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How to Plant Starter Plants for Your Garden

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I want to share with you how you can plant starter plants.  Basic garden ideas can still be intimidating if you are a newbie, but you should really be doing this!  

Planting starter plants will help you save money by not having to buy them from the nursery!  There’s NO reason to spend 50 bucks or more on starter plants for your garden when you can just grow them yourself quite easily and so inexpensively!

All you need to plant starter plants are seeds, potting soil, water, a sharpie, containers in which you can plant your starter plants, and a 9×13 pan (if you are using open-bottom containers like toilet paper rolls-see pictures).

There are probably a lot of different things around your house right now that you could use as containers for your starter plants, so don’t spend money on containers!  You can grow starter plants in toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes (cut in half), cupcake papers, empty yogurt containers…the sky’s the limit!  Just use your imagination!

plant starter plants

How To Plant Starter Plants

First you need to choose your containers.  If you use an open bottom container like a toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll that’s cut in half you will obviously want to set them into the pan before you fill them with dirt [#obvious].  If you use plastic containers (such as yogurt or cottage cheese containers), wash them well with hot water and then CAREFULLY poke a few small holes in the bottom of the container for water drainage.

Before you start filling them, label your containers with a sharpie so that you know what is planted in each one. If you don’t label them,  you will run into the problem that you don’t know what’s growing in it and get your plants mixed up.  We all like an orderly garden you know, the peas in one row, the carrots in another— that kind of thing.  (This pic was taken after I finished planting, but you get the idea how to label them…it’s not rocket science, right?)

how to plant starter plants

How to Grow Starter Plants Indoors

Fill the containers with potting soil, leaving about an inch at the top.

Put in the seed. (If the container is small in diameter, like a toilet paper roll, only put one seed in. If it has a larger diameter like a cottage cheese container, read the seed package and see how far apart the seeds should be.  You may be able to put two or three seeds in, depending on the type of plant and how far apart they need to be.)

plant starter plants

Now you just top them off with soil like this…

how to plant starter plants for your garden

Finally, you need to water the starter plants.  Because the soil is pretty dry you will need to water them a little more generously the first time that you water them.  

After that, just check the soil every day (you can stick your finger about an inch into the dirt to check moisture) and water as needed!

*Be sure to put your starter plants where they will have plenty of sunlight.

How to Plant Starter Plants for Your Garden

How to Plant Starter Plants for Your Garden

Yield: a beautiful garden!
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Active Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

If you are a newbie, gardening can be intimidating. But beieve me when I say that you can learn how to plant starter plants! It's so easy! It will help you save money by not having to buy them from the nursery! There’s NO reason to spend 50 bucks or more on starter plants for your garden when you can just grow them yourself quite easily and so inexpensively! All you need are seeds, potting soil, water, a sharpie, containers in which you can plant your starter plants, and a 9×13 pan (if you are using open-bottom containers like toilet paper rolls-see pictures). There are probably a lot of different things around your house right now that you could use as containers for your starter plants, so don’t spend money on containers!

Materials

  • Seeds
  • Potting soil
  • Water
  • Sharpie
  • Containers in which you can plant your starter plants
  • 9x13 pan (if you are using open-bottom containers like toilet paper rolls-see the pictures)

Tools

  • No tools are needed right now, but a garden claw and a garden trowel will be useful when you transplant the grown starter plants into your garden.

Instructions

  1. First you need to choose your containers.  If you use an open bottom container like a toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll that's cut in half you will obviously want to set them into the pan before you fill them with dirt [#obvious].  If you use plastic containers (such as yogurt or cottage cheese containers), wash them well with hot water and then CAREFULLY poke a few small holes in the bottom of the container for water drainage.
  2. Before you start filling them, label your containers with a sharpie so that you know what is planted in each one. If you don't label them,  you will run into the problem that you don't know what's growing in it and get your plants mixed up.  We all like an orderly garden you know, the peas in one row, the carrots in another--- that kind of thing.  (This pic was taken after I finished planting, but you get the idea how to label them...it's not rocket science, right?)
  3. Fill the containers with potting soil, leaving about an inch at the top.
  4. Put in the seed.
  5. Top the starter plants off with a little more soil.
  6. Water the starter plants.  
  7. After that, just check the soil every day (you can stick your finger about an inch into the dirt to check moisture) and water as needed.

Notes

There are probably lots of things around your house right now that you could use as containers for your starter plants, so you don't need to spend money on containers!  

You can grow starter plants in toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes (cut in half), cupcake wrappers, empty yogurt containers...the sky's the limit!  Just use your imagination!

Be sure to put your starter plants where they will have plenty of sunlight

how to plant starter plants inside

If you want to read more about gardening and the things you can grow (and cook) from your garden, click here for my gardening posts.  Now it’s your turn!  Give it a try.  You have learned how to plant your own starter plants. It’s time to get to it!  Let me know how it goes. Trust me, you’ve got this!

See ya next time!

Deb

P.S.  Once your starter plants have grown enough to be ready to transplant, check out my post that teaches you how to transplant your starter plants.

transplant starter plants

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5 Creative Ways Frugal Farm Girls Start Seeds Indoors - The Frugal Farm Girl

Monday 13th of March 2017

[…] Okay, we have all seen the creative crafts we can make with the kiddos using our toilet paper rolls BUT have you ever thought about using them for your seedlings? I sure haven’t until I saw this tutorial on using toilet paper rolls for seeds.   […]

Kathleen

Saturday 14th of January 2017

Thanks for the info! Planning my first garden this year and am going to look into your other posts. When would you recommend starting the starter plants?

Debra

Sunday 15th of January 2017

Thanks for stopping by! When you should plant them really depends on where you live. Climate plays a huge role in that decision. When you plant outside you want to miss the last frost of the winter so you don't kill your plants and lose all of that hard work! Here is a link to farmer's almanac. If you type in your location and it will help you out! http://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates. I hope that helps!

Evelyn

Thursday 5th of May 2016

I love this idea! I mean, who doesn't have a ton of toilet paper rolls lying around already? :)

Debra

Thursday 5th of May 2016

I know! I saved lots, but eventually ran out and had to use other containers like empty egg crates. I admit I am frugal to a fault!

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