Henbogle

Here in Maine, it is time to start leeks and onions.  My seeds came in a couple of weeks ago.  Last week I made a stop at Johnny’s and purchased a large bag of my favorite all-purpose seed starting/potting soil mix, Vermont Compost’s Fort Vee.

I purchased new plastic flats last weekend from our local farm supply store.  I prefer the newspaper pots but am not going to have time to make them this spring.

Last night I stopped by Target to pick up a new plastic tub for the seed flats, as one broke one last summer when it was dropped.  I’ve been using these for a couple of years and find them much more convenient than using the flimsy plastic trays and domes that often come with the seed flats.  They allow watering from the bottom and the plastic lid makes a great humidity cover.  For seeds which need light to germinate, I just turned them upside down and used the lids as the base, then once germination occurred, turned them right side up.

Yesterday I found an new delux-er model, with a clear lid which will make things even easier — no swapping bottom for top.  Once everything has germinated, the lid comes off and at the end of the season, they plastic tub serves to store the seed starting materials.  As an added bonus, the lid has a more secure locking mechanism, making it easier to remove.

And I have a bunch of saved and washed popsicle sticks for tags.  Free, reused and compostable = perfect for this purpose (in the past I used cut-up plastic yogurt containers or milk jugs).  I think I’m ready!

This entry was posted on February 5, 2010 at 7:59 am and is filed under gardening, tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.