A few years back, I tried to garden and went a little crazy about it. Sadly, my enthusiasm died and it kept me from gardening for a few years. I let the weeds get really bad and I would forget to water! Needless to say, I am slowly getting myself back into the gardening groove. Matt put a dripline in the front garden plot and I have been able to grow a few things there, like I showed you a few weeks ago. I remember to pull weeds about once a week, and that keeps it manageable. I think it helps that I walk by it every day, so it does not hide in the backyard (my previous garden was in the back corner). Anyways, gardening can get expensive, but I am trying to learn how to do some things on my own to make it cheaper. I always thought you had to buy the little dirt pots that expand with water. Then one day, I realized that I could probably make them with toilet paper rolls and potting soil.
First, grab a bunch of old toilet paper rolls (just the center part) and some scissors. You are going to make three cuts. The first cut is lenthwise (hot dog style?), which basically turns it into a rectangle, then cut twice in the opposite direction. This should give you three mini toilet paper rolls. Am I making sense here? I think you will see what I mean if you look below.The squares in the tray are a bit smaller than the rolls, so we need to make them smaller. Just overlap the edges and place them into the trays, as you can see below.. These trays came with the dirt soak and expand pellet thingies awhile back, but I am reusing it with the toilet paper rolls.
I used a little spoon to put in the potting soil. I found a little shovel (trowel?) to big too large and messy, but a small kitchen spoon worked just right. Two scoops filled my cups, and I kinda flipped the spoon out with my fingers on the dirt so that it stayed in the cup. Make sense?
Moving on. To put seeds into your cups, make a little hole in the dirt with your finger, place a seed (or two, I put in two seeds if they are small) into the hole, and push the dirt back over the top. Then spray with some water. I had the tray covered the first night, but the cardboard got moldy. Matt suggested leaving it open to the air, and that worked out just fine. They still sprouted, in fact, they sprouted better than the little expand-y dirt pots.
How great do those seedlings look? The next challenge will be getting them into the garden. Lately I have had pests in there eating the seedlings. Little buggers. I want to get them eliminated before transplanting anymore plants. Are you growing a garden? Any money saving tips?
