As mentioned in one of my first posts I tried to grow some Sunflowers from seed, I managed to see some beautiful results late summer, however I also saw a forest-type creation in a small area of the garden; not quite the neat row of Sunflowers I had imagined. It's far more difficult than I thought to sow the seeds exactly 45cm apart and in a straight line (or maybe it isn't, and I'm just a bit rubbish)!
I discovered through Thompson and Morgan a few varieties of vegetable seeds sold as seed tape. What is seed tape you may ask? One of the best inventions for sowing seeds is for sure. Pre-spaced seeds on a tape roll; you just dig a trench in your soil to the desired depth (depending on what seeds you are sowing) and roll it out.
However, they are a little more expensive than the normal packet of seeds, and as someone who is quite frugal, I thought of a way to cheat the system. So here it is - homemade seed tape.
You will need:
1 toilet roll
1 packet of seeds of your choice (I'm starting with some sweet peas!)
1 tube of super glue/ PVA/ whatever is in your cupboard
It's super simple. Just take your toilet roll end and roll it out to a metre or so (length of the planned trench).
Read your packet's instructions for the optimum spacing for your seeds. Take your glue and dab a little blob that many cm/mm apart.
Carefully, possibly with tweezers if too small for fingers, take your seed and drop into the glue. It should start to look like this below -
Leave to dry for 15 minutes or so. The seed tape is now ready to go into the soil. The toilet paper will just disintegrate into the soil and leave the seeds to germinate away.
Or, as I'm doing, roll them up neatly and tuck into the seed packet ready to roll out in March when the weather is better.
Hopefully that's a money saving tip for you, and who doesn't like arts n crafts on a miserable evening! Let me know of any other great gardening tips - the more I can learn for this coming year, the better!
xo
