How to Start Seeds Indoors

Starting seeds indoors can be gratifying for some and frustrating for others.  Until recently, my experience starting seeds indoors was in the frustrating category. My experience went something like this: buy seeds and the seed starting kit, plant the seeds, watch the seeds sprout, begin watering, watch plants grow tall and leggy and look nothing like the plants in stores, begin to harden the seedlings outside, check the seedlings a few hours later and realize they are not going to stand on their own, ditch the dead seedlings and buy plants from a store.

Frustrated, I began researching other methods to grow seeds indoors.  I had to read so many articles on this because there was not one central article that answered all of my questions, so I hope you find this “how to” thorough and helpful.  I first realized my problems stemmed from poor quality seeds and low lighting. Chances are these might be problems for you, too.

After years of starting seeds indoors, I have come to the realization that you must first begin with quality seeds.  Quality seeds, for me, do not come from big department stores, but rather companies dedicated to raising flowers and vegetables.  I have had great experiences with seeds bought from High Mowing Company and Natural Gardening.  (I am not getting paid to say that. It is simply true. They deliver quality seeds you can count on to grow!)

Then, you must have the proper set up.  You need fluorescent lights and heating pads.  Seed starting information on the back of seed packets say to place your planted seeds by a window with sunlight.  I don’t believe how much sunlight your window receives is enough.  The reason plants get tall and leggy and don’t hold their own weight directly relates to not enough light.  And when I say light, I mean the seeds need this fluorescent light about two inches above them.

In addition to florescent lights, a heat pad under the seeds will spark activity within the seed to begin to grow.  If you are starting upwards of 30 seeds, you will probably want a shelf to hang your lights and place your seedlings.

1. Gather Materials

After you have your seeds, fluorescent lights, and heating pads, you will need the following materials:

• Seed Starting Soil
• Plastic Wrap
• Spray Bottle filled with water
• Tray
• Planting cups

Make sure your planting cups are clean.  Since I reuse these year after year, I place them in a sink with bleach water to make sure to kill any bacteria in the cups.

2. Moisten Seed Starting Soil

I put the soil in a five gallon bucket and pour a few cups of warm water on the soil.  Use your hands to mix the water and soil.  You just want the soil a little moist–certainly not soaking.  I use warm water to help raise the soil temperature.  Seeds start with heat, water, and light.  (Some seeds require darkness to sprout; check your seed packet on this.  If it doesn’t say anything, assume the seed needs light.)

3.  Put the soil into the planting cups

Lightly pack the soil into the cups.  Seeds need to be able to move and push their roots downward, so don’t over pack the soil.

4. Place Seeds in Soil

These are lettuce seeds and are small.  The back of the seed packet will tell how deep to plant the seeds.  As a general guide, go off of the size of the seed and plant it as deep as the size of the seed.  I like to plant 2 or 3 seeds per cup.  Many times all the seeds will come up, and you can replant the seedlings into another cup of soil or cut off all but one seedling.  (I’ll have a future post dedicated to replanting a seed sprout.)

5. Lightly Mist Soil

After the seeds are planted, I get a spray bottle and fill with warm water.  Make sure the water bottle doesn’t shoot out a hard stream of water; you want a mist.  Mist the soil.  You do not want puddles of water.  You are aiming for a nice even misting of the soil.

6.  Cover the planted seeds with plastic wrap.

Cover the planted seeds with plastic wrap to keep the moisture with the seeds.  As you plant, you will want to label the cups in some way.  I use craft sticks and label the rows. I don’t place the craft stick under the plastic wrap. I just tuck the craft stick in between the cup and tray.

7. Place the tray under light and on heating pad.

Make sure the light is about two to three inches above the planted seeds.  I have the fluorescent lights on chains with S-hooks so I can raise the lights up as the seedlings grow.  I place heating pads under my trays because my seeds are grown in a utility room that is not heated.  If you are placing the seeds in your heated house, you may not need a heating pad.

8.  Wait

For the next 5-7 days, your job is easy.  Turn off the lights at night.  You want to mimic daylight hours.  The seeds need rest just like we do.  Don’t open the plastic wrap until most of your seeds have sprouted.  If you begin to see condensation on the plastic wrap, that is a good sign!  It means the soil is moist and you have optimal growing conditions.

Once the seeds sprout, I continue watering with the spray bottle until the first set of leaves appear.  Your seeds don’t need fertilizer to help them grow.  That little seed is packed with enough energy on its own to get the seed off to a good start.

Using this method, starting seeds indoors is now gratifying.  The initial set up involves cost, but if used year after year, the cost of your garden will decrease because you won’t have to buy plants from stores.  In addition, starting your own seeds allows you to chose the varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables you wish to grow!

Check back for updates.  I’ll be sharing with you the progress of these seedlings. You can subscribe here and get the most recent post sent to  your inbox.

Enjoy planting!

-Jill

Printable Hand-Lettered March Calendar

March is quickly approaching, so I have a printable, hand-lettered calendar for you.  Enjoy filling it with all of your fun March activities.  Don’t forget to set a date for making Blarney Stones, celebrating the first day of spring, planting potatoes, and sending a few cards in the mail.  (If you’re looking for a way to send more letters, read this post from last month on setting up a Letter Writing Kit).

Click on the following link for the calendar. Printable March Calendar

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Enjoy!

-Jill

 

Garden Planning 2017

I love gardening. I love the feel of dirt in my hands. I love the taste of fresh, homegrown vegetables.  I love that my kids love the garden vegetables.  I love that it is a hobby I can share with my husband.  I also love the continuing learning through trial and error the garden brings.

My first “garden” was a 2 foot by 3 foot container garden that sat on my porch.  I had read Mel Barthomew’s Square Foot Garden and quickly caught the gardening buzz; however, I had a five month old baby and did not know if I had the time to devote to a garden.  Hence my option for a small garden.  I grew tomatoes, carrots, and herbs in that small container porch garden.  It was my first experience growing tomatoes vertically, and for three tomato plants, it was a bumper crop.  I was so excited about gardening that my husband built me two raised beds for the following year’s garden.

In 2016, I had two raised beds and expanded my garden with vegetables I had never grown.  I grew eggplant, green beans, okra, potatoes, broccoli, peas, and peppers in addition to tomatoes, carrots, and herbs. 2016 proved to be another successful garden venture.  With the expanded space of my garden, I was able to learn and experiment with pest control, pruning, harvesting methods, and vegetable storage.  I have taken the knowledge gained and implemented that into my garden plans for 2017.

My husband built me one more raised bed for the garden, so I now have three raised beds that total 138 square feet of garden space.  I use Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Garden methods “almost” perfectly.  I feel a large portion of my gardening success comes from Mel’s unique soil mixture.  While it is an expense to make your own soil using his methods, I believe it is so vital to your garden if you are using the square foot method.

Here are my garden plans for 2017. I created the plan using Tombow Dual Brush Pens. If you want to try these pens, you can purchase them here.

Tomatoes

I grow most of my tomatoes vertically along a trellis. Growing tomatoes vertically greatly reduces the space needed for tomatoes. Indeterminate tomato varieties grow best vertically. I do grow tomatoes using the traditional method with a tomato cage. Tomatoes take up four squares when you opt to grow them in the traditional sense with a tomato cage. The tomato cage works really great for determinate tomatoes, and since the Celebrity tomato is my all time favorite variety–and it happens to be a determinate–I grow four Celebrity tomatoes using a tomato cage.

Green Beans

You can also tell that green beans are a big favorite around our house. We grow so many green beans! And, when the peas, lettuce, and spinach are done growing around the middle of June, all of those squares will be replanted with- you guessed it- green beans.

I plant bush type green beans. The packages say they only put on one set of green beans and then stop producing, but that is not what I have experienced. I planted bush varieties of green beans last year and had green beans until I finally got tired of them around the first of November. (We had a really late first frost date in 2016.)

Last year I had problems with insects in the green beans.  I’ve researched that petunias help with bug problems around the green beans, so I’ll be interspersing petunias throughout the green beans.  This is where I don’t follow Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Garden perfectly.  Mel recommends planting four petunias in a square foot of space.  I don’t dedicate an entire square foot for plants that I’m using for pest control, such as marigolds and now petunias.  I plant the marigolds and petunias in the same square with the vegetable plants. (I use marigolds for pest control around my tomatoes.)

Squash, Zucchini, Watermelon, and Cantaloupe

For new vegetables in the garden, I am going to plant yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, watermelon, and cantaloupe.  I’m going to grow these vertically to save space. (If grown vertically, each plant requires two square feet of space.  If grown traditionally, each plant requires nine squares of space.)

I’ve always heard about these vegetables/fruits crossing with one another and producing an inedible gourd, but I’ve been doing research and from what I can tell, if they cross with each other that would only affect the seeds. Hence, it would be problematic if I saved seeds to plant the following year. Since I don’t plan on doing that, I think I am safe with planting them next to each other. This will be one of my experiments for the garden this year, because as always, part of the gardening fun is learning by trial and error.

Now, while we wait for spring, let’s enjoy some garden pictures from last year!

Follow along this year as I share my garden with you!  Make sure to not miss an update and get the latest posts sent to your inbox.  Sign up here!

-Jill

DIY Valentine’s Day Envelope Art

Last week I gave you two Valentine’s Day cards to download.  Now, I’m giving you a DIY tutorial on how to decorate the envelopes.  My day brightens when a personalized piece of snail mail arrives in the mailbox, but my day is even brighter when that piece of snail mail has more details than just a hand-written name and address.  The four tutorials that follow require very little materials, time, and artistic talent, but these envelopes are sure to create a bright spot in a special person’s day.

1. Circle Wreath  

   To create the circle wreath envelope, begin to draw a circle and banner in the fashion of the picture below.  Now, fill in the name inside the banner and outline the banner. Write the address inside the lower part of the circle.  Next, add hearts and flowers around the border. Fill in the border with green leaves.  Finish the circle wreath with some small dot bursts and any additional flourishes you wish.  Then, erase any pencil lines.  Add the return address to the back of the envelope and add a stamp.  Materials used: Tombow Dual Brush Pens, Tombow Monotwin, and a pencil.  Click on the links to purchase any materials.    

2. Watercolor Wash

   For the watercolor wash envelope, you will need a water-based marker in your choice of color.  Before you begin to mark on the envelope, make sure you have a cup of water and paintbrush ready to use. When you have your water, paintbrush, and marker all ready to use, darken a strip across the envelope with the marker. Then, immediately run your paintbrush with water over the envelope, vertically.  The ink will not have dried yet and you can create an ombre look using vertical strokes as you run the paintbrush from the top of the marker strip to the bottom of the envelope.  Working quickly so you get to the entire length of the envelope, continue dipping your paintbrush in water and then making vertical strokes from the marker strip to the bottom of the envelope.  Wait for the envelope to dry completely and then add the address.  I added some leaf detail to the envelope, too.  Materials used: Tombow Dual Brush Pen, Tombow Fudenosuke Pen.  Click the link to purchase materials.

3. Watercolor Swash

   The watercolor swash envelope requires the same technique as the previous envelope, except instead of painting the entire envelope, you only add color to a small area.  Like the example above, you will need a cup of water, paint brush, and water based marker ready to begin this envelope.  Add the marker color to a small strip on the envelope. Now, before the ink has dried, get your paintbrush in water and make vertical strokes from the top of the marker strip downward.  You are only going a few inches down for the Watercolor Swash envelope.  Once the water has dried, use a white gel ink pen to address the envelope.  Place the return address on the back of the envelope, add a stamp, and send your lovely piece of mail.  Materials used: Tombow Dual Brush Pen and white gel ink pen.

1. Washi Tape

   Washi tape is fun and comes in so very many designs.  You are sure to find many Valentine’s Day themed washi tapes in your local stores.  To create the washi tape envelope, stick the washi tape onto your envelope.  Then, write the address.  Place your return address on the back, add a stamp, and send your lovely piece of mail. Materials used:  Tombow Fudenosuke Pen and washi tape. 

These tutorials can be adjusted for any time of the year, not just Valentine’s Day.  Simply use different colors with the same techniques for different looks.  Give these tutorials a shot.  I think you’ll be pleased with the results!

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-Jill

Valentine’s Day Items & Freebie

 

Valentine’s Day is almost here!  Make sure you have cards and gifts for the Valentines in your life.  Shop our booth inside 57 & Company, 911 Main Street, Woodward, OK.  Or shop online with the following link. The Letter Box Online Store

 

To show my love and appreciation to YOU-my awesome readers- I have a free download of two Valentine’s Day cards.  I suggest you print the PDF of the cards on cardstock.  Then, simply cut the piece of paper in half and fold the cards.  After those easy steps, you will have two Valentine’s Day cards to give.  Click the link that follows to access the Valentine’s Day Cards.

Stay tuned for more ideas on how to address the envelopes with Valentine’s Day art.  As always, if you have questions, let me know!

-Jill