I started getting spring fever in March. After all, March 21 is the start of the season. I couldn’t into the garden beds easily, but I knew that cool season crops could be started. In the past, I used clamshell packages from a neighborhood bakery, but they were shallower than I wanted. Pop bottles and milk jugs could give me the same effect as the clamshells, while also giving a deeper bed of soil. Here’s what I’ve done.
Results. Well, the thermometer has been a roller coaster ride since I planted on March 6 — it’s Iowa, where we keep it real with a healthy mix of snow, frost, air conditioners, sun, shorts, and furnaces within a two week span. I finally have some baby plants, and I recently laid down more seed in the milk jug with lettuce. Once I added water to the milk jug with kale, I got sprouts. Here’s how the plants look after a month:
It’s really too early to know if these plants will take off or be hardy enough to thrive outside of their protective little homes. I believe they’ll be naturally hardened off. I also know that they’re safe from rabbits, the bane of my existence, while they’re in the milk jugs. I am ever searching for a good way to keep the rabbits away.