http://www.ticklemeplant.com

-Nicholas

I live in an apartment in the middle of Los Angeles, with no yard (although there is a beautiful avocado tree right outside my window). If you are ever looking for post ideas, a post on how to grow a small garden (herbs? maybe even some kind of produce?) indoors or in pots would be much appreciated!

Or maybe I’ll just have to wait until I move out of the city and buy a house… someday …

Thank you for this great post! I just came back to it again, because I’m about to start my very first garden and I was looking for guidance on starting seeds indoors (especially from someone following the Square Foot Gardening technique). I do have one question for you. For space reasons, I am going to have to set my seedlings on two different shelves rather than a table. Do you have any suggestions for lighting that wouldn’t require me to buy 8 different fluorescent lights? Our windows all face west and our neighbor’s house is taller than ours, so we don’t get the greatest natural sunlight. I know I’ll need artifical lighting, but can’t figure out the best way to do it given my circumstances. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Check out the WINTER SOWING forum on Gardenweb!

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/

And start saving your milk jugs and 2 liter bottles for next year. You will need them!

These folks start sowing seeds outdoors in jugs and bottles in DECEMBER and up through March. Plus, they have great free seed exchanges.

Grab a cup of coffee and hit that link. You will be amazed.

Note: This is for all regions of the country, not just the South….

I love the early harvests!

http://chiotsrun.com/2009/03/01/starting-onions-from-seeds/

I keep track of all my gardening exploits on my blog, and I recently organized a coherent chart that explains “when to plant what.” You can check it out at http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/color

And I got those free seeds for lettuce from EB Farms that Lynn mentioned!

Erin

It’s a lot cheaper to fill the trays with regular planting/seedling mixes, rather than keep buying the sponges.

Go to your garden center and buy one of the following:

milled sphagnum moss
milled peat moss
compressed coco fiber

All of these are inert, weed-free, moisture-holding material that is great for seed-sowing.

If you buy large bales of peat, you may have to sift it to get finer-textured stuff for seed sowing – save the coarser bits for use in the bottom of hanging pots or as a garden soil additive.

Pour boiling water over the material to hydrate and sterilize it (the coco fiber expands to several times its compressed size). Cover the pail and leave it overnight to cool. Drain or squeeze out excess moisture. Then pack your seedling tray.

Your kit is just a small version of the trays used by commercial greenhouse growers. They run large trays through automatic filling/seeding machines.

I was unable to locate the home-size kit here in Israel – so I went to a commercial supplier and bought a few of the large styrofoam trays. I cut them down to fit the clear plastic clamshell containers that fresh produce/baked goods are packaged in. Works just as well as the kits, and cheaper.

Stop your car when you see crews planting flowers on road dividers – you can often pick up discarded seedling pots and trays.

There are similar, deeper trays for sapling trees – with openings as large as a milk carton on top, tapering down below.

Another trick for summer squash, beans, and cucumbers is to pre-sprout the seeds indoors in moist paper towel, and then sow directly. You can gain about a week this way.

Often it is easier to use a cloche or other protection outside, than to tend a lot of indoor seedlings.