Published on March 18th, 2013 | by The Green Divas

Easy DIY Sustainable Seedlings for Veggie & Herb Gardens

This is our first spring in the new home. It is thrilling to see the hundreds of tulips poking through the snow dust. The previous owner has some nice flower beds and a herb bed, but no vegetable garden.

I’ve had some great flower gardens in my day and a few good veggie and herb successes, but I don’t consider myself a great or very experienced gardener at all.

I have only attempted my own seedlings a few times and mostly I suck at it. Usually I don’t get my act together until too late, and for a variety of reasons my seedlings have met with calamity involving a pet, kid or unwitting husband.

This year I got hubby on board early and we both want to try and grow some organic veggies and herbs from our fabulously oversized and sunny deck (after our failed raised bed experiment in the old house – this very enthusiastic Green Diva meticulously watched the sun and found the only patch that had full sun, but the trees weren’t entirely full yet. Once we got the beds built, the expensive organic soil mixed w/ our compost filled in, the veggies and herbs tucked in, and the fence to protect it all was constructed, the leaves on that darned tree seemed to expand and there just wasn’t enough sun! We had some lettuce and a few good herbs, but ugh.).

I haven’t had much luck finding organic veggie or herb plants that weren’t going to cost a small fortune. It is important to me to start with healthy essentials like organic, non-GMO seeds and organic soil.

Sustainable Seedlings: Veggie & Herb Gardens

It all starts with seeds. I wanted to find a source for organic and non-GMO seeds. I love the concept of a local seed exchange, but I’m out of the loop and needed to start fresh. I hope to be able to harvest some healthy organic seeds at the end of this season and participate in some seed exchanging for the next growing season.

I ordered seeds from SeedsNow.com.

Green Diva Mizar did a couple of her great DIY posts recently that included two different ideas for upcycling stuff headed for the recycling bin into seed-starter pots.

GD Mizar’s DIY on upcycling toilet paper rolls (including step-by-step instructions on how to make seed-starter pots)

GD Mizar’s DIY on upcycling newspaper (including a link to making seed-starter pots)

Here’s the best tutorial on making newspaper seed-starter pots that I found and used.

Getting ready to have fun making sustainable seed-starter pots out of The New York Times and toilet paper rolls

Production fun while watching episodes of Rescue Me

Got some lovely organic seed starter soil from our local nursery

My hubby found this awesome small pink watering can for me – made my day!

Just waiting for the sun . . .

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Tags: deck gardening, herb gardening, non-gmo seeds, organic gardening, organic seeds, sustainable seedlings, vegetable gardening

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The Green Divas The Green Divas share low-stress ways to live a deeper shade of green through a weekly radio show, podcasts, videos and blog posts. Working with talented partners and credible sources like myEARTH360 the Green Divas produce content on a variety of topics relating to a healthy green lifestyle. Visit The Green Divas website to learn more, and check out The Green Divas on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter too!