Self-Reliance Challenge: Seed Starting

This year I decided I wanted to learn one new skill a month to become more self-reliant. For April, I chose seed starting so I could learn to grow a vegetable garden this summer.

I shared in my self-reliance challenge blog post that in 2016, I failed at my first attempt at gardening. We had built a raised bed garden but it didn’t have high enough fences and our dogs loved to dig in them. I had small success with a raised bed garden on our back patio last year, in 2021, so I know I can do it on a slightly larger scale this year.

I bought two of these 72 pod seed starting windowsill kits from Canadian Tire. This way I could get my seedlings ready for planting the moment it’s warm enough outside in Ottawa!

Because I started everything quite early in the process, I’ve already had to re-pot basically everything into larger pots before transplanting outside. Our last frost isn’t supposed to be until early to mid-May so I’ve got a few more weeks to go.

We ended up getting a greenhouse shelf from Canadian Tire so I can put as many plants as possible near our back window. The one thing that I did learn

Here are the plants that I’m going to attempt to grow this year!

Seedling Plants

Plant Directly Outdoors

Garden Plan

So here’s the game plan for the garden. I had thought about doing a u-shaped garden but I’ll be making one long rectangular one instead for our backyard space.

Wish me luck!!