How to start seeds and get a garden going in times of mass hysteria and economical upheaval
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| Photo by Christian Joudrey on Unsplash |
It might be a good year for a garden, considering everyone has a scarcity mindset and is cleaning off the grocery store shelves. Times are crazy stupid right now and people are in panic mode, stockpiling whatever they can find at the store.
Personally, I am too afraid to leave my house, and I plant a garden every year out of habit anyway. When I heard COVID-19 hit the US, I upped my garden anty. I started more seeds than usual and prepared my outdoor garden beds with some lovely alpaca manure I found locally.
Now I am getting texts and questions from people passing by my yard on how to start a garden. It is kind of late in the game to start seeds, but worth a shot. We could all use a little food security right now.
And with all of our time off, gardening will give us something productive to do besides feed our own anxiety. But by all means, do it alone. With your family or housemates. Stay away from others. At least six feet. Probably more.
If you have seeds, get them started. If you can still find seeds to buy, do it.
To start seeds, put them in little containers of soil — hey, make tiny planting containers out of all those toilet paper rolls from the TP you overstocked up on. I’m sure you’ve nearly used it all up by now, right?
Use old cans — you know from the canned goods you also stockpiled. Give them a good rinse and they are good to go.
Use dixie cups or plastic cups. Use newspaper. Whatever. Google it.
Find some soil. Good luck with mail-order delivery options. (I am still waiting on soil from Amazon and it may come too late to use for seedling transplants.)
Fill your containers and get those seeds in the dirt. Try to put a light on them if you can. You can mail order LED shoplights for pretty cheap. That’s what I did and that’s what I am using. Seems to be working fine.
Keep the soil in your containers moist and warm. Keep your mini garden inside and keep an eye on your cups of dirt. I use a spray bottle to water my seeds and seedlings.
It is so exciting to see the sprouts start to poke through the dirt. They will. It may take a few days or even up to week or so for seeds to wake up.
Germination time is usually mentioned on seed packets. Most of my seeds come from last year’s garden, so it is always a surprise to see what will come up. Coax those little seeds on with words of love and positive energy.
That’s it. Baby those babies until threat of frost in your area passes.
Prepare a garden bed outside. If you are lacking in funds, just find a plot of dirt and double dig it — turn the soil twice to soften it up. About six to eight inches deep. Rake it smooth. Plant seeds and seedlings when it’s time.
If you have the means, get some soil delivered from your local landscape company. Topsoil. Compost. Mix it up and make some beds.
Raised beds can be created out of wood, stones, concrete rubble, cement blocks, old tires, or just about anything that will sort of hold the dirt in. You might use the empty bottles from your liquor store hoard. Turn them upside down with the necks stuck in the ground to create a garden bed perimeter. It looks kind of cool with the sun reflecting off the colored bottles.
Get creative in your garden!
Amend your garden bed soil if you can. Add fertilizer. Most fertilizers need to be composted before they can be added to the garden or they will burn your plants, i.e. kill them. Camelid (alpaca, llama) manure doesn’t burn and can be added directly into the garden.
If you can buy garden soil from the landscape company, do it.
Start a compost bin. You know, save all those plant-based food scraps and give them back to the Earth. Your garden will love it. Composting is another garden lesson (Google it). You can also compost eggshells to add minerals to your garden.
So that’s it. Start those seeds and watch them turn into real-life plants. If your plants get too big for your tiny starting containers before it’s time to plant, transfer them carefully to bigger containers. Use what you have on hand (margarine, cottage cheese containers, etc.) or buy pots if you are wealthy. Whatever. Put in some clean potting soil and move those seedlings to a bigger home.
Because I over plant each seed start container, I have multiple seedlings sprouting in each pot. Normally I would thin them out and leave just one or two in the container, but because the world is crazy, I am trying to transplant every plant that looks healthy.
I am planning on having a big garden this year!
What about you? Are you ready to take your food security into your own hands?
Get that garden going, even if it is in pots and containers on your balcony. You can do it!
This year we need to bring back the Victory Garden in a big way. I hope to see gardens in all of my neighbor’s front yards.
If we all grow a garden, we can trade plants and harvest in the new economy we will have to create when this mess passes.
Good luck and stay healthy!
© 2020 K. A. Bennett. All rights reserved.
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