Planting Seeds

Originally posted 2 years ago, this is still my "go to" plan for starting seeds!
Happy planting to you :)
tika nicole

…I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit…
Leviticus 26:4

We moved to Oregon, my husband’s home state, 8 years ago. Shortly after we bought our first home, I decided to try my hand at planting a vegetable garden…But I’ve never done this before!…Thankfully, my neighbor had a lifetime of experience and was happy to share her wisdom. I miss the days of chatting with her over the fence, or dropping in for a cup of tea. With her advice and encouragement, I learned what to plant and when…and we have enjoyed the harvest each year!

This year, my younger son declared that he would be in charge of planting this year’s garden…Praise the LORD! Since we are trying to save money wherever possible, that we should be resourceful in the garden too.

While looking for an affordable way to start my seedlings without dumping a fortune into cute little black trays that won’t last through a second season, I stumbled across this post on Pinterest from Bonzai Aphrodite, and was inspired to give her newspaper pots a try. I liked the simplicity of her idea to wrap the newspaper around a can, but round objects weren’t going to fit very well in my rectangular box! And being the orderly girl that I am…I had to devise an alternative.

Here are my square seed pots~

Starting by spreading out the newspaper.

Cutting or tearing down the center.

And across the middle again.

Here, I folded a 3x5 index card folded in half lengthwise (like a bookmark), and used it as my guide to fold over the edge of the newspaper 1.5”.

I repeated this twice (for a total of 3 fold-overs).

and slid out the index card. The folded edge will be the top edge of the pot, reinforced by the folds to hold its shape.

Next, I used a box of plastic wrap to wrap the newspaper around, forming the square shape of the soon-to-be pot.

Here’s the tricky part. You want to slip the top edge under the flap closest to the box, and gently adjust it as tight as it will go. No need to wrestle with it, you just want it to hold its shape.

Now it will look like this:

 And you can turn the box on its end, with the newspaper “sleeve” at the top.

Fold down the edge of the newspaper closest to you, as if you were wrapping a birthday present.

Fold in the left and right sides.

And fold the final point down towards you.

Slide the newspaper off of the box and allow the point to pop up a bit. When it does, you’ll want to tuck that little flap inside  the pot, so it stays put.

Flip it over…

and there you have your nice & tidy little seed pot!
Now my little green-thumbed son is ready to fill them with soil and start his seeds a’growing!