How to Start Flowers, Vegetable & Plants from Seeds

Starting your flowers and vegetable plants from seeds is an inexpensive way to have a wide variety of the plants you want. By following these simple 'how to' tips, you can have an abundance of flowers and vegetables growing in your garden this year, all started from inexpensive seeds.

The first thing to do after you have chosen the seeds that you want, is place them in the refrigerator until you are ready to plant them. This prevents the flower and vegetable seeds from sprouting, and you don't want that to happen until after they have been planted.

24 hours before you are ready to plant the seeds, soak the seeds in a solution of weak tea. Take the seeds out of their packs and place the seeds in a piece of lightweight cloth (an old pair of knee high hose or pantyhose works perfect for this seed preparing task, and you will find many uses for old hose in your garden). Place each different variety of seed in a different cloth, tie the cloth up and soak the whole thing in the solution of weak, cooled tea. You can use instant tea or tea bags for this seed preparing task, as long the tea is weak and cool. After you have soaked the seeds, remove them from the weak tea solution (keep the weak tea solution, you will use it later) leaving them in the cloths, and place them back in the refrigerator.

Now is the time to prepare you planting containers. The planting containers can be anything from a store bought seed starter tray to styrofoam cups and plastic margarine tubs. If you use recycled container like a plastic margarine tub, clean it well in warm, soapy water and poke a few drainage holes in the bottom of the container. Fill the containers 3/4's of the way full with your choice of any professional planting mix, which is readily available at any retailer that sells gardening supplies. Do not use potting soil to start your seeds in, the potting soil is too heavy for the tiny seeds to push their sprouts through.

After you have the planting mix in your containers, dampen the mix with water and poke holes in the planting mix with a pencil 1/4 inch deep and 2 inches apart.