recommendation: container garden, part 2 of 4 - how to plant

Part 2: How to plant?
(Find Part 1, What to Plant, here)

Well - this part was new for me. LAST YEAR when I got tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant, hot peppers and radishes in seed form, I put everything straight into potting soil in the pots and it grew from there. Well that project last year was in June and I wanted to start sooner this year!

Like I said in the last post, here is what I planned on planting:

- In Seed form: hot peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, green onions, onions, lavender
- Starter Plant: mint, basil, cilantro, chives, thyme, sage

A lot of the seeds I bought said if you are starting in May, to start inside because frost could still come. When I was at Home Depot I saw this pellet pack by Jiffy. Super easy to use - I got the 36 pack for $4.29, instructions are on the back. Basically you carefully rip open the pellet's netting, move around a little soil, put the seed in and recover it, add water, pop the top back on and wait for sprouts. Seeds ranged from $1.00 - $1.50 per packet. I'm still waiting to plant all of my pellets, some of the sprouts seem to frail to put out into the real world, so I'm babying them by slowly taking them outside in the afternoons and back in at night. Once they get a little thicker/taller I will plant them in their proper pots.

The starter herbs I did not purchase until about a week ago and those I stuck straight into the potting soil in individual pots. Water right away! Some plants like basil and mint are never ending, so give them their own pot so they can have their space.

The herbs I got were $3 for 10 at Whole Foods, and all from a local vendor here in Michigan. How great is that? Look around, you don't have to get everything from the same place. I liked their selection much better than the ones at Home Depot & Meijer.

So what you need for any veggies & herbs that are starter pots, are full size pots (make sure to get appropriate sizes for what you are planting so you don't crowd the roots), potting soil, and water. That easy. Don't these projects always seem bigger than they actually are?

Next up - how to pretty up my pots (the fun part)...stay tuned!