If you started gardening last year, you might have noticed that it was hard to come by some plants as the gardening industry experienced a massive uptick in popularity. You might have also realized that starting a vegetable garden with bedding plants from a garden center can turn into a fairly pricey task.

I fully support independent garden centers, I think the prices they sell plants for are fair considering what goes into it, especially somewhere like Alberta. But, I also understand that dropping hundreds of dollars on plants every spring is not affordable for many people, myself included.

The bonus is, you can plan and start your garden from seed for a lot less money, and it's not as difficult as you might think. A pack of seeds will run you $3-7, depending on how specialized or fancy of seeds you choose. Rarer plants or organic seeds can cost quite a bit more, but the value is still pretty phenomenal. For that $3-4 pack of seeds, you can get upwards of 50 or 100 plants in some packs, instead of just one in a bedding plant.

I’ll include the essential elements you need to start your garden from seed this year, and I’ll also list some of the nice to haves, but non-essentials.

The bare minimum seed starting supplies you need is:

Seeds
Planting containers
Starting soil mix
Light
Watering device

Additional nice to haves

Seed starting trays and containers
Dome covers for your trays
Growing lights
Seedling heat mat
Fine rose watering can
Timers for your lights
Heirloom or organic seeds

The Bare Basics For Seed Starting

The bare minimum is seeds, something to grow them in, and a container, and light. This can be as simple as a pack of seeds from Canadian Tire or the dollar store, some dirt to grow them in, and a leftover plastic tray from fresh veggies.

There are a few things to be careful of when starting seeds, though.

While you can grow seeds in lots of different things, from paper towel to the tiniest bit of dust in a sidewalk crack, it's not a great idea to start seeds in your home with dirt from your garden or flowerbeds. It’s best to use a specialized seed starting mix.

The reason is that seeds need a very humid environment to start. So, you usually keep a lid, cracked open a little bit, over them. With ordinary potting soil or garden soil, this can encourage mold or bacteria that isn’t great for your seedlings.

Seed starting mix is sterilized, so it should have no existing bacteria or mold sports of any kind in it. You don’t’ have to get expensive soil, but try to get seed starting mix if you can. If you are leery about buying cheap soil, you can sterilize the soil yourself when you bring it home. There are many gardeners who sterilize their soil when they bring it home by baking it in the oven to kill off any organisms in the soil. You’ll have to google how to do that because I haven’t done it yet, so I cannot tell you how.

How to Start Your Seeds

Put a few inches of dirt into your containers, but don’t fill them too full. You don’t want the soil or seeds to wash out over the sides when you water.

Plant your seeds according to package directions. Make sure to actually read the directions before you start. Some seeds want to be covered by soil, and some want to be sprinkled on top. Some need to germinate with bright light, and some want to germinate in darkness, like pansies, which I’m never growing from seed again (at least until next year).

If you’re using an old take out container or a plastic produce container, make sure you poke a few holes in the bottom to allow for drainage. We want seedlings to have a humid environment but not to be soaked in water all the time. Set the container on a tray to catch excess water that leaks out. Keep the lid for your container, and set it on the top, but don’t close it tight.

How to Water Your Seedlings

For watering, I recommend getting an old pop bottle. Something about 500 ml is easy to handle. Heat up the end of a pin or a needle over a candle flame, and poke 5-7 tiny holes in the lid of the pop bottle. Wash it thoroughly, and then fill it with water and put the lid back on.

This will allow you to gently water your seedlings without washing them away or damaging the seeds. Set your tray in a sunny windowsill, and once your seedlings come up, get a lamp and aim it directly at the seedlings, at fairly close range, like 2-3 inches above the leaves.

Seed Starting Nice To Haves

If you have a little more budget to play with, you can add a few more things to your seed starting arsenal that can make the process a little easier and may make it possible to grow quite a bit more.

Seed starting trays and planting cells are super handy for starting your garden from seed. The trays allow you to hold all your trays of seedling containers in one place and usually have a clear plastic dome lid to provide the humid environment that seeds need.

A seed starting heat mat underneath your trays can help you achieve the ideal temperature that some seeds need for germination, which should improve your germination rates.

Grow lights make it much easier to grow strong and small plants. Without grow lights, seedlings can get leggy and weak. Some plants can be pinched back to encourage bushier growth, but either way, it's better if your seedlings don’t get tall and weak, reaching for the light.

Timers for your lights takes away the hassle of having to turn your lights off and on every day. The timers will turn your lights on early in the morning and turn it off late at night, and you never have to remember.

Heirloom or organic seeds are more expensive, but you may have better germination rates with them than you do with very cheap seeds. With some veggies and flowers, it doesn’t really matter. Dollar store sunflowers are probably going to grow just as well as organic ones, same with sweet peas or petunias.

It's handy to have a watering can with a very fine rose on the tip for watering seedlings, or you can make your own out of an old pop bottle, as I mentioned above.

We’ve just ordered our seeds for this year, in spite of not knowing if we’ll be here for the entire growing season or not. So in the blog, in just a couple of days, my next blog about how and where to order seeds from will go up.

Are you starting your garden from seed this year? Let me know in the comments, or tag me on your social media posts, @PlantLadyBriana; I’d love to see what you’re growing this year!

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What You Need To Start Your Garden From Seeds This Year