Starting your own seeds for a spring garden is a budget-friendly way to get a jump on the growing season. If you’re not careful, though, it can actually be anything but budget friendly. Paging through a seed catalog on a cold night and ordering at will can quickly add up to a hefty purchase. Here are some ways you can make sure your seed planning doesn’t break the bank.
Being smart about the containers you use is one of the easiest ways to save money when planting seeds. You can reuse old containers, repurpose other supplies or even make your own.
You can use different plastic containers to transplant your seeds. Anything from plastic soda bottles to yogurt cups will serve this purpose. You can also use larger containers with plastic lids to plant multiple seedlings. Foil containers like those that come with whole rotisserie chickens you get at the deli work great. The plastic lids help create a kind of greenhouse effect.
Biodegradable pots can also be easily created out of paper towel or toilet paper tubes. Simply cut them down to size. Paper egg cartons are excellent choices as well. You can simply add your seedlings and then cut the paper apart into individual sections when you’re ready to plant.
Once you’ve decided on your pots, you need to fill them with some kind of potting soil. If you’re on a budget, it may be tempting to bring in some soil from your own garden, but that contain contaminants, insects or weed seeds. This is one area where you should invest a little cash. A good bag of potting soil won’t cost an arm and a leg, and one bag goes a long way when you’re just planting seedlings.
You’ll obviously need some seeds. Saving your own seeds from year to year is the cheapest way to grow new plants. However, if you buy seeds, you’ll likely collect an inventory of overstock over time, so plant those first. Just remember, the longer seeds lay around, the harder they are to grow.