Start Your Own Seeds and Planting Guide

If you're going to grow your own veggies--something I'm hoping you're going to do--you have to plant seeds. Many seeds are best sown directly in the ground, mainly due to the number of plants that you will have. These include carrots, peas, beans, corn, spinach, and beets.

Many plants will benefit from being started indoors weeks before planting time. One of the best reasons to start seeds indoors is that you will extend your growing season. Many veggies need a long growing period before harvest, and starting seeds ahead of time gives your plants extra growing time. Now, you could go to the nursery in spring and purchase plants already started. But, when it's so easy to do, why pay someone else to do it for you! You'll save money and learn a new self-reliant skill when you start the plants yourself. (And if your seedlings fail, you can always rely on the store for backup! I had to do that last year with one of my tomato varieties.)

First off, you need to figure out what you're going to plant and buy your seeds, if you don't have them already saved from years past. Seeds that lend themselves well to starting indoors are tomatoes, cukes, squashes, pumpkins, peppers, and melons, among others. You need containers which can be plastic planting trays, peat pots, plastic cups, small terra cotta planters, or any kind of container you have available. Even dixie cups will work! There's a wide spectrum of containers you can use. Just make sure they're washed clean and have good drainage ability.

Buy or make a good seed starting compound (equal parts perlite, vermiculite, and peat). Fill your little containers with the compound and add 2-3 seeds or the number recommended on the seed packet. Mist them lightly with a spray bottle or put your trays in water so they wick it up from the bottoms. Many seed starting trays come with a plastic cover. If yours don't have this, cover your pots with plastic wrap to form a warm moist greenhouse-like environment. Put your pots in a sunny window, near a heat vent or under a light to add heat. In a few days your seeds will hopefully sprout! What a wonderful day that is!! You're going to feel so proud!

Now your seedings definitely need light, so use that sunny window or fluorescent grow lights. (I find that my sister's seeds in the window with natural light grow much better than mine do with fluorescent light, so if you have natural light take advantage of it!) Keep the light 2 inches above the tray and move the light up as the plants grow. Obviously, you'll need to remove the plastic cover or plastic wrap as the seedlings grow, too. Keep your seedlings moist, but not soaking. Bottom watering is best to encourage those roots to go deep, but any water is better than none! Every day run your hand over the seedlings very gently to 'toughen them up' a bit.

If your plants get too big and it's not yet time to set them out in the garden, you'll need to repot them in larger containers. Do this very gently, disturbing the plants and roots as little as possible. About a week before planting outdoors, bring your plants outside to a shaded, weather-protected area for a few hours. Every day, expose them to a little more sun and wind to harden them off and get them ready to make it in your garden.

Once the ground is ready for plants, set them out and watch them grow! Feel proud of what you did! I always think the garden looks so funny in spring. The garden area is so large, and all of those seedling are sooooo tiny! Tend those plants like the babies that they are, and hopefully they'll reward you with a bountiful harvest. (We'll talk later about how to take care of that harvest!)

Here is a great link to to a page that will show you the approximate last frost date in spring in Illinois, and approximate first frost day in fall. Use this as your guide to know when to plant seeds and seedlings outside.

Prep on!
Gen-IL Homesteader