I am so ready to get my garden in the ground.
There is something about spring that brings the drive to plant things and watch them grow. Even people who profess to have a black thumb will often pick up a few impatiens and shove them in a pot by the front door.
Being quarantined at my family’s farm has afforded me the opportunity to actually garden for the first time in years. Not the way I would choose to be in this position, but here I am. So I am planning to make the best of it.
You’ll notice that most of the planters I am using don’t look like planters. There is a reason for that.
I didn’t have any planters.
I had one clay pot that is waiting for one of these plants to get big and a few cardboard-like small pots (center-back in the photo). That’s it. So I had to get creative.
Egg cartons
I wanted a seedling tray where I could plant lots of seeds at once. Because clearly what someone with limited space needs is lots of plants to manage.
This 30-egg carton was something we had laying around, so I decided to give it a try. I poked four holes in the bottom of each slot to ensure drainage. The clear plastic creates a greenhouse effect, while the sides are open for some air movement since I don’t close the carton all the way.
So far it has been working pretty well. I’ve got some seedlings coming up already, and I’ll be able to evaluate how well they do. There isn’t a lot of soil in each slot, which is partly my fault for not filling the tray more and partly just the nature of an egg carton.
Cardboard tubes
I had read online about making seedling pots out of cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels. Since I was trying to save money and be creative rather than go to the store, it seemed worth a shot.
So far so good. Easy to make and plentiful. And less trash to take to the transfer station since recycling where I am is a bit dodgy.
Can’t wait to get outside to garden, but until the last frost date here (still a month away) this will have to do.
