I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. Ruth Stout
Nashvillians are enjoying a beautiful Spring-like day today. I’d love to be outside preparing my garden, but I’m still recovering from foot surgery. My neighbor is outside puttering in her yard. She and I share a passion for yard work and landscaping. Rather than poke pins in a voodoo doll bearing her name, I did the next best thing to gardening. I started seeds indoors.
For the past few weeks I’ve been saving eggshells to use as seed starters. I got the idea here. I did a Google search to learn which vegetable seeds are best for starting indoors and discovered peppers and tomatoes work well.
During a pre-surgery trip to Walmart I found organic pepper and tomato seeds. Organic is important to me, so I grabbed a few packets. I’ve had my supplies on hand for a while. I’ve been waiting until six weeks prior to the last frost date for my gardening zone. A quick look at my calendar told me today is the day.
All I needed for this little project were my eggshells, potting mix, a spoon, a spray bottle of water and seeds.
I filled each eggshell with potting soil, added seeds, then covered with more soil.
Once filled with soil I gave each eggshell a spritz of water. Thankfully neatness doesn’t count here.
I placed each egg carton in a plastic bag. That will create a terrarium effect.
The plastic bags were not quite large enough and I was too lazy to go to the store to buy more. I fixed the tears with the Southerner’s favorite solution: duct tape. I think the pink color adds a bit of flair and panache.
I labeled all of the bags and put them on my coffee table in front of a sunny window. If everything goes according to schedule, the seeds will germinate and the plants will grow in time for me to take them outdoors to “harden up” for a week. Then it will be time to plant them, eggshells and all, directly into my garden. If the plants outgrow the eggshells too quickly, I’ll drop each shell into a peat moss pot until it’s time for them to go into their garden home.
I can’t wait until I’ve healed enough to go outside a play. But today’s little project really perked me up. It reminded me that Spring will be here soon and by then I’ll be well enough to dig into it.
482gr8 