Spring Has Sprung!!!

cuteness overload!

Daww!!! It's nice to be back and to have the weather permitting me to work out onto my patio! This winter has been very weird, to say the least. And I'd like to give a shout out to my friends on the Eastern coast and the mid-west that are still getting hit by their second winter. Eventually it'll warm up guys, hang in there! It's been fairly dry and cold on my side of the coast. We even got some snow that made a huge mess out of everything! Geez...

But a lot of the moisture that did happen to grace us here in the Pacific Northwest has paid off! My strawberries have survived and are doing a lot better than I imagined. Small little patches in places I never even thought they would end up... like under the bike tarp... (what?). Though that's not really surprising, they tend to grow wild if you don't keep a strict watch over those suckers. We even had some carrots continuing to grow out of my big planter box even when it was snowing. Mint is doing well, being shy, but that won't last long with them, and Rosemary has taken over and decided it was a small bush!

My my, spring has given me quite a mess to work with.

Over the summer, I had a lot of my little plant babies go. Just cause there wasn't enough room on my little patio garden to keep them all. I sold some of the pepper plants, and my cherry tomatoes were growing wild, although none of them went to homes that had the space for them. I eventually just stopped spending so much time watering and pruning them cause there was just too many for me to care for!

I have some pots that I used to house them, but I mostly used the newspaper method to start my seedlings. Which, if you're short on cash for those plastic planters like me, is actually really wonderful! They drain out, so it doesn't get super soggy but they stay relatively moist to keep those baby roots well maintained. There are a few things I have a concern with this method, however. One is that prolong use of the newspaper planter makes them mold, which can eventually lead to root rot in some sensitive plants like my tomatoes. I had left some of the ones I couldn't afford space in the newspapers and that's what eventually got to them (after two months into winter but still...).

Recycled newspaper planters 

Another thing that an organic gardener would think about is the newspaper ink itself. While the paper is a great source of carbon and does eventually biodegrade while still being able to fit under the category of recycling. The ink bio accumulates some chemicals that are, in fact, very dangerous to your plants and the environment. And think about what is absorbed into the plant and digested by the consumers, that's important too. Dioxin and Chlorides!

I spent some time searching for some resourceful information on the specific effects of newspaper and gardening, and here's a link to a really great site here -->> Newspaper Toxins - Organic Gardening

But to be in the spirit of Recycling, there are other ways to make neat planters from left over items in your kitchen. One I tried out last year, was an egg carton. Each little pouch made it nice and neat to seed the most fickle leafy babies and they drain much like the newspaper cups you can make, but without the extra ink toxins! But they are shallow and babies will need to be transplanted really quickly, and if the roots end up bursting through the wet cardboard, you must be very gentle and very careful  not to disturb and break those little roots. Especially if you did carrots, which I learned the hard way that was a no-no!

Recycled milk carton planters

The other method that is really grand is using those left over, washed out and cut cardboard milk cartons! This is a favorite of mine for they are durable and you can get them to drain and they don't fall apart in a soggy mess over time. I found a nifty little way to make them drain perfectly, while they still hold in some moisture. Cut them so the spout of the milk carton is on the bottom and place a little wedge of plastic soda bottle with neat punctured holes (I used a screw to make these) on the inside of the carton next to the spout hole. This will keep mud from blocking it so excess water can escape. There are other ways you can make a neat little screen to keep it from clogging too instead of plastic. My partner is big on anti-BPA and would not approve of the plastic but, I'm a kludger. I make do with what I got!

I hope these are some great ideas to start a reused, affordable and at home garden as nature turns to the most beloved, twitterpated seasons in the year, Spring! I have already planted and seeded a few things like the peppers, Zinnia, and cucumbers. They'll germinate and we'll hopefully see the seedlings in roughly a week or so.

Happy Planting!