Photo courtesy of photofarmer at Flickr.com.
Human ingenuity never fails to impress us; it’s no surprise we humans have managed to spread all over the world (and beyond) using nothing but our brains and hands. One small example: seed tape. As the name implies, this is a long piece of biodegradable paper tape studded with seeds at regular intervals. Instead of having to worry about handling teeny tiny seeds (turnip and carrots seeds are especially bad), or for that matter about spacing and thinning seeds as they come up, all you have to do is dig a narrow trench, unroll the seed tape in it, cover it up, and water.
Now, that’s amazingly handy, but you do have to pay for the convenience with a high price. Enough seed tape to plant a mid-sized garden can run into the hundreds of dollars—and you can’t always find seed tapes for everything you care to plant. Well, if you’re willing to put your own handiness to work, you can solve both those problems by making your own seed tapes that work just as well as the store-bought kind. If nothing else, it’ll give you and the kids something to do in the winter.
All you really need is seeds, water, flour, and either paper towels or newspaper. First, cut the paper into narrow strips. Next, mix water with your flour in the standard kiddie formula for homemade glue, and use a small paintbrush to brush it onto the paper strips. Then put your seeds on the gluey paper strips according to the spacing on the seed packets, and leave everything to dry overnight. By the way, if you have cats, we recommend you leave the seed tapes somewhere they can’t reach, or they may be in for a sticky surprise.
The next day, you can either carefully roll the seed tapes up and put them away in anticipation of spring, or, if it’s warm enough, go ahead and plant them in the standard-seed tape manner. Just be sure that you plant them seed-side up and water them well, so the seeds have an easier time reaching for the sky. One other pointer: don’t make the seed tapes too far in advance, because over time, the glue may become too dry, and the seeds will fall off. Even the seeds that do stay on will become less likely to germinate if you wait too long.
If you don’t have any kids to stick on this project or don’t have the time, check out our vegetable garden seed mat!
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