Planting Spring Seeds
Posted By Jacque on April 6, 2009
We are planting seeds – a little late, as usual, but we are determined to still get it done!
I have found that early is not always best anyway… The year we had all the seeds planted in January and February, the seed boxes were out on the porch to acclimate them to the weather, and the wind blew them all over and we lost so many… *sobbing*. My favourite oldest daughters, Amanda and Jocelyn, salvaged all they could, but we weren’t even sure what we had. I think we ended up with a bunch of peppers and maybe two tomato plants. We ended up buying a few and a friend gave me some that year.
This year, Rachel has been my right arm and done about all of the planning and has also researched some different things for our garden. She has been a busy bee preparing ideas and articles and interesting info for us to discuss. It was a job I assigned her, knowing her love of plants and flowers, to do as a part of researching, science, writing and learning for her school this year.
She has worked a lot of things out, and our last frost date is not until the 2nd or 3rd week in May, so we have a little time to get the seedlings going still as well as other last-minute details worked out.
We used the boxes we get at the grocery store to box our groceries. We lined them with a plastic trash bag to make them water-proof, and I made dividers of the cardboard we had left.
Simple box and dividers, which are just cardboard strips, cut at even intervals and interlocked to make divided compartments
Hannah adding dirt to the seed trays.
Some of the box trays we used toilet paper rolls cut in half. This was something Rachel had discovered and thought we could use.
A couple of years ago, I folded small cups just about the same size as these rolls from an origami paper-folding book made out of newspaper, and that worked well too.
Hannah and Isaac adding a dirt and peat moss mixture to the boxes
The organic heirloom Brandywine tomatoes we planted as seeds have already come up, so that was exciting. We seeded more than 50 tomato plants, and I am sure we will have volunteers, which always do well here.
Last year, we ate all summer and into the Fall from a cherry tomato volunteer that was right off of the steps on our front porch. The bad thing was that the chickens liked them too!
My dad told me that I can plant spinach and some lettuce, along with peas now, so we are going to get those directly in too this week. I can’t wait to eat out of a fresh garden!
blessings~
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5 Responses to “Planting Spring Seeds”
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That looks fun!! I know virtually nothing about gardening. I’ve never been able to keep a plant alive. My thumb is black, not green :/ It’s a fun thing to do with your kids though!!
Charlenes last blog post..Get a Free Issue of Home School Digest!
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April 7th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
My children love it Charlene! They get to play in the dirt and watch things grow, water them, play in the mud! I can even talk the Littles into thinking it’s fun to pull weeds!
I should have put on there that I love the Square Foot Gardening book. It has been a great help!
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We are just getting a garden going too. I plan to make newspaper cups for seeds but I love the toilet paper roll idea!
Aren’t volunteer veggies the greatest! We have a bunch of tomato plants that just came up from our composted earth and they are doing great!
I am excited to have the kids help me with the garden now that we have space for one.
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April 7th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I loved the newspaper cups. I thought I would let Rachel give these a try though. Isaac, the 5yo, loved cleaning off the paper from the rolls before we used them, and I let him cut them in half – he is REALLY into cutting paper right now!
We have OODLES of tomato plants in our compost pile. It is on the other sie of the garden, and when I went out there last year, I was shocked! Gotta LOVE them though, yes!
Isn’t it great to get out there with your children? I sure do love it. My time in the garden, alone or with any of them is a time of solitude and drawing closer to the LORD. It is really awesome.
Bless you!
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Good idea, I just plant mine in higgledy piggledy! I am not that organised. I am trying peppers this year, as they are easy to grow in tubs. I am keeping all my tomatoes inside, they got washed away the other year, by a flood we had and it is upsetting when you have nurtured them for months!
jennys last blog post..Why we should be homeschooling.
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