Little Off-Grid Garden – Eggshell Seed Starters…

38 degrees - 8:37 am - yesterday 'April Showers' brought us 4" of snow, which is now being slowly washed away by the rain...

Did you know that back in the days before commercial peat pots and plastic trays people used half of an eggshell to start seedlings?  That’s right.  An eggshell is a great container to sow seeds in.  Eggshells are small, lightweight, porous, earth friendly, readily available and loaded with nutrients that can provide a healthy dose of growing energy to your little seedlings. 

Here’s the way to use eggshells for seed pots: 
Crack the egg high up on the small end.  Empty the contents of the egg and rinse out the shell.  Poke 2 or 3 small holes in the bottom of the shell, I used a toothpick.  Fill half the shell with seed starter soil and sow a seed.  Cut an egg carton on the fold so it will fit on a windowsill.  Replace eggshells in egg carton, put on a sunny windowsill and cover lightly with plastic wrap until seed begin to sprout. 

When it’s time to plant the seedlings in the garden:
Gently crush the eggshell, dig a small hole, place the pieces directly into the garden soil along with your seedlings and backfill.  Pretty simple.

Little Off-Grid Garden - What's Growing…

40 degrees outside - 11:08 am - still raining...

While Tony is busy getting the garden ready outside, the kids and I are getting the garden ready inside.  Rain or not, if we plan on having a garden, now is as good a time as any to start planting some garden starts.  A small packet of seeds will yield a complete tray of seedlings for the same price that you would pay for just a few retail plant starts.  Another advantage of starting our garden with seeds is that in a few short weeks the kids will get to witness one of the most exciting times for little gardeners, the birth of new seedlings as they emerge from the soil.

This morning the kids and I got out some of the little plastic pudding containers that we have been saving, Chives and Sweet Basil seed packets, a bag of potting soil, and laid plastic down over the table.  We were now ready to plant our garden starts.  The kids had fun planting and watering their tiny seeds.  We put the cups up on the highest south-facing windowsill (so our 2 year old wont “try” to help them grow) to get the most sunshine possible.  The kids are now eager to see the first green shoots sprout from the dirt.