Get a Head Start on Your Vegetable Garden

One of the things that I love (and hate) about Texas is that it's not uncommon to have 70-80 degree days in February. While part of me mourns the fact that we NEVER get snow, I appreciate the fact that this weather is amazing. The kids spend their afternoons riding bikes, the breeze rustles the curtains as I work, and it always creates an itch in me to get my spring gardening and landscaping started. Apparently I'm too new at this to realize that it's February and planting season doesn't start until March. But I'm too impatient to wait for that.

So today I decided I'd at least get a head start on what I could, giving me something to do until the official season starts. The kids and I went and picked up some seeds last night for some of the vegetables we wanted to grow. Some of our veggie picks included tomatoes (Better Boy and Jelly Bean varieties), squash and zucchini, carrots, and beans. Tonight the kids and I gathered a few supplies and headed out to the back yard to plant our seeds. This was their first year to really help with the garden (I never thought they'd be that interested), and they were both so excited!

SUPPLIES: 

• Egg cartons (FREE) 
• Potting soil ($5) 
• Seeds ($1.28/pack)

On a sidenote, this is my cat Snuggles (named by my five year old). She's a pretty cool cat. Just thought you should meet her.

The process was incredibly simple. We just put dirt into the cartons, put 1-2 seeds in each hole, and covered them with more dirt. When we were finished, we watered them with a spray bottle (so as to not displace the seeds) and put them in the kitchen window.

Overall, this was an incredibly easy project that took virtually no time to complete. Not only that, but I saved a significant amount of money by starting my plants from seed rather than paying the price for potted plants at the nursery. Now I'll just have to exercise patience as I wait for these to grow, and in the mean time, I can be planning and preparing my beds. (More on this soon!)

How do you try and get a head start on spring?