From little things, big things grow...

I used to be afraid of failure. So afraid, in fact, that I wouldn't even try new things in case it didn't yield the perfect results I was after. Over time I have come to realise that failures actually have a place in everyone's life, whether that be to teach us that we can't be perfect all of the time or to enable us to grow both emotionally and mentally.

Today, I tackled a project where the result is well and truly out of my hands and which has the potential to fail dismally - I planted my vegetable seeds!

The old traditional, non hybrid, open pollinated seeds I ordered from Eden Seeds last week arrived in the mail on Monday. I used their planting guide to determine which seeds out of the ones I purchased I could plant straight away and which would have to wait until other times throughout the year. Today I was able to plant the carrot, lettuce, beetroot, pea, onion and broccoletti seeds.

After doing some research on how to grow seeds I learned that I could use old egg cartons to plant my seeds in rather than fancy seed pots, so this saved us a little bit of money. Basically the seeds can be grown in each pocket of the egg carton and when they have grown enough to be transferred to the raised vegetable garden beds, the pockets are simply cut apart and planted straight into the soil. Watering the seeds in the egg carton prior to them being transferred weakens the structural integrity of the cardboard in the egg carton, so it will break down rather easily once planted - Nifty hey!

In order to plant seeds, you will need a bag of seed raising potting mix. I just used the Yates variety which was about $7 for a bag that will last me quite a while! Once the egg cartons were filled with the mix, I used the end of a pencil to make a hole in each of the pockets at the depth indicated on the back of the individual seed packets. I then popped a couple of seeds into each hole, covered the hole up and gave them a good water.

I plan on bringing my seeds out each morning and placing them in a nice sunny spot on our deck for the day, before popping them in the shed overnight to protect them. As such, I have placed the egg cartons on trays to enable me to move them easily. Here is a picture of my seeds,.complete with little 'seed flags' on the deck this afternoon:

I will keep you up to date with the progress of the seeds and hopefully we will be seeing some sprouts within a week or two!