Thrifty Ways To Start Seedlings

There are so many fun things about growing your own seedlings and there are lots of great benefits to it too - one of the best ones is all the money that you can save from purchasing young plants every single year when you start your garden. A lot of people struggle when it comes to first starting their seedlings because there is a little bit of upfront cost when you have to purchase all the supplies to start your seedlings in. For people that are beginning their seedlings indoors this can mean that need a planting tray and for those who want to start extra early and give their plants some time to mature and develop a good roots system inside this can be even more costly because you have to get a whole bunch of little pots to transplant your plants into. This can also get expensive when you factor in the upfront costs of buying all your potting soil as well as the time it takes to make sure your seeds sprout and that they have the proper conditions while they grow.

If spending this kind of money upfront is a bit of a stretch for you or if perhaps you’re just doing a few small plants to try out and you don’t want to spend a bunch of money quite yet there are lots of ways that you can still grow your seedlings and be thrifty about it.

One of the best ways to save money when starting on this kind of a project is to ask for donations from other gardeners. Perhaps they will have some seeds you might want to try out or you could have a bit of their leftover potting soil that they haven’t put to good use yet. They might even be able to give you some helpful tips and hints on ways to save money as you start your very first set of seedlings. Other gardeners in your area can be a very helpful resource and with the money you save you can invest in things your garden really needs like professional tools and a good compost container.

When it comes to the containers you may not want to invest a lot of money in pots and planters that your seedlings are just going to grow out of but you also want your seeds to be protected and have a good environment to grow in. Plus you may not want to purchase a large tray with forty or more cells in it but you might want to do more than just an individual one too. There are lots of ways to get around this. The best thing to do is recycle things from around your home to use in your seedling growing processes. You can recycle things like old toilet paper or paper towel rolls, milk cartons (that have been cut in half), egg cartons, the little tubs that margarine or butter come in, yogurt containers (with the tops cut off) and plenty more. Just be creative and use whatever you can to create your seedlings and then down the road when you’re ready you can invest more into beautiful pots to house your plants in or just keep transferring them to bigger containers until they’re ready to go in your garden! Have fun!