How To Begin Seedling Indoors for Beginners

Family Garden Project: Part 2

Summer is just around the corner, and my family can’t wait to plant our 1^st family garden outside. Seedling indoors gave us a great head start. My name is Ella. I am the family dog of our blended family of 6. For those of you that have been following us for a while, you must remember our Family Bucket List for New Year. Last December, we created a bucket list of activities we wanted to do as a family in 2022. My Mom even made a Family FREE Bucket List Package just for you. My family decided to plant their first family garden based on that list. Even though your garden doesn’t need to start from seeds,  If you want to create yours, here is how to begin seedling indoors for beginners.

We have partnered with Home Hardware Elmwood Group for this beautiful project. We work with brands we genuinely use and trust. This post may contain affiliate links. We may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

5 Easy Steps to Seedling Indoors

To start seeding indoors, you don’t any need fancy accessories. Here is how you can get started in 5 easy steps.

Step 1: Plan ahead

To ensure your garden project is a success,  let’s go over what you need to know before planting your seeds. Check out Part 1 of our garden project blog post: How to prepare your family garden for beginners.

1. Choose vegetables you love;
2. Start small;
3. Choose a garden’s design and location.

It’s essential to sow seeds at the correct time. Check out this Almanac’s Planting Calendar for the ideal dates to start your vegetables in your area.

Step 2: What you will need

-Seeds

My family chose Home Gardener seeds from Home Hardware Canada. We had great success with our first seeding project.

-Starting pots or trays

My Mom and I bought two Jiffy Professional Greenhouse Trays. Each comes with a tray, 72 peat pellets and a clear dome. Jeff, the garden expert at Home Hardware, suggested my family purchase a bigger clear dome for each tray to keep our plants nice and warm as they outgrow the smaller domes. That was a great idea as it only took a few weeks for our plants to triple in size.

-Plant markers

My Mom used stir sticks as plant markers. They are easy to write on with a pen or sharpies.

-Small plastic containers and paper towel

These containers are to germinate the seeds before planting them. Without a doubt, this was another tip from Jeff, the expert.

Step 3: Preparing the seeds and the peat pellets from Jiffy

You will need a small container for each kind of vegetable you want to harvest. My family started with 8 vegetables (2 types of onions, bell pepper, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, zucchini and broccoli).

Place a small piece of damped paper towel at the bottom of the container and add between 10-15 seeds in each container then add a little bit of water. Don’t forget to place your plant markers and put all your containers somewhere warm with sunlight for 6-8 hours a day. They should start to germinate between 24-48 hours.

Check them often and make sure the paper towel stays damp. In the meantime, pour water into your Jiffy Peat Pellets as instructed or in your Pot trays. My Mom did this step 24 hours before transplanting the seeds to let the wet soil warm up. If it’s too cold, they may fail to grow.

Step 4: Planting the seeds

This step was my Mom’s favourite part. Make sure to follow the instruction located on each of the seed bags as some need to be at a certain depth and require specific spacing between each.  

Step 5: Taking care of your plant  

Please make sure the peat pellets don’t dry out but also be careful not to overwater them. Cover them with a plastic dome. If there are no holes for ventilation, make some with a toothpick. Finally, when the seedlings sprout, move the trays somewhere with solid daylight. Now, it’s time to watch them grow.

Final  Thoughts

Finally, now that you know how to begin seedling indoors for beginners, it is not too late to start your garden project. Our family is almost ready to build their raised planters from Home Hardware and bring our plants outside. Follow us and be one of the first to get our last blog post on our Family Garden Project Part 3: Gardening Tips for Beginners. We will also talk about which vegetables are good companions and which ones are not. In the meantime, please share with us your garden experiences or questions.