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Get Your Home Garden Ready In Early Spring
Before we garden in late Spring, begin the process of growing some plants inside our home.
To help prepare our garden, start off with strong roots. Gather the basic materials to plant indoors. You will need items like soil, small garden pods, containers and coffee cups, seeds, water and plastic bags placed flat on the floor. Then you can start setting up your work area. Create the area away from furniture and large objects. Do the work in an open well sunlit room.
Is Gardening Expensive?
Saving Money By Using Old Seeds
Gardening is not expensive, it is expansive!
Whether you choose to use old seeds or new ones for planting vegetables, you will end up with something by harvest season. Fortunately everything in my small urban garden is done on a minimal budget.
The seeds used to grow these plants are one year old seeds. It is possible to receive a harvest from old seeds. Check out the fruits of your labour to see how this is possible.
SIDE NOTE:
This is a blog post I published in 2021. It is newly updated in 2024. This information is as important today as it was three years ago. I hope it helps.
What Can You Plant Seeds In?
Pods, Pots and Containers
Have enough containers, pods and pots on hand to transplant your seedlings once they grow a little stronger. Collect as many as you need. This way you can start your summer garden a little earlier inside your home.
When Should I Start Seeds Indoors?
Maximize Your Time
Depending on how much sunlight and space you have to plant an indoor garden, you can grow a lot of seeds indoors. Read up on When Should I Start Seeds Indoors? By now most people are growing some kind of plant inside their homes.
tomatoes and green peppers
Several Seeds In One Tiny Pod
In the picture above, the tomato seeds have sprouted. They are fragile and the stems are thin. You can transplant them into individual pods. Gently take out the stems as they are. There are at least seven stems from the tomatoes, per pod. Using larger containers, I transplanted one single tomato stem in one. The tiny pods are too small for the tomatoes. Therefore I changed them into individual cups for them to grow stronger.
This year I am planting green pepper seeds. Several seeds are planted in pods and they are sprouting nicely. The plants will remain inside for another three to four weeks, depending on the weather, before they are taken outside. Wait until the frost is out of the way. It should be completely gone before planting your crops, otherwise they may not survive.
Celery in water to grow roots
Transplant tomato plants from pods into containers
Moving Your Plants Throughout Your Space
Occasionally I will bring some plants in my room and place them on the floor when the sun is shining bright. This is so that they receive as much natural light as possible.
If you are not receiving as much sun as is necessary for plants to grow, make adjustments. Move them around your space so they get the maximum exposure to light.
It is best for plants to receive an average of 3–4 hours of sunshine each day after the roots have sprouted. As long as it is not raining or cloudy, I will relocate my plants around the house when needed. Do not forget, it is around this time that many of us experience rainy and cloudy days. So for the days when the light is out, take advantage.
Not At Home
Find the most optimal space for the indoor plants to receive the most sunshine at the best time inside the home if you are gone for the day.
Transplanting tomato and green pepper stems into cups or containers. Save these items to reuse them later for something like this.
Small stems gently placed into each coffee cup. Reuse coffee cups to plant seeds.
Transplant Seeds Into A Larger Container
Although there are some plants that will not survive, many seeds will successfully sprout.
Use a teaspoon to gently scoop up from the bottom of the soil of each pod to lift up your stems. Remove the extra soil around the roots and separate each stem. Afterwards, add some soil into a new larger container and create a small hole with your finger for one stem to fit in that spot.
Cover it up with soil to keep it straight and steady. Have a little space per container. I placed 4 tomato stems in each container and the same with the green peppers. However with some of the green peppers I added a few more.
Green pepper seeds sprouted that will be transplanted to just one stem per cup
The weather in April is erratic. It is not a good idea to plant outside in April as you never know what kind of weather you will receive. Yesterday the sun peaked out for a bit. Today and tomorrow will be gloomy days. There is a risk the plants may not do well on days like that.
Give the plants a little sun
Collect used coffee grinds and add them in the soil for helping these plants grow.
The majority of the soil used is reused soil from last year. Although some of my plants did not survive the winter, I am reusing the soil from them for these plants now. All the plants are sprouting up nicely. Fortunately soil is also not expensive. It is between 5.00-$7.00 a bag.
Use a generous amount of soil to allow plenty of food to grow. Reuse your soil the next year as well because it will still grow something. I tried it and it worked.
If you decide to grow potatoes, cover it up properly. When they grow, potatoes can start coming out of the ground. When growing potatoes, pour sufficient soil on them. I am waiting for the sprouts to show up on the potatoes.
Kidney beans do not like to be transplanted. Once they are planted, keep them there without changing them around. When they are in small cups as you see in the picture above, they cannot grow properly. This is why shortly after this picture is taken they went into a larger garden basket. In the baskets kidney beans grow taller. This is what the kidney beans look like today.
Unfortunately they will not expand beyond this point because they have already been transplanted once. Whatever yield I receive from these three baskets of beans is all that is going to grow. They cannot grow taller because they were moved around.
Is Your Home Garden Ready To Receive Extra Nutrients Or Can You Wait?
Give Them Some Time To Grow
When building an indoor home garden you do not need to start collecting nutrients for the plants right away. They are too small and fragile at this point.
For now wait, but start collecting nutrients eventually. By the 3rd week of April build a compost. Prepare this before gardening outside. Do this by collecting fruit and vegetable scraps and put them in a compost bin.
When To Use The Compost
You will use the compost within the first to second week of May. The compost includes any remaining produce items normally thrown into the garbage. Place banana peels, orange peels, lemon peels, apple cores, the ends of celery, onions, kale, end of cucumbers, ends of carrots, insides of mixed peppers, etc., for your compost.
Build a compost for nutrients that your garden needs. If you eat eggs, keep the eggshells and add them to the compost. Also, use the egg cartons for planting seeds, as shown in the images above. I do not eat eggs but others do so I used the cartons to plant seeds. They sprouted successfully. The nutrients from the egg shells collected will be very good for the soil once they are planted outside.
Manure
Last year we did not use any manure. Although manure is very good for a vegetable garden, I did not buy any. However, if you wish to buy some, it is a good idea because manure is very good for your crops. It has tons of nutrients for plants to flourish.
One stem per cup
Depending on whether you need it or not, consider buying some manure this year. However it is not mandatory even though I cannot deny, it is good for your garden. Your crops will grow regardless of having this item or not. A large bag of manure is anywhere between $10.00-$15.00/bag.
One Seed And A Lot Of Abundance
Each one of these sprouted plants are eventually going to take up one large space. It takes approximately 6–10 inches of space for one seed to plant in the ground. That one plant will grow dozens of vegetables and space is needed for this.
These pods need more space to grow larger before planting them in the ground. I will transplant these seeds so that there is one to two stems per cup.
Changing homes
In the third week of April keep the plants that are strong and tall. Give them more priority to plant in the ground so that they can withstand the weather.
We have a small backyard and I planted a lot of green peppers. There is not enough space to plant them all. The ones I am looking after are showing steady progress. If you have more space you can grow more than what is shown in these pictures.
Kidney beans in garden baskets
Tomato and green pepper seeds in cups and containers
Is Your Home Garden Ready To Go Outside?
Third Week Of April Indoor Spring Gardening
I think it is. By now, we have built a good enough foundation.
If you have not yet started by the end of April, collect rain water. Confirm whether it is legal in your area first. Have your bucket(s) ready for your first pour of fresh rain water as the weather gets warmer. In the summer when it is all dry and your plants get dehydrated rain water will help.
Plants and seeds inside our home
Within two more weeks the weather is going to change. It will be time to get active in your garden. Throughout the summer we will experience several changes with our plants.
Get Your Home Garden Ready!
Please visit more blogs on Gardening.
Additionally, check out Home Reno’s, Recipes and 2020 and Beyond for cost effective ideas for your home, garden and the future.
**Originally posted on April 22, 2021 on mcinthehouse.com**
**Newly Updated Post On April 1, 2024**
Related Topics:
One stem per cup
Changing homes
