Free is Good

This has been a mad productive week first with the wonderful gift of seed from a very thoughtful friend and culminating in seed start prep this rainy Sunday afternoon. My dear husband and my children and their good friend Quinn helped me out. I made 132 containers to start seed in and used 1 Sunday Newspaper, about 7 paper towel roll tubes, 2 egg cartons and a McDonald's drink carrier. (see picture below) The entire project took about 2 hours and the kids were able to actually be useful and help (the four year olds that is). They helped me tape all the bottoms and we had quite an assembly line going:) Final count 132 chances to start a seed that will feed our family...for the cost of nothing. As I walk through the Home Deport for the fifty-sixth time this month I will chuckle as I pass all the peat pots and various other gadgets and contraptions that cost a fortune and know we did it very easily with re purposed household items and that will taste a bit sweeter in the end. Lesson learned is gardening does not have to be EXPENSIVE! Planning and ingenuity are free! (below are most of them, never mind the cat...LOL)

Also thought I should add that today i set up a seed test for the seed I collected from last years garden adventure. I placed the seed in sets of ten with the exception of the peas and the apple seed because i simply did not have enough..so the smaller number wills suffice and somehow I will figure out the mathematical nonsense that will define the ratio of seed I will need to plant if in fact any of them germinate during the test..Whew.

So in simple less manic terms, the seed are on a damp paper towel and wrapped in plastic ala third grade science bean plant style. Somewhere near by I have a "map" to remind me what each seed is since I have already confused the onion from the lettuce:) top row is from r - l spinach, apple, onion. Middle is pea and dill, bottom row is cilantro and lettuce. If they germinate I take the number that germinated and the number that did not and have the means to determine a ratio of how many seeds I should plant to have a chance at growing something (this is where I need to find a math geek because this I can not do.... I do have a weakness...ok I have MANY of them.....LOL) the test should take about a week or two and if nothing happens then the seed is bad. This is good for that old pack of seeds you had sitting in your junk drawer for 6 years because of the garden you were planning....uhuh...guilty as charged....;)

Happy growing!