed much either- I swear nothing goes right- I don't know why I try sometimes- but I just wait and hope that they will actually grow...
If it makes you feel better April I killed my broccoli start somehow. Oh well. As for your tomatoes did you transplant them to larger containers? I have one tomato plant I left in the small container I started it with, the others I put into larger containers when they got to be 4-5 inches tall. You can see how those took off! But my other tomato plant is still only 4 inches tall, a teeny little thing. If you didn't put them in larger containers that is my guess why.
It's all a learning process...
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