If you are someone who has never grown plants from seed you are really missing out. While it is easy to buy a fully grown plant there is great satisfaction in following the process through from sowing the seeds and caring for the seedlings until they are large enough to be planted outside in the garden bed. I found this guide by Matt from South East Michigan Homestead over on the Instructables website. There are just five steps which are clearly explained in the guide.

Have you ever thought about growing a garden, but just havent yet?
Maybe you do grow a garden but dont like paying the high cost of buying plants every spring?
Well than this is the Instructable for you. I will show you step by step, on how I start my garden inside and maintain the plants until they are ready to be planted outside. This is really easy, even those of you that think you have a “brown thumb” will be able to do this. So lets move on to the next step.

Step 1: What you will need

WHAT YOU WILL NEED
First you will need an area to grow in, you can grow anywhere as long as you have warmth and light.
Most of us have somewhere in the house that is warm and free of drafts, light can be achieved several ways,
you can grow near a south facing window, you can use fluorescent shop lights like I do. or you can use red and blue LED’s.
Next you will need something to grow them in, I use mini greenhouses that you can buy at any home store, they don’t cost a whole lot either, $5 each to grow 72 plants, but you can use anything that will hold soil and be able to have drainage from the water.
You will need soil, potting soil works really well because it is light and lets the roots form better. But once again use what you have, it will work.
And finally you need seeds, Seeds can be acquired just about anywhere. Choose the varieties of vegetables that you will eat, there’s no point in growing something you don’t like.

Step 2: Planting your seeds

Once you have established where you are going to grow, and have your light source, growing containers and seeds, you are now ready to begin. You need to fill your containers with your growing media, (soil, peat pots, etc.). Once they are filled you can start putting in your seeds. When planting the seeds a rule of thumb on how deep they should be planted is, plant as deep as the seed is long, so most seeds don’t need to be planted deep. I normally put my seeds on top of the soil and lightly cover them with soil. Also for best results put 2-3 seeds per spot, due to the fact that seeds do not have a 100% germination rate, which means that not all of them will sprout. And if you get lucky and all 3 seeds sprout, you can keep the best and strongest looking one and pull the others out. Now its time to water them, another tip is to water with warm water the first time, this will warm the soil and help aid in sprouting the seeds. Once they are watered cover them with the greenhouse lids or if you are using a different container cover it with plastic wrap, this will create a nice warm humid environment to help your seeds sprout. Don’t forget to label them when you plant so that you know what seeds are which plants. After a few day you will see the sprouts coming up through the soil.

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