Toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls, the cardboard tubes that are left over when the toilet paper or paper towels are used up, are a rigid tube that can be used as starter containers for your seeds and small plants. 

To use them, start out by getting a flat tray container with an edge that extends up about a half an inch.  I use a window box drip tray.  This tray will be used to hold the tubes as your plants grow.  Now take a toilet paper tube and cut it into three equal height tubes and arrange the cut tubes on the bottom of the tray.  If you use a paper towel tube, cut it into six equal size tubes.  Fill each of the toilet paper tubes about half way with clean quality garden soil from a garden center or hardware store.  Do not use ordinary dirt from the ground since it has all kinds of vegetation already living in it (weeds, grass, etc.) and you will not know what is your seeds and what is weeds.  Place your seeds on the top of the soil and then cover the seeds to the top of the tube.

The beauty of the cardboard tubes is that they will absorb and hold water for a longer period of time keeping the seeds or small plants wetter for a longer period of time.  In order to water the plants, pour the water into the bottom of the tray and not on top of the tubes.  Pouring the water on top of the tubes will bore holes in the dirt and may displace the seeds.  By pouring the water into the tray, the water will fill the bottom of the tray and the tubes and dirt will suck the water up through capilary action keeping the seeds or plants moist.

Starting your seeds in this manner will allow you to bring them inside if cold weather or frost is suspected extending your growing season by starting earlier.  Once your seeds have sprouted and grown a couple of inches, you can take the whole cardboard tube and plant it in the garden or other final destination.  Any roots that the plant grows will extend below the bottom of the tube and into the ground without problems.  The tube can also easily be removed if desired before transplanting.

Pea Seed In Toilet Paper Roll

The picture shows the toilet paper rolls in the window box drip tray with a pea plant growing from seed.

e planted three cucumber plants this year. Last year we planted three as well, but lost two to frost very early on in the season. This year we lost one so we were net gain of an entire plant.

As young plants when they only had two leaves on the whole plant, their small leaves turn white and start to curl up underneath themselves at the ends when the frost hit them. Soon the two leaves were no longer visible and the stalk would wither away. At the end of this season, when it got cold at night, the larger adult leaves would turn brown from the outside in tward the stalk even though the plant still had fruit left to grow and/or harvest.

The amount of cucumbers that we got were about one full grown cucumber a week out of the garden. For the two of us, that was just enough to make whatever we were eating for the week: salads, lunches, salsa, whatever.

For next year we are planning on planting three again. If we get all three of them to grow we will give some of the cucumbers away.

W

ith the vegetable garden season beginning to wind down in the midwest. It is never to early to begin to think about starting your vegetable garden for next year. If you have never grown a vegetable garden before, you should really consider starting one. There are several benefits and reasons as to why you would want to start your own vegetable garden.

9 Reasons to start your own vegetable garden.

1. This can be a great activity to do with kids. Kids will love to plant the seeds and then watch as they grow. It can be the children’s responsibility to water the garden each day, and then you will see the smiles on there faces when they see the first vegetables that are ready to pick

2. The trips to the grocery store should be less expensive. With food prices rising at a fast pace, you will have your own vegetables instead of having to buy the pricey ones found in your local grocery store.

3. With the possibilities of pesticides having serious health effects on us when they are used on vegetables, it is great to have your own garden because you know exactly what is going in there. If you are going to use fertilizers or pesticides you can choose what you want to use. You will hopefully go for an organic, natural type.

4. Gardening is fun. It is a great hobby to have and can be very relaxing and enjoyable!

5. Gardening gets you outside to enjoy nature. With the time spent caring for your garden from watering, to weeding, to caring for your plants it will put you outside to enjoy the warm [hopefully], nice summer weather.

6. Vegetables always taste better when they are fresh! In theory you could be pulling something out of the vegetable garden, washing it and then eating it all within 5 minutes.

7. You can add tools to your collection that will help you with everyday gardening tools. You can select hand tools, cultivators, tillers or many more!

8. Commercially grown crops are frequently chosen for their high yields, uniform appearance and long shelf lives rather than for superiority and flavor. When you grow your own, you can focus on the excellence rather than the economics.

9. There are thousands of diverse varieties of fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets tend to give attention to only the most lucrative and easy to sell. This means that our choice is often limited to a few select varieties of apple, for example, rather than the hundreds of traditional kinds that exist. Growing your own lets you pick the varieties you like the most, and research to find new ones you’ll hardly ever see on sale.

These are just a few ideas as to why someone would want to start there own vegetable garden. Everyone does it for there own reasons, but most of all we have fun doing it!

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