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Some things should be left to the professionals…

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Encouraged by the free landscape designer (and the sage advice from my awesome readers), I decided to save some money and grow several plants from seeds. The $1.25 seed packets vs. the costly $6.99 plants looked to save me nearly $100.

Realizing my planting skills barely rivaled a 4th grader, I sought planter packs designed for small children. I spent $10 on supplies, read the directions (twice), and gently planted the seeds.

According to the seed packets, sprouts would appear in 10 days.

2 weeks passed and there was no green in sight.

After another long week, I finally gave in after day 24 and threw the sproutless pots into the green recycle bin.

A few days ago, while trimming some hedges, I opened the bin, tossed the branches, and noticed something funny…

Every single pot I had angrily thrown away was sprouting with life in my recycle bin. Plants are safer in my trashcan than they are with me.

I can’t afford a landscaper… but my husband is hereby the official garden keeper in this house. I’m sticking to what I’m good at – cleaning!

Stupid Plants.


10 Comments

  • Reply FrugalMe |

    Persistence is the name of the game. i thought that I was the same, not being able to grow stuff. In fact the joke in the family was that the plant just be near me and it will die. Well that change when I started working on me, and now I have a few plants growing in my apartment. In fact one I do not water a lot and it seems to be thriving well. So keep at it and you will discover that green thumb.

  • Reply jaye |

    I’ll bet your seedlings just needed some heat, which the compost gave them! Did you take them out and plant them?

  • Reply mom |

    That’s why we didn’t have you in charge of the plants dear. Maybe things will change now that you’ve shown those plants whose really in charge. (Is Chris any better than you?) Love you sweetheart, mom

  • Reply baselle |

    Next time, plant, water, let dry a bit and put your planter packs on top of the refrigerator. Its the warmest place in the house.

    Controlled benign neglect is the name of the game here. 🙂 Many gardeners find out that the best place to find healthy seedlings is the compost pile.

  • Reply JvW |

    I just bought a ton of seeds today – maybe I’ll throw them out instead of sowing them.

  • Reply emmi |

    Fullproof seedling production:
    step 1) plant seeds in seed starter mix (by the way, you don’t need anything expensive here, paper cups or even egg cartons work, but you MUST have seed starter not-actually soil otherwise you can get root rot and other issues. I simply save up those cheap plastic quad and six packs from buying commercial seedlings to use the next year. Use an old cookie tray or an inverted large plastic storage lid or something else to set it all on so it won’t leak when you water.
    step 2) insert broken takeout chop sticks into the edges of your little “pots” at a spacing of 6 inches.
    step 3) water
    step 4) cover with plastic wrap and weight the edges down. It doesn’t have to seal tight, but it should be mostly closed so you don’t have to remember to water.
    step 5) put in sunny window
    Wait for seedlings. When seedlings reach the height of the plastic wrap, remove those containers out from under the plastic. You have to water those not under plastic daily.

    BTW, 10 days is the median time for sprouts, the standard deviation can be 10 days around that. But check the dates on the seed packets when you buy them. Make sure they are for that year’s planting.

  • Reply Nicole |

    That’s hilarious! I planted all of my herbs in the garden and they are all now little nubs. Turns out grasshoppers like herbs to, grrrr!

So, what do you think ?