Using Old Blinds as Plant Markers

If you have kids and blinds, you might know that blinds don't always stay as nice as you want them too. My kids like to look out our windows and pull back the blinds and they crease and fall off. We have a huge front window and after 10 years the blind had seen its better days, so we bought a new one. My husband put it up yesterday while I was napping our youngest one and he said to me that he did not know how he was going to get rid of the old one. I remembered seeing something on the web about using old blinds as plant markers. When I started my seeds, I wrote down a chart in my gardening journal so I'd know what each plant was and I actually looked at Walmart for some but they were like $3 a bag and I decided I could find a cheaper route. Wow! Did this new blind come at the right time! Here are the instructions for making your plant markers.

Tackle It Tuesday-Starting Seeds

My tackle was actually done on Saturday. I wanted everyone in the family to be involved and that was the day we were all here and it was a beautiful day outside! This is a project that we had been putting off. The project was starting our seeds. We are going to be doing container gardening so if our crop is late, I guess that's okay too. We used a Jiffy Greenhouse. This was $6.00 at Walmart and allowed for 72 plants. My kids had a great time and what made it even better was that last week and this one my twins theme at head start was gardens. We even took them on a trip to Walmart to look at all of the plants and gardening stuff and buy the stuff for this tackle. My kids had a great evening and I have my containers ready to transplant when they are ready. Here are some pictures from our tackle.

For more tackles, go to 5 Minutes for Mom.

Make Your Own Seed Starting Pots

This year I am doing container gardening in our home. I know this will save lots of money on produce this summer and the great thing about container gardening is that I can do it year round! I am starting my seeds this week. I don’t buy plants because most are priced 200% more than it would be to start your own. There are lots of ways to start your own seeds. I have used the Jiffy pellets and really like those. They seem to be pretty reasonable to buy too. I also found a way to make your own pots out of newspapers. This can save you even more money. Here are the instructions and you can find a wonderful video here to get you started.

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How To Make Your Own Seed Starting Pots
1. Take a single full sheet of black and white newspaper (color paper can have chemicals that may leach into your soil so it’s best to avoid it also avoid the sleek paper ads).
2. Fold the paper on its seam. Fold in half one more time. If your paper is larger in size you may have to fold it once more. Make a good crease on folds.
3. Take a glass and place it on its edge halfway onto the newspaper. Wrap the newspaper tightly around the glass and then shove all the edges down inside the glass.
4. Pull the newspaper off of the glass. Take the inside edges that you had previously folded into the glass and unfold them a bit to make the base of the pot. Press them down hard (you can use the base of your glass to really get it sealed down in there.
5. Transplant (or plant) your seeding into the newspaper pot with some good potting soil and place it in a tray and put it into direct sunlight.
6. When ready to move the plants into your garden simply remove the newspaper and place the plant in your garden.

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Thanks to Food Storage Made Easy for this great money saving idea!

Thinking About Container Gardening

Well, I have never had a garden since I have been on my own. We have always rented and my lifestyle just did not give me time to plant and raise a garden. I know excuses!!! Well, this year I feel this need to plant something. I am looking at container gardening, but need to do some more research on it because I do not have a lot of money to spend on the containers. Anyone know of the cheapest route to go? I saw on a blog I read that Gayle learned to make some containers out of newspapers. You can check that out here. I don't know if I have convinced my dh to do this and I think that is what makes it hard. We just put it off until we do not do it at all each year. At our Stake Conference this year, we were encouraged to plant a garden. Our Stake president talked about President Kimball's admonition for everyone to have a garden. Our Stake President felt everyone in our stake should make this a goal. Our Stake Relief Society also has encouraged sisters to get back to the basics and they also want us to think about planting an extra row for the hungry. So, I know it is important and I LOVE fresh produce! I just got to get it together!