Why hurt your back planting tiny seeds? Why thin seedlings of carrots, basil, or lettuce when you can make a seed tape instead? Heidi Ferris of Growing Green Hearts recommends this method for carrots, basil, lettuce, parsley, cherry tomatoes, radish and anything else with seeds so small they get lost when you drop them. It is a way to align and space tiny seeds to make a nice, neat, row of plants in your vegetable or herb garden without wasting time, seeds, or money. This tape is not sticky or plastic at all. Instead it is made with thin toilet paper that seeds grow through. The paper left behind decomposes over time to become part of the soil. When teaching about patterns, you may choose to alternate seeds. For example, an alternated carrot and radish seed tape is fun to watch as it grows because the radish seeds sprout about a week before the carrots.
Materials: tiny seeds, toilet paper, small cup of water, kids to help you, tray to carry to the garden, a row of space in your garden to plant the seed tape.
Steps
- Gather materials.
- Place a 6 square length of toilet paper on a table.
- Fold in one third of the tp lengthwise.
- Use your finger or dropper to create a row of drop dots down the doubled side of the tp with a drop dot every inch.
- Place one tiny seed on each drop dot.
- Fold the last third of the tape on top of the seeds. Add water drops to secure.
- Carefully place the seed tape onto a tray.
- When finished, carry your seed tapes outside on the tray and plant them into the rows at a depth as directed on the seed package.
