Start prepping for spring!

Start saving your: 

• Egg Cartons
• Toilet Rolls
• Paper Towel Rolls
• Paper Coffee Cups

My sister and I decided to start both of our gardens this year from seeds. It's cheaper than buying plants and will be fun to watch.

Many people start their seedlings with starter kits. These kits are plastic bins that create a small green house. They include little peat pots that you initially plant your seeds in before transferring them to your garden. After reading many reviews on these peat pots I have come to the conclusion that they may not be all they are cracked up to be. I have decided to go with a more non traditional route with recycled containers. I will be using egg cartons, toilet and paper towel rolls, and old coffee cups to start my plants. I got the idea for this method from several gardening books and websites I have been reading.

Egg Cartons: 
The spaces intended for eggs in egg cartons are the perfect size for sprouting your seeds. They are about the same size as peat pots and are free.


Toilet Rolls: This is another great space to start your plants. According to Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail,  toilet rolls "... are especially great for starting beans and sunflower seeds which dislike having their roots disturbed during transplanting."

Coffee Cups:
My dad likes to start his cuttings off in the paper cups he saves from Starbucks. They are sturdy containers for your larger seedlings. I plan to use these for tomato, squash, and melons.

In February we will start our seedlings. So get collecting.

Starting a Winter Garden

 About two weeks ago I decided to start a winter garden.  I pulled out my failing tomato plant and planted some radishes. I used a pack I purchased for $1 at Home Depot.

The radishes came up the other day and a few days later I thinned the seeds. For those of you not familiar with thinning it means that you pull out every few sprouts in order for the sprouts to have enough room to grow to their full potential. I actually had enough sprouts to add them to my sandwich. It was quite tasty.  Radishes are a quick and easy vegetable to grow. They come up quickly and are fun to watch.

A few days after I planted the radishes I threw a few lettuce seeds in a few pots. They have yet to come up. Again I bought them for $1 at Home Depot.  The packet says that they are good for colder temperatures. I think they may just take longer to germinate.

Let's get started.

Last spring it occurred to me as I was planting tomatoes from seeds on my balcony that I am a gardener. I have considered myself many things so far in life, but a gardener was not one of them. As a child I loved to garden, I couldn't wait to go outside, feel the earth in my hands and grow something. I always considered that in order to really garden you needed a plot of land, or a large raised bed, or a field. You needed something of considerable substance and if you didn't; it simply didn't count. Turns out you can garden anywhere and one can be a true gardener with little space. I know this seems like one of those "duh" moments but it was quite a revelation considering it was staring me in the face all this time and I garden wherever I live.

I have lived in many places over that last ten years and I have made a garden in every place I have lived. It's something I don't do consciously. I just do it. Over the next few days I will go over these gardens so you know where I am now.

My husband and I recently moved from North Hollywood down to Long Beach. Our new porch is 5 by 16 feet. It's a nice space. The iron railing allows in allot more light than our last porch (which had more of a wall than a railing). We now face almost due west. This is great as we get all the afternoon sun before the sun sets over the pacific ocean. Here are some pictures of our porch.

I have a master plan for this new space and will sketch it out for you to see. Many urban gardeners use  allot of recycled and found containers for their gardens. I love this idea. It is not only good for the environment but easy on  the wallet. The only problem is they aren't necessarily pretty.  My goal is to build an urban garden that is not only practical and cheap, but aesthetically pleasing as well.
So here we go.