02/13/2026
🌱🪴 Starting seeds indoors is the cheapest way to fill your garden — and it's way easier than you think! Here's everything you need to know in one place so you can stop overthinking it and start growing.
- Choose the Right Seeds — not everything needs an indoor start. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and broccoli love it. Beans, carrots, and squash prefer direct sowing outside.
- Use Seed Starting Mix — never use garden soil or heavy potting mix. Seed starting mix is light, sterile, and holds moisture without drowning tiny roots.
- Pick Your Containers — cell trays, peat pots, yogurt cups with holes poked in the bottom, even egg cartons. Anything that drains works!
- Plant at the Right Depth — general rule is 2x the seed's width. Tiny seeds like lettuce and basil barely get covered, big seeds like squash go half an inch down.
- Water from the Bottom — set containers in a shallow tray of water and let the soil wick it up. Top watering blasts seeds out of place and causes damping off.
- Give Them Light — a sunny south-facing window works but a cheap shop light hung 2 inches above seedlings is the real game changer for stocky strong stems.
- Keep Them Warm — most seeds germinate best at 65-75°F. A heat mat under your trays speeds things up dramatically, especially for peppers and tomatoes.
- Harden Off Before Transplanting — don't just toss them outside. Set them out for 1 hour on day one, add an hour each day for a week, then transplant. Skipping this step kills more seedlings than anything else!
- Know When to Start — count backwards from your last frost date. Every seed packet tells you how many weeks of indoor head start that crop needs.
