Five Stupid Mistakes I’ve Made Planting Seeds Indoors

1. Throwing away the seed packet. I planted the seeds, tossed packets in the garbage. Yikes! Later I need further info on growing conditions etc but too late – gone.

2. Tearing off the name of the plant. Open the seed packet and plant seeds and save packet - yeah right. When I tore open the packet, I ripped off the plant name and now I have packets with no names on them and no idea which plants they belongs to. Moral - Always open from the bottom of the packet.

3. Growing plants in styro cups. One year I had a lot of cups left over from the summer. When my plants were small bushy things and were outgrowing the four- packs, I transplanted them into the styros. They grew well. Now to plant them outside. That was when I found that the roots had grown into the styro and could only be loosened by pulling, teasing out, cutting, tearing, swearing… Moral – plant in plastic nursery pots and flats. (or Tim Horton’s cups).

4. Not watching the grandchildren. Here comes the four year old! He has removed all the name tags from the flats and collected a nice little pile. Many mystery plants were grown that year.

5. And the worst mistake I ever made planting seeds was the following. I mix the planting medium (pro-mix) with warm water in a large plastic tub. One year I looked after my daughter’s cat. Cat had a kitty litter box in the laundry room but she also checked out the planting table, found the tub full of pro-mix and warm water and liked it a lot better. Moral – when you have a cat in the house, cover the planting mix