Nurturing Seedlings

My passion is gardening and saving money where I can, for several years now I have been saving my own seed from home grown herbs, fruit, veggies and flowers. 

After forever running out of punnets and small pots to raise my seeds in I've very successfully been using the empty cardboard cylinder from toilet rolls and empty margarine containers. I punch small holes in the bottom of the margarine containers then place the cardboard cylinders on end into the container and fill each one with potting mix.

I find I can get 4 cylinders into the square and round containers and 5 into the oblong ones. I then pop a seed into each cylinder and top with a little more potting mix then water.

Once seeds have sprouted and grown big enough to handle I water the plant well so the cardboard is wet through without falling apart then plant the complete cylinder into the garden without disturbing the plant or its roots. The wet cardboard retains the moisture and slowly rots into the soil providing compost as it well.

An added benefit of the round margarine container is that a plastic soft drink bottle cut in half fits well over the top to provide a mini hot house.

I've had great success with this method with all types of seed from lettuce and tomato to parsley and pumpkin as well as many flower varieties. Not only does this save me money on pots and punnets but also helps the environment by recycling waste products.
Contributed by Glenys