Tips to sow seeds using household items

It doesn't take a whole lot of equipment to start a garden. In fact, you likely have what you need in your kitchen to begin the process of sowing seeds. For really efficient methods, round-up these simple tools and get growing!

Instead of buying a dibbler — the wooden garden tool used to poke seed holes in the soil — why not use a chopstick or pencil? Same holes, no cash outlay. A third choice: A full-size folding nail clipper, the blunt arm of which you can poke into the soil and twist. Later, when it comes time to transplant seedlings, use the same arm of the file to work a seedling and its root ball from the seed flat.

When sowing seeds directly into a garden plot, put them in an empty dried herb or spice jar — the kind with a perforated plastic top. Then shake them over the bed or along a row. This improvised sower works best for medium-sized seeds.

Seeds of impatiens, lobelia, carrots, lettuce and a few other flowers and vegetables are so miniscule that they're difficult to sow evenly. To remedy the problem and make seedlings easier to thin out once they sprout, combine the seeds with grainy foodstuffs like semolina, couscous, grits, or dried herbs, all of which will put some space between diminutive seeds.

Small paper drinking cups make excellent seed starters. They're the right size, you can poke a drainage hole in the bottom, and they're easy to cut apart when it comes time to plant your seedlings. Note that we specify paper cups: Plastic-foam cups might sit in your local landfill until your great-great-grandchildren have come and gone.

Turn a child's wagon into a seed cart on wheels. Poke holes in the wagon bottom with a screw-hole punch and hammer, then fill the wagon with peat pots or expandable peat pellets, labelling them as you go.

If you're hesitant to start a garden, these handy tips make it so easy, it will turn your brown thumb green in no time!