About two weeks ago I did a post about Planting Flower Seeds And Recycling. This was a plan made last year and it was time to act as time is of the essence, it can't be postponed endlessly. Some seeds can wait till March or even April, others need to be planted as early as January or February.
I used to buy seedlings from the farmers market as it's more easier to have them ready, plus you can see what you are buying, can choose colors, which is a huge advantage. This year however I decided to do it myself and to do a little bit of recycling and repurposing as well as there's not much I can do with recycling waste in my city.
The seeds were planted on 22 January but had no hopes at all as the seeds were so tiny, I've never seen such tiny seeds in my life. These are the running petunia seedlings that showed up after only eight days.
My dad told me he's never had seedlings from running petunia seeds, so I thought it's better not to hope for much.
Imagine my surprise to see the little green seedlings growing out of the soil only after 8 days.
I can't post photos of the entire collection but believe me, I guess all the seeds have germinated and growing seedlings already. This is a huge success as far as I am concerned and it confirms my believe according to which the right ingredients, knowledge and good care bring results.
Now that the seedlings are growing, they need as much light as possible. Otherwise they will be struggling to get light and grow faster than they should, which results in being weak and too tall before the day. Thus all the "pots" were moved in front of the window where they can have plenty of light and warm temperature as well.
Watering is also something to monitor closely as they need the right amount. Too much water will kill them and lack of water can make them dry out.
As you can see the seedlings are crowded because I could hardly plant just one seed, so I had to drop more than one. This means very soon, as soon as they are grown to be at least 5 cm tall, need to re repotted to have space to grow and avoid roots to grow into each other. And here comes in composting.
Composting
For those of you who are not familiar with this term, here's the definition given by Wikipedia:
Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed in a process called composting. This process recycles various organic materials otherwise regarded as waste products and produces a soil conditioner (the compost). source
Composting is a widespread method to get organic fertilizer and it's the best if you ask me. You can buy organic fertilizer from the specialized stores, like this one.
It's 100% organic, stimulates the redistribution of the nutrients and the reserve substances in the young parts of the plant that have active growths, increases the intensity of photosynthesis and prolongs the life of the organs that ensure photosynthesis in the plant and these are just a few things this fertilizer does.
You can make your own fertilizer by using compost, also made by you.
As much as I love diversity, weed can kill your plants in no time, which means weed needs to go. One method is to use herbicides, a substance that is toxic to plants and is used to destroy unwanted vegetation but it's not ideal as you can contaminate your plants with it. Once it goes into the soil, you have no control over it. It's recommended to avoid it as much as possible.
The other way is to remove weed manually or by using some kind of gardening tool. This is far more efficient and ecological than the first option. We do this every year to avoid contaminating everything. Some herbicides can cause cancer.
What you see on the photo is part of the weed I removed manually at the end of May from the raspberry.
And this is the composter in which all the weed and organic waste goes into during the year. It's not a big one, but it gets filled countless times as it shrinks as the compost is made. So all the weed went into this compost barrel.
The Next Step
These are the little pots that young seedlings go planted into when separating this bunch.
These are made of recycled paper and as you can see on the photo, it's biodegradable, you can plant these with the seedlings. So the next step would be repotting the seedlings into these, using the proper type of soil along with some compost that acts like a natural fertilizer. Circle of nature, it's free, you just have to make an effort and you'll have the best crop ever.
The main idea in composting is to use as many type or green waste as possible. Everything that is "green" and clean can go into compost. Nature makes sure you have enough green for compost as weed grows whether you like it or not. You just have to collect, put everything in the composting bin and nature does the rest.
My dad uses compost every year for growing seedlings and the result is clearly visible. All those important nutrients can help the seedlings grow faster and healthier.
Regrets
One of my biggest regrets is that I can't do composting in the city. Other countries pay attention to this aspect and collect "green", biodegradable waste but not here. It'll pass a good few years till something will be done regarding recycling and collecting recyclable waste and most like sections will be given, otherwise they won't do anything.
While At The Other Side Of The World
Today I came across a video on Twitter about Kenyan farmers have found a solution to deal with water weed that invaded Lake Victoria. They are collecting the weed and making compost out of it, then use it to fertilize the land. It's a win-win situation, the best solution for the problem.
There's always a solution, you just have to look for it and maybe make some sacrifices.
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Gardening is so very rewarding! No matter whether you have acres or do it in pots on a balcony!
Use herbicides and kill bees! So many alternatives... like yours great post. @tipu curate
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