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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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Gardening Kick-Off (With DIY Paper Pots)

March 28, 2012

For the first time in 3 stubborn years, I’m following the directions on the seed packages that I picked up at Home Depot; I like to think that a green thumb shows like a dominant genetic trait, but clearly I was mistaken after moronically starting my seeds in February last year. What I’m getting at is, if you remember, it didn’t go so well.

Oops. Lots of spillage. This was not staged, this was really what I found when I lifted up the flipped plastic bin.

I’ve had a lot of luck with the seeds that I start indoors between April-May because I can let them bask in the heat of the sunroom (which feels more like a dry greenhouse on a warm day), but I never actually noticed that most seeds instruct you to plant them right in the ground, in the actual earth. Go figure.

As far as I can theorize, my brain is totally fooled by the fact that the whole neighborhood is bursting with color after a few unseasonably warm days, and if the fields of daffodils and my favorite magnolia trees are blossoming, why shouldn’t the zinnias and marigolds be beginning to follow suit?

Local magnolia tree explosion.

Whatever, I’ll put on my brain-brakes and hold up on planting the florals I’m craving for another month (or two, based on the Direct Sow map codes on my seed packs) and focus on the one, single package I picked up that does instruct me to start indoors: Hello, pretty impatiens, you’re going to look adorable as front garden edging.

Hello, pretty impatiens.

At a manageable 8″ height and promise to bloom all the live-long-summer, I’m pretty excited to try out these impatiens and line the edge of the newly extended and landscaped front garden with pretty pink blossoms.

Unlike last year when I did seed-starting in toilet paper and paper towel rolls, I decided to try something else this year. The plan to use newsprint from Pete’s Rockabilia catalogue left me with plenty of pages to make into little seeding pots (we don’t subscribe to the newspaper, so we don’t have actual newsprint laying around). This will just as eco-friendly and just as f-r-e-e as last years, although cuter, since many of the pages I used featured punk onesies. Generally adorbs.

Starting seeds with eco-friendly, DIY pods.

This tutorial isn’t rocket science, you can do it while you watch TV or listen to the radio or talk to Mom on speakerphone, it’s almost no effort. I see a few products for sale out there that “help” you make paper pots like this one, but I’m not entirely convinced I need to spend $14 on something that I figured out in 2 seconds myself.

With a single page cut in half lengthwise like shown above, I found it easiest after a little trial-and-error to fold over one edge of the sheet; cuffing it a little helped to keep the end-result a little bit more orderly.

Starting seeds with eco-friendly, DIY pods.

Create whatever size seeding pot that you need, I rolled mine tight so that it was about the size of the “O” you make if you’re making an A-OK sign with your finger. Following me? Side note: I have lots of hand wounds lately, sorry.

Starting seeds with eco-friendly, DIY pods.

Pinching the roll tight (no glue or staples required), I folded one end like a little package, creating a flat surface and base to stand the soil and seeds upright.

Starting seeds with eco-friendly, DIY pods.

Starting seeds with eco-friendly, DIY pods.

I drizzled the impatien seeds over Scott’s potting soil, which I had scooped into each little pot, and then watered the whole batch lightly and set them on the kitchen window sill to get some sun love. Hopefully within 3 weeks I have greenery, and by mid-May (after major fear of the last frost passes) I’ll have them in the ground.

Planted impatient seeds in DIY eco-pods.

P.S. Still in search of a good electric heating pad to set them on during cooler/shady days. Any safe recommendations?

What are you doing to get your seeds started this spring?

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Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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    merrypad

    Merrypad by Emily Fazio
    Instagram post 17902304861708711 Instagram post 17902304861708711
    Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️ Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️
    Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garl Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garlic went into the home garden: 10 rows [L>R] 6 whole Nootka Rose as an experiment, 3x8 Mennonite-grown cloves from Aman’s, and 6x8 (and, I think, total 112? notes are cryptic) “normal.”
#gardennotes #growinggarlic #garden2023 #whatisnormal #merrypadathome
    Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of mind! #garden2024 kicks off with my favorite biennial: elephant garlic! 15 cloves planted from small, to medium, to enormous. #gardennotes
    Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this i Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this is getting ooc, and I love it. 👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾

🧄 65% of the planting is in a new plot in the country. 🧄 Seeing if NR grows bigger with more sunlight. 🧄 Big @chasefarms cloves from 2021 were really productive in our home garden; can’t wait to see how they can show up next year in the new space. 🧄

Hand-turned a small bed, but big thanks to my sister, who rolled into town just in time to help me double its size (and did not complain once).
    One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stal One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stalks and 7 scapes, and I can’t wait to see this mammoth looks like when it’s pulled next month. #garlic2022 

Also, fierce springtime performance by parsley, chamomile, and self-seeded cilantro.
    Annual garlic notes #garden2022 ~315 cloves total Annual garlic notes #garden2022
~315 cloves total
50 in new, unfenced garden
Still need thick mulch on everything
Did a terrible job tracking varieties when I harvested, so it’s all a mix of hardneck now 😒
Added some big cloves from @chasefarms and look forward to adding some @fruition_seeds in #garden2023 when @porterfarmscsa delivers.
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