First Daffodil Blooms of 2012!

The first daffodil blooms of 2012 are now on display in my garden!  Every year I like to track the first daffodil of the season.  It amazing how much each year can differ.  The warmer the weather the earlier the flowers appear.  We're almost a month earlier than last year's daffodil blooms!

Here's a look back at the dates and posts for the daffodils of the past several years!

First Daffodils from 2009-2011 (Spring Hill, TN):
February 12, 2009 March 17, 2010 February 25, 2011

As you can see this is the earliest the daffodils have bloomed in my garden yet.  It's been an extremely warm winter so far which is obviously the reason for the early blooms!

Are there any daffodils blooming in your garden?

5 Ways to Help Wildlife In Your Garden Without the NWF

By now I'm sure you've heard all about the National Wildlife Federation and their new found friend Scott's.  There are quite a few people upset about this arrangement since many of Scott's products are made from ingredients none of us would rather see in the environment.  The NWF exists to promote and help wildlife but it's pretty hard to do that when an "ally" is undermining the process.  The issue is very hot where it concerns the Backyard habitat certification program that the NWF promotes.  Its intent is to encourage gardeners and land owners to enhance their properties in order to make them more suitable for wildlife.  It's a nice idea and you get a fancy little sign to put up but I don't think you need to have a national certification to provide a great habitat for wildlife!

For this week's Friday Fives post I thought I would share with you a few ideas that you can do in your garden to create a DIY Wildlife Habitat on your own!

1. 
   Wildlife has to eat something!  But we're not just talking bird feeders here.  To really provide for wildlife you have to give the animals and insects something to eat that is sustainable and natural.  Trees and shrubs that provide nuts and berries are a great example.  Grazing grasses for deer, seed heads of flowers for the birds, and flowers for nectar work great for hummingbirds, bees, and other pollinators.
2. Provide places for wildlife to grow.  Butterflies have certain plants that are host plants for their larvae.  These plants provide food and shelter from predators and create an environment for the larvae to grow.  Tall grasses provide great spots for young animals to hide while the parents bring back food. Give wildlife a place to hide from predators so that they can feel safe and secure.
3. Find a place where the animals can get water.  Ponds are awesome but a birdbath can do wonders. Birdbaths can range from a simple saucer laid on the ground to fancy and elaborate concrete fountains.  Keep it shallow so the birds can stand or place rocks in it that give them a place to perch.

4. 

   Bird House
   Made from a Fence Board

   Give wildlife a home by providing shelter.  While this is can be similar to finding a place for wildlife to grow this is more about finding a place for wildlife to bear their young.   Birdhouses are one easy way to provide shelter but brambles, thickets, shrubs and trees all provide good nesting locations. 
5. Avoid the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.  I can't emphasize this enough, so I'll say it again.  Avoid the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides! The chemicals in these synthetic concoctions can do a real number on wildlife. 
   • They can interrupt the growth cycles of fish and amphibians in our streams, 
   • kill off beneficial insects that aid our gardens, 
   • kill off insects that provide food sources for birds and other creatures, 
   • hurt natural microbes that do important work in our soil,
   • and create an environment that depends on chemicals for continued maintenance!
   Think about that last one for a second.  When you upset nature's balance by using chemicals you have to use more chemicals to maintain it.  When you spray to kill off an insect and you also kill off the predator insect how are you doing any good?  Also if you live near a lake, stream or other body of water you need to realize that everything you spray, spread, or use in your garden has the potential to end up in that body of water - then it can go anywhere. 

I'm sure the certification program offered by the NWF was a great way for the organization to spread their message - and raise funds too, but if you're frustrated by their recent actions take a page from my book and make a DIY Wildlife Habitat in your yard!  You don't need a big organization to honor your garden.  You don't need a fancy sign to help the birds - they can't ready anyway!  Spread the word of what you do to help wildlife through your friends, your garden clubs, your neighbors, your blog, your Facebook page or wherever you happen to be. Trust me, word of mouth means more than that little sign does - at least to me.

Previous Friday Fives
5 Plants No Garden Should Be Without 5 Vegetables That I Will Always Grow in My Garden   5 Favorite Trees That I Grow In My Garden

2012 Nashville Lawn and Garden Show

Ever been to the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show?
Here's the info for 2012:

Gardens Past, Present & Future Will Be Celebrated March 1-4

at the 2012 Nashville Lawn & Garden Show

Discussion of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello gardens among the many

free presentations at the show

Nashville, TN – The timeless appeal, importance and fun of gardening will be celebrated at the 23rd annual Nashville Lawn & Garden Show on Thursday, March 1, through Sunday, March 4, 2012, at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. Gardens Past, Present & Future is the theme for the 2012 presentation of Tennessee’s largest and most popular annual gardening event.

The show’s centerpiece will be an acre of live gardens featuring thousands of spring flowers and plants, waterfalls and fountains, trellises and gazebos, and outdoor living spaces. More than 250 exhibit booths will offer horticultural products and services, outdoor living décor, gardening equipment, plants, flowers and more. A floral design gallery will spotlight the creativity of more than 20 of Middle Tennessee’s award-winning floral designers.

The show also offers the opportunity to hear free presentations by horticultural, landscape design, and gardening experts. The speakers will include Peter J. Hatch, Director of Gardens and Grounds at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Hatch will speak on Friday, March 2, about Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden, which featured more than 330 varieties of vegetables and continues to provide gardeners with a model in vegetable cuisine, sustainable horticulture, and a passion for the earth – a perfect example of how gardens reflect the past, present and future. Then on Saturday, March 3, Hatch will discuss Thomas Jefferson, Gardener, an exploration of Jefferson’s use of native plants, the union of gardening and sociability, and his experimentation with useful plants as a means of social change.

Planting Seeds in My Raised Bed Circle

Last year I put together the circular raised bed in my vegetable garden.  It's in the center of the garden layout which is in the parterre style garden layout I planned last year.  Of course my plans are changing a little this year too.  It never fails, the only thing I don't change in my garden is the fact that I am changing my garden!  I'll show you that plan soon, possibly next week.  For today though I'll share with you the seeds I planted in the center circle raised bed.

My center circle is made from concrete retaining wall blocks.  Concrete can make some excellent raised beds since it doesn't rot and doesn't need much in the way of special assembly techniques if you keep the garden low.  Most of the concrete retaining wall blocks are recommended to go up to 2' high (or 4 levels) without needing mortar. I used this bed last year for greens and beans but added some amendments to nourish the soil more.  It was covered in weeds so I turned the soil under, broke up the larger clumps of soil and removed the major root systems of the remaining weeds.  I left some of the weeds to die off naturally and "return to the soil from whence they came!"  Then I made trenches a little over half an inch deep in the soil.   

The trenches were where I placed the sugar snap peas.  I put four in each spoke of the wheel for a total of 24 seeds planted.  Once the seeds were in place I covered the trenches with the excavated soil.  In a couple weeks I'll start another round in another bed.  On one side I sprinkled some spinach seeds, pressed them lightly into the soil, and covered the spinach seeds with a sprinkling of soil.  Essentially you could say I have a sugar snap pea pie with a side of spinach!

I really enjoyed the warm weather this week. Who wouldn't with 60 degree weather in January! How about you?

Growing The Home Garden Seed Sowing 101 Series
Selecting Seeds The Dirt on Seed Starting Soil Timing (Your Seeds) is Everything! Where to Plant Your Seeds?

2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

In case you are wondering about where exactly you are situated in the USDA plant hardiness zone maps here are a couple to look at. One is the national map and the other is the Tennessee State map.  The maps are useful when determining which plants to plant in your area.  The zone map shows you the lowest expected temperatures in an area. 

You have to take this with a grain of salt though.  If you live in a frost pocket or have various micro-climates in your garden the plants can perform differently.  Our house is situated in a frost pocket and despite the USDA zone map which shows us in a zone 7a location and has a 0°-5° Fahrenheit low. We typically end up with temperatures below 0°F once or twice a season.  

National USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

(Click on the Map to see a larger picture)

Tennessee USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

(Click on the map to see a larger picture)

It's interesting that there is so much similarity between the USDA zone map and the Arbor Day map from a few years ago! You can look at your state or area by visiting the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

Where to Plant Your Seedlings (Seed Sowing 101)

Once you have your seedlings growing strong and you've properly hardened them off (more on that next week) it is time to plant your seedlings in the garden.  But where should you plant them?  It may seem like a given that you'll just go out and stick them in a hole and watch them grow, but it's not always that simple.  What if your soil is rocky, clay soil that's water retentive?  (Then you just might live in Tennessee!) What if your soil is sandy and has trouble retaining water?  Not every gardener is gifted with the perfect soil but there are ways around it that will help your produce a great garden.

What's Your Soil Like?

First you should figure out what kind of soil you have before you plant your seedlings.  One of the best resources you have available to you is your local university agricultural extension service.  The Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service offers soil testing for a fairly low price and will even provide a custom evaluation of the soil for the crops you intend to grow.  For example if you want to start a blueberry farm and your soil doesn't have the ideal pH for blueberries the soil test results will come back to you with soil amendment recommendations tailored for your garden's blueberries.  I've never actually gotten a soil test since most of my vegetable gardening is done in raised beds and I've been able to control the soil that goes into them.

Also I should mention that one of the services agricultural extension services offer is that of identifying plant diseases - this can be an extremely valuable tool in your gardening arsenal!  Remember knowledge is power, right?

The easiest way to improve your soil is to add compost.  So if you aren't composting kitchen scraps, yard waste, and leaves - START COMPOSTING!

Raised Beds

I love gardening in raised beds!  There are numerous advantages to gardening in raised beds including control of the soil like I previously mentioned.  Raised beds can come in different styles as unique as the gardener.  The standard wooden rectangular bed is an old favorite but you don't have to purchase anything to build a raised bed - just mound up!  Take soil from the edges or walkways and pile it up into a row shape with the sides sloped downward. Keep the soil raised in the middle and you gain the drainage benefits of a raised bed without having to buy any materials.  You could use recycled materials to put together raised bed just make sure they are non-toxic.

Before you build your raised beds and put them in place consider your raised bed garden layout.  Once you've put your raised beds down you don't want to move them every year.  Trust me, I've done that!

Our apartment deck vegetable garden
- circa 2006 A.D.

Pots and Planters

Many vegetables will grow very well in pots or planters.  My first few gardens were on the back deck of our apartment.  I grew cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, and other vegetables on the back deck.  In fact it's very similar to growing in a raised bed except easier to move around!  There are even custom kits you can get that make watering the plants easier. The EarthBox Garden Kit (Amazon Link) is one kind of grow box that allows you to water directly to the roots system and has a reservoir to hold water that will wick up into the soil.

DIY Grow Box Style Planters
Mr. Brownthumb's Grow Box   Another DIY Grow Box

You could purchase this kind of planter but you can also make one yourself.  Just take a look at the resources in the box to the right.

But you know, a deep pot will work just fine!

The Traditional Garden

There's always of course the traditional garden.  This type of garden is typically grown in rows of crops directly in the soil.  It's a tried and try way to garden and works very well if your soil is workable.  Often rows are set up and tilled then some sort of straw mulch is placed in between the rows to keep weeds down.  You could also periodically till the rows to keep weeds down.

The Layered Garden

Layering organic materials to create a garden is another method that works great.  It doesn't break the soil up which could potentially harm beneficial organisms in the soil and relies on the organic mater trickling down into the soil.  Today this method is known as Lasagna Gardening (a book by Patricia Lanza at Amazon) but also as sheet composting. It's simple and easy.  Using layers of various organic materials including leaves, grass clippings, newspapers, cardboard, kitchen scraps and others you can create a healthy, organic soil system for your seedlings. 

Growing The Home Garden Seed Sowing 101 Series
Selecting Seeds The Dirt on Seed Starting Soil Timing (Your Seeds) is Everything!

Timing (Your Seeds) is Everything! (Seed Sowing 101)

We've talked about how to pick your seeds and we've talked a little about the soil to use, but when should you start your seeds?  This is when good planning comes into play.  You want your seeds ready to go when it's safe to plant but you don't want to start them too early, so how do you figure that?  It's actually pretty easy.

The easiest thing I can tell you is to look at the back of the seed starting package and see what it says!  Post done right?  Nope, I need to do better than that!


Should I Start My Seeds Indoors or In-ground?

There are two ways to start seeds: ahead of time in a pot or directly in the ground.  Plants that like an early start are plants like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.  Early starting plants are generally summer plants that need to start out of the cold but need a long growing season.  There are some summer plants you can get an early start on but don't like root disturbance.  Cucumbers, melons, squash, and other cucurbits fit this description but are often best sowed directly in the soil.  For these plants use biodegradable pots to avoid disturbing the roots when you plant them in the ground.

Sugar Snap Pea

Spring greens can go either way in many cases but because of their frost resistance are usually best direct sowed outdoors. Lettuce can be direct sowed outdoors about 2 weeks before the last frost date, spinach about 6 to 8 weeks and many other greens can be sowed somewhere in between.  The exact planting date varies based on where you live.  For example I planted a variety of lettuce in the fall called 'Tom Thumb'.  I was hoping to get a cold frame up around them so I could continue to harvest the lettuce throughout the winter but never quite got around to it.  Fortunately the little lettuce seedlings are doing fine, dormant at the moment but still alive and well and will resume growing when the weather becomes favorable.  They can tolerate a bit of cold weather here but really don't grow.  In a colder climate the lettuce might not do as well. Spinach is very frost tolerant and as soon as I am able I'll be clearing a spot in the garden and sowing my spinach and the sugar snap peas.  Our weather has been extremely warm and the peas can tolerant frosts when they do come. Cool season vegetables can also be started indoors in biodegradable pots and easily transplanted outdoors when ready.

A Few Plants that Tolerate Frost
Radish, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, chard, cauliflower, carrot, onion, peas parsley

The Frost Date

When you start your seeds indoors take into account the last frost date for your area and when you actually want the plants in the ground.  Last year I was early with planting my tomatoes. They were ready to go in right after the frost date had passed.  They only problem was that we had cold weather after the frost date.  I protected by plants and none were lost but it brings up another issue: soil warmth.  Warm season plants like their feet to be warm too.  If the soil temperature is too cool the roots won't grow.  In this case getting an early start didn't mean they produced any earlier.  In fact these plants actually were slightly stunted compared to the next batch of tomatoes I planted a week or two later. My advice would be to plan to plant warm season vegetables outdoors a couple extra weeks after the frost date to get the soil warm, but there are ways to cheat the system...

Plastic Jug Cloche

If you want to cheat the weather you'll have to find some way to heat the soil. Soil cables will do the trick but require setting up and electricity.  Dark plastic sheeting is an easy way to warm your soil.  Just cover the area with the plastic, pin it down and it will attract solar energy from the sun to warm the soil.  There are even plastic mulches that are specially made for this purpose.  One other warming method is to place milk jugs filled with water next to the plants in a circle.  The water acts as a heat sink and will release heat over the cooler times for the plant to use.  Of course you could turn your milk jug into a cloche by cutting out the bottom of the milk jug and removing the cap. 

Take your time from the last frost date and add to it any extra time you might want.  Like I mentioned earlier, a week or two after the frost date isn't going to make a big difference in the long run of the plant's growth cycle.  Then figure the amount of time it takes to grow the seeds you want and count back to figure out when to start your seeds.  It's a fairly simple calculation that will make your timing just right!

More From Seed Sowing 101!
Selecting Seeds The Dirt on Seed Starting Soil

5 Favorite Trees That I Grow In My Garden (The Friday Fives)

What is a garden without the trees?  Bare and boring!  Without a good tree you lose the shade they provide, the elegant grace that trees offer as a focal point, the fruit the tree may bear, the benefit to the wildlife around us - I think you agree, you just have to have a tree!  But what trees would you pick?  And which one's would I always want planted in yard?

Here are my picks for this week's Friday Five!

1. 

   Japanese maple leaf

   When I was a kid living at my grandfather's house there was a row of trees on one side of the driveway.  The trees had been there as long as I had known and had knotty roots along the surface of the soil, thick branches that hung low, and were the perfect trees for climbing.  I can't tell you how many times I climbed this one tree in particular but I'm sure if I had been counting I would have lost count!  I remember being underneath it in the shade while the hot summer sun beat down.  I remember fondly how great those maple trees were!  Ever since I've always loved a maple tree (Acer younameit ;)).  In our yard I've planted four maples, each of which is either a red maple or a hybrid red maple. My grandfather's were most likely silver maples which can be troublesome because of its roots that rise to the surface of the ground.  I also added six Japanese maples to the mix, some of those are planted in memory of my father. 

2. 

   'Yoshino' cherry flower

   Yoshino cherry trees are another favorite that I just can't get enough of in my garden!  So far we have three.  Two of which I planted and one that I rescued after a deer mauled it at my mother-in-law's house.  The poor tree was nothing but a stump with a shoot when I rescued it.  Now it's about 8 feet tall and may even bloom for us for the first time this spring!  The white blooms are gorgeous every spring.  The next cherry I get I want to be an 'Okame' cherry which is one of the earliest cherries to bloom.  It has more of a pink color blossom.
3. Birches are great trees for their bark, but I also enjoy the dappled shade they provide. Their leaves are much smaller than that of a maple but the fast growing nature of the birch allows them to get to a good size to cast shade in just a couple years.  One birch that I planted in a low spot is almost as tall as our house now and it's only been planted for three years!  Birches like moisture and if you have a location that gets periodic pooling or you have a stream nearby you probably have a good site for your river birch! Plant it, put a bench down under it, and enjoy! Birch trees make an excellent choice for rain gardens.  The 'Heritage' River birch comes highly recommended.

4. 

   'Forest Pansy' redbud

   Along the Cumberland Plateau every spring the redbuds (Cercis canadensis) bloom and create an amazing portrait of spring.  The roadsides are lined with the light purple color of their blossoms.  I always enjoyed the drive during that time of year, it always felt like I was inside of a painting.  Which is probably why I've transplanted several into our yard over the years.  I also purchased on special redbud 'Forest Pansy'.  'Forest Pansy' has dark purple leaves which are stunning in spring.  The leaves eventually change to a green color during the heat of summer.  There are also weeping forms of redbuds, none of which I have, must to my disappointment.  If I even come across one in a nursery it may be coming home with me! Redbuds can be short lived trees but I believe their beauty makes up for that.  The tend to enjoy living underneath other larger trees but can tolerate a wide arrange of growing conditions. 

5. 

   Cornus florida dogwood flower

   And last but not least the dogwood.  It's one of my wife's favorite trees so for that reason alone I have to put it here! ;)  But it's definitely worthy of being listed. The trouble with dogwood is in its disease resistance.  Anthracnose and powdery mildew are the two most common ailments but plant propagators have been working on a number of hybrids and seeking out resistant specimens like 'Appalachian Spring'.  I had that dogwood once until a deer decided it made a good scratching post!  I've added two dogwoods since then.  One is just an ordinary white flowering dogwood while the other is called 'Constellation'.  'Constellation' is a hybrid of Cornus kousa and Cornus florida.  It blooms later than Cornus florida and doesn't produce fruit.   

There you have five of my favorites, although I have to say I admire so many more than just five.  These were all deciduous and there are many evergreens that would be worth spending some time talking about.  Maybe they will be another list of five?  Until then check out the last couple Friday Fives!

Previous Friday Fives
5 Plants No Garden Should Be Without 5 Vegetables That I Will Always Grow in My Garden

Randomness from Wednesday

Wednesday was full of randomness, although it wasn't all gardening.  A little bird watching, a little gardening, and a little bit of house stuff all rolled together to make a Wednesday.

The day started with a trip to the home improvement store.  Not for gardening stuff this time but for painting materials.  A bathroom in our house needs redone so I ventured out to find what we needed.  Fortunately the garden center area wasn't stocked yet and the temptation to add more plants to the garden was not there.

Later in the day I went out exploring the garden in the 30 degree weather.  And I found this:

The hyacinths are rising!  Already.  It seems very early to me but the weather has been much warmer this year and it makes sense.  I looked back at a blog post from 2009 and saw that the last week of January was the hyacinths were beginning to emerge. The daffodils were sending up buds too. I hope this early growth doesn't carry over to the fruit trees or we may finds ourselves lacking in local fruit this year.

Before my daughter got home from school my neighbor's daughter stopped by to ask a question.  She wanted to know if I would mind if she kept a bee hive in their back yard which is adjacent to ours.  I thought about it for a second, my only real concern being that my kids wouldn't wander too close and said sure.  It will be a benefit to my garden to have a happy hive of honey makers nearby.  We garden organically here so there will be no risk to the hive from us and with bees becoming threatened by stuff like colony collapse disorder anything we can do to support them is a good thing! And maybe if the bees do well we'll get some extremely local honey!

Then my kids and I drove to grandma's house.  I had a meeting to go to (which I'll mention in a moment) and grandma was going to watch the kids for me.  Along the way I had to make a stop.  I've been saying for a couple years now that I need to stop by the lake in our community and take a picture of the heron.  Wednesday was that day!  I'm pretty pleased with the pictures I managed to take of the blue heron. 

I know some of you pond gardeners may not be fans of the heron, with their great appetite for your fish, but they are some very majestic birds.  Their size and their graceful flight have always captivated me.  Truly majestic!

I think photos taken in water situations always look pretty cool when the reflections are in the just the right place. 

Earlier I mentioned a meeting I was on my way to, what was it you may be wondering?  Myself and two other people have decided to start the first Spring Hill Children's Garden!  Right alongside the children's garden will be a community garden where citizens of Spring Hill can come and plant their gardens for 2012.  This definitely looks to be one of my bigger projects and I'm really hoping that it goes over well in our community.  If you have ever put together or worked on either a children's garden or a community garden and you have some ideas or tips to share please let me know!  This will be our first attempt and any insight that will help us find success is welcome!

There's more Seed Sowing 101 to come on Monday - Tomorrow will be another Friday Five Post!

The Dirt on Seed Starting Soil! (Seed Sowing 101 Part 2)

OK so you've gotten your big seed order in the mail, now what?  What do you use to actually start the seeds in?  What kind of pots?  What kind of soil?  After deciding what seeds to order you need to know what medium to plant your future garden in.  There are a lot of variables out there to choose from, let's take a look at a few options for starting your seeds for this Seed Sowing 101 post!

Tomato Seedlings

First of all there are some basic simple soils you can use to put your seeds into that will work fine.  Generally they consist of a combination of a few ingredients peat or coir for the bulk of it, perlite or vermiculite to add drainage and lighten the soil a bit, and maybe some sand to improve the drainage. 

Peat Vs. Coir

Peat has been the tried and true main seed starting soil ingredient for years but coir is catching on fast.  Coir is made from the waste hulls of coconuts while peat grows naturally and slowly in peat bogs.  There is some concern today about the sustainability of peat which is why many gardeners are leaning in favor of coconut coir. Either will work fine.

Vermiculite vs. Perlite

Both vermiculite and perlite are light materials that improve the drainage of soils but there is a major difference for the gardener be aware of.  Vermiculite added to soil works great to improve the drainage but there is an issue with some vermiculite containing asbestos.  Asbestos isn't a good thing!  I prefer perlite which is made from heated volcanic glass that resembles styrofoam bits and pieces.  You've probably seen it before and wondered "why in the world did they put styrofoam in my potting mix?"  Well they didn't!

Commercial Mix or Homemade?

You can go out and buy a commercial seed starting mix (which I've done many times) or you can make your own.  Generally it is cheaper to buy the raw ingredients and put together your own special blend.  It also gives you a great amount of control over what kind of plants you're starting.  For something that needs better drainage and lighter soil you would just put in a higher ratio of perlite to the mix.  You can even add in other ingredients like compost to create your own seed starting mix.  There is some evidence that completely composted compost (say that 5 times real fast!) has a positive effect against damping off!  So consider the compost! You could also buy the store bought seed starting mixes and add a little of your sifted and full decomposed compost from your compost bins. I'm convinced compost will save the world one day!

If you're short on time or lack of experience is a concern then there is nothing wrong with purchasing a ready to grow seed mix. Because these mixes do not contain many ingredients that will offer nutrition to the plants you may need to add some light fertilizer after the seeds have germinated.  (Please steer clear of synthetic fertilizers if at all possible!) Keep fertilization light at this point because you don't want too much green growth until a good root system is established.

Other options

I have used the peat pellets in the past and found them to be very easy for starting seeds.  The pellets, which resemble small dried disks, need moistened before seed starting.  Once the pellets been sufficiently moistened they expand into small cylinders of soil where you can plant your seeds.  I like the fact that you can plant these directly into the garden when the plants are strong enough or you can move the seedlings into larger pots without having to change pots around.  

Pots, Pots, Pots!

Cowpots from Gardener's Supply

I highly recommend using a biodegradable pots for your seeds.  Peat pots work great but there are other options.  Coir pots are catching on as are a unique product made from the waste of the dairy industry - Cowpots!  Cow pots take the composted manure and form it into pots that will actually provide nutrition to the soil.  I reviewed some cowpots last year and found them to be a pretty nice option.  The only downside is a little odor when wet - you wouldn't want them in the kitchen windowsill I think ;).  The odor is just one small negative when compared with a renewable resources that does an excellent job at growing plants.

Of course another excellent option for seed starting pots are the flats from all those plants you purchased last year!  6 packs work great if they are in good condition (they break down and tear easily) but I really like the idea of using a flat.  After you add soil to the flat and add enough water to dampen it you can plant it in mini-rows then transplant the young plants once they have their first set of true leaves. Or scatter sow in the flat! There are two awesome advantages to using a flat, one is that all the plants are in a single container and when the seedling flat needs moved there is only one container to deal with for all the seeds.  The other advantage is that when some seeds fail to germinate (which happens all the time) a whole container hasn't been wasted!  Avoid sowing different types of seeds in the same container or flat as that is a recipe for confusion!

Mushroom containers make great seed starting flats!

I've often used yogurt containers, mushroom containers and all sorts of plastic containers destined for the recycling bin to start seeds in so use your imagination when coming up with a container!  Just be sure to thoroughly clean out any containers that have been used before to reduce the chances of a pathogen hurting your seedlings.  (A 10% bleach 90% water solution will do the trick).

A lot of people have success using newspapers wrapped into a pot form or even cardboard tubes left over from toilet paper and paper towels.  There are many, many options for seed starting pots!

Growing The Home Garden Seed Sowing 101 Series
Selecting Seeds The Dirt on Seed Starting Soil Timing (Your Seeds) is Everything!

The next topic for Seed Sowing 101 will be all about timing!  Timing is everything right?  Or so they say!  Thanks for following along and if you've found this helpful please share it with your friends!