5 Garden Project - Sowing Seeds Indoors

Check out Part 1 - Picking Seeds and Part 2 - Planning

I have been saving toilet paper rolls for a few months now so I could easily sow the seeds for our garden. I have never grown from seeds before so easy was exactly what I was looking for. I sat down today to finally put them to use and get the seeds into them.  I followed this tutorial from You Grow Girl.  I didn't have enough to sow all my seeds so I had to use egg cartons for the rest.

General tips for sowing seeds

• Think about how many plants you need based on the planning you did and then add a few more onto that in case some do not grow. I did 4 of each kind in hopes that 2 will make it. If all 4 more it and I don't have room then I will give them to someone else.
• Pay attention to the length of time it takes for each seed to grow before being planted. They may not all have the same time frame so you may not need to do all of them at once.
• Indicate on the roll/carton or on a legend somewhere what is in each container. It will keep you from guessing at planting time. 
• Pay careful attention to each seeds planting instruction as they all have different planting depths.
• Seeds need heat and moisture in order to start growing. Place them in a clear container with a lid in the sunlight. I originally put ours in a big rubbermaid container (not clear) and then realized that it would be easier to have them in a clear container on the window sill. I used old takeout containers and those containers organic salad mix/spinach come in. This is also why I had to resize the rolls.

Tips for using toilet paper rolls

• Measure the height of your container before you put soil into the rolls. I didn't do this and had to cut the tops off of each roll after I already had the soil and seed in them. Some rolls even started to unroll as they were wet from when I moistened the soil.
• Leave space between the rolls so that they can breath and to prevent mold growth.

Tips for using egg cartons

• Use for seeds that do not need a lot of depth in order to start growing (ie: herbs)
• Cut the carton into individual containers so that you do not have to cut them up once the seeds have grown.

I am hoping this all works out. Only a handful of our seeds needed to be sowed inside so if these don't work at least I have the outside one's to fall back on!

How do you sow your seeds indoors? What have you got started this year?

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