Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Starting spring seedlings

Dear friends,

Although it's way past time for us central Texans to plant our spring gardens, my friends in other areas are just now starting their spring seedlings. My friend Susan Tweit, in Salida, CO, just blogged about how she starts her spring seeds in self-watering pots and organic seed-starting mix.


Photo by Susan J. Tweit

I love this system, and will have to look into getting one for myself. I usually use some old peat pots (given to me years ago by a friend), re-purposed yogurt containers or other found containers, but that makes things a bit fiddly because they're never the right size, and the peat pots have a tendency to grow mildew if not watched carefully, or if over-watered.

IMHO, it's worth spending a little money for a practical, organized system such as this.

Susan also uses seeds from two of my favorite companies...Botanical Interests and Renee's Garden Seeds. I've recently found both of these locally, and was pleased as punch. They both carry a good selection of old-fashioned and heirloom seeds for flowers, herbs and vegetables.

Take a look at Susan's blog, Walking Nature Home. And while you're there, check out her other writing. It's always a treat!

Happy trails,

bobbi c.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Bobbi! The self-watering system I use has done the trick for me for five years, so I figure if I average the cost over its current lifetime, it cost me about five bucks a year (and it's still going strong, so that cost will go down with each year of use). I get close to 100 percent germination rates too, and my transplant survival rates are equally high. It's lovely to have something that just works reliably to start finicky sorts of seeds!

Bobbi A. Chukran, Author said...

You're welcome, S/T! I need to get one of those, pronto. The higher germination rates would be so worth it! bobbi c.

Anonymous said...

I've learned so much from both of you, Susan and Bobbi, about most every aspect of gardening. From a NYC 'kid' I may become a gardener yet!

Bobbi A. Chukran, Author said...

Hey, I'd love to see that happen! :-)

bc