Beginners Guide To Growing A Vegetable Garden From Seeds

This project is pretty amazing, because it all starts with just a handful of seedling mix and seeds!

Before we begin to plant our seeds indoors let's find out our planting zones. If you live in the United States there is a great tool to use. It is the USDA PLANTING ZONE GUIDE.

A General Rule of thumb for planting seeds indoors is to plant them 6-8 weeks before the last Frost in your region.

See the best indoor growing systems if you want to grow indoors all year.

Since we are in the dead of Winter in the U.S. this is the perfect time to begin preparing, reading, outlining and deciding on what you really want to grow! Dreaming of gardening this time of the year actually helps to chase away those Winter blues too.

PLAN BEFORE YOU PLANT

There is more to gardening than just tossing seeds in the soil! I want you to be super successful in your gardening adventures, because my true belief is that everyone has a gardening gene and no one has a "brown thumb!" I have outlined some steps for you to follow to be successful.

1. Do some research on your soil, climate and plants that thrive in your area.
2. Draw an outline of your garden.
3. Think about space, height, appearance, water, light.
4. Make a list of your choice of seeds and research them; some seeds need to be soaked or chilled.
5. Make notes on your calendar about weather conditions and save the calendar for the next garden year.
6. Check out different companies that sell seeds and compare selections and pricing.
7. Purchase seeds now. (Resources at end of post.)
8. Easy seeds to grow *radish, lettuce, sunflower, nasturtium.*
9. Purchase or recycle containers for planting your seeds in.

You have done your research, made your purchases and now your green thumb is itching to get to work!

Today I am sharing with you a step by step guide on how to plant seeds indoors. Plus a homemade Seedling Potting Mix Recipe for your seedlings.

1. Prepare you plastic pots by making sure they are clean and have proper drainage.
2. Label pots so you will remember what you planted! Trust me friends, those rascally seedlings tend to all look the same!
3. Follow directions for planting seeds on back of seed packet.
4. Gently press seeds in potting mixture with your finger or the eraser end of a pencil works wonderful!
5. Pick out the plumpest and healthiest looking seeds in the packet to get the very best germination.
6. Cover containers with plastic wrap and prick holes in wrap. I’ve used a pin or toothpick. You get the idea.
7. Keep seeds evenly moist, don’t allow to dry out.
8. Once seedlings appear remove plastic and move to a bright light.

When seedlings get their second set of leaves move them to indirect light.

Thank you for joining me today as we work together to create a home and garden through our talents, gifts, hands and hearts!

Next segment in our series we will discuss Hardening Off and Transplanting our seedlings.