Making Planters for vegtable starts

If you need more ideas of planner for your garden try the the National Gardening Association.

National Gardening Association Planning Guide.  planning guide

Now that we have a good idea of what we want to make from our garden, the planting guide is in place and we know what we need to hunt for in seeds and plants we are going to prepare for planting in advance.

We can prepare the planters and plant seed starts inside.  This can be started about the middle of March if you have grow lights or about now if you don't and live in the Missouri, Zone 5 area.

Here are the instructions for making the Garden_Crafts seedling pots:
MATERIALS:Paper towel or toilet paper tubes
Scissors
Permanent marker
Potting soil

Container that will not leak liquid, preferable an outside container.

Divide the paper towel rolls or toilet paper tubes into equal parts, mine are 2 inches long.
I use a ruler with a pencil held at the 2 inch mark and then rotate the paper tube around against the pencil, with the end of the tube remaining at the end of the ruler.
Make a hole in the paper tube with a scissors and cut around at the mark.

Place the cut tubes into a container that will hold water. I use an outdoor container that later will have other
annual plants. Use something you can move easily outdoors after the seedling have sprouted.

Fill the cut tube with potting soil. Use potting soil that does not container fertilizer, I usually find my at the Dollar Store type outlets. The potting soil with fertilizer is formulated for flowers and will not supply your vegetables with the right kind of nutrients and if you want to organic garden the commercial fertilizer defeats the purpose.
Add your seeds based on the instructions on the back of your packages. Keep moist.
Yogurt cups could also be used for containers. They will not break down organically but they are great to use instead of buying plastic containers. Poke holes in the bottom and place in containers just like the card board ones.
To see a video on how to make these: How to Organic Vegetable planters

NEXT: will be planting the lettuce and spinach, the cold crop.  Lettuce and spinach can be planted now in Missouri, they don't mind cooler weather so we are going to try no till gardening with these crops.