13 plastic free ways to start seeds.

Why would you want to have a plastic free garden?  Well, what about all that plastic in the sea, or the risk of chemicals leeching out of plastics and into our foods and our environment, or the fact that lots of plastics can't be recycled and hang around, literally, forever.  Forever. 

Thankfully, there are lots of ways to start you garden seeds off without plastic.

Loo rolls are my plastic free seed starter pots of choice.  You can cut them to size, fold over the bottoms to make pots, or use them full size.  I like to pop some into a larger container to help them stand up, fill them with compost and then plant my seeds.  When the seed is ready to plant out you can leave them in the loo roll tube, because it's cardboard it'll biodegrade.

I'm vegan, but my sis-in-law is a cake maker so I have a ready supply of cardboard (free range) egg boxes, which make perfect, ready divided, plastic free seed trays.

I've used loads of tea cups and old crockery this year, because they're plastic free and they make my greenhouse look prettier.  You have to be careful with drainage as there's no hole in the bottom to let out excess water.  I've found I'm more likely to have a problem with the soil drying out than being too wet, as it's quite warm in my greenhouse.  To prevent drainage problems you can add some gravel to the bottom of the tea cup, or drill a hole in the base and pop a saucer underneath.  

Terracotta pots are simple, classic and pretty.  You can buy them pretty easily and reuse them for years.  Lovely!

Lots of things can be sown directly in the ground, bypassing the need for any sort of pot to start them off!  I prefer to start most things off in pots because I plant in patches and drifts, then it's difficult to tell my seedlings from weedlings and I might hoe them out.  If you don't have a particularly weedy garden, you plant in straight rows, or you're planting big seeds (like beans) they'll be fine in the ground.

If you eat eggs then try growing seeds in eggshells (free range or home hens please!).

You can make round newspaper pots, with or without one of those newspaper-pot-making-thingies.

I like these rectangular newspaper pots too.

If you're in a rush to get your seeds started try this method, which uses a glass container with a lid and tissue paper, and claims to be super-speedy!

Make soil blocks for plastic free, pot free planting!

If you're a tea lover you can plant your seeds in used tea bags!  (EDIT - it's been rightly pointed out to me that some tea bags contain plastic, an online search can tell you whether your usual brand contains plastic.  If it does maybe it's time to change to a plastic free brand?!)

Make your own paper seed starter pots from scratch using paper pulp and a muffin tray.

Use citrus peel as a cute mini seedling pot.

How do you start your seeds off?  Do you garden plastic-free?  I'd love to know about it!

Linking up with Flaunt it Friday.

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