{"id":158637,"date":"2025-03-26T23:28:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/budget-food\/lazy-budget-chef-10\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T23:28:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:28:31","slug":"lazy-budget-chef-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=158637","title":{"rendered":"Lazy Budget Chef"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

I never remember to buy trays or start vegetable garden seeds until
\nafter our frost date. I end up directly sowing the seeds in my
\ncontainer garden. My garden takes a bit longer to start producing
\nfood we can eat.\n<\/p>\n

Most of the time I
\ncheat and buy vegetable plants that have already been started. It\u2019s
\na little more expensive way to garden but as a novice vegetable
\ngardener it was a better way to go.\n<\/p>\n

And also, the not
\nknowing when to start seeds for planting thing.<\/p>\n

I have the itch for
\nan outdoor project but the weather still says no way<\/i>. I
\nscratched that itch by planting baby bok choy seeds from last year\u2019s
\nseed stash in our Aerogarden and put it in darkish corner where I had
\nroom for it. The baby bok choy and arugula are doing well. It\u2019s
\nwild how wide the grow light throws light into that corner of the
\nroom now.\n<\/p>\n

I thought why not
\nlook up the best time to start vegetable garden seed in my area and
\nuse the Aerogarden grow light to start some?
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have any
\nfancy seed starting trays and even though I know seed starting
\ntrays are a click away here on Amazon<\/b><\/a><\/span> <\/b> it
\nwas a lazy weekend and I want to get this project started now<\/b>
\nwhile I had the time and energy to do it<\/span>.<\/b> (Disclosure:
\nI am including affiliate links for your convenience<\/i>.)\n<\/p>\n

Luckily, I had the
\nperfect and free seed starting trays on hand \u2013 clean and empty
\ntake out containers courtesy of our weekly Take Out Date Night. I try
\nto find ways to reuse plastic take out containers since I cannot put
\nthem in the recycling and in this case we ordered from a restaurant
\nthat we knew used plastic food containers like these<\/b><\/a><\/span>.
\n You can read my post 10 Ways to Reuse Plastic
\nTakeout Containers here<\/a> if you wan get more ideas on to organize pretty much everything you
\nown with take out containers.<\/p>\n

How to Use Plastic
\nTakeout Containers as DIY Seed Starting Trays
\n<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s so easy I
\nalmost don\u2019t have to write a tutorial but I will, because that\u2019s
\nwhat I do: I write tutorials and share things.<\/p>\n

1.<\/b> Poke a drainage
\nhole in the bottom of the container.<\/p>\n

2.<\/b> Optional: Fill
\nthe bottom of the container with rocks (I used this perlite here<\/a><\/span><\/b> <\/a><\/span>) to help with drainage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"how<\/a><\/div>\n

Drainage!<\/i><\/center><\/p>\n

3.<\/b> Fill the
\ncontainer with potting soil.<\/p>\n

4. <\/b>Plant the seeds
\nin the dirt. I let my seeds soak in water overnight since some of
\nthem were old. Some gardeners say you can just wet the seeds before
\nsowing, let them soak in water for a few hours. Other rebel gardeners
\njust plop them from the envelop into the dirt.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DIY<\/a><\/div>\n

\u00a0If your container has a clear plastic lid you can lightly cover the container to make a mini greenhouse seed starting tray. Most of my containers have outage lids which won’t work so I left them off of their containers.<\/i><\/p>\n

5. <\/b>Water the seeds
\nand put them in a sunny place. I put my DIY seed starting trays on a
\ntray to catch draining water so I won\u2019t ruin the wood surface
\nunderneath.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Pin this money saving gardening idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!<\/i><\/center><\/p>\n

6.<\/b> Watch them grow!<\/p>\n

When (if?) the
\nseedlings start growing and it is warm enough to plant them in a my
\ncontainer garden, I will harden off the seedlings by moving the tray
\noutside in the sun for a few hours a day increasing the time as the
\ndays pass until they are ready to spend a full day outside.<\/p>\n

Looking for more
\nvegetable gardening tricks, tips, and ideas? Check out the following
\noptions \u2013 and more! – below!<\/p>\n

Did you like this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Lazy Budget Chef RSS feed<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never remember to buy trays or start vegetable garden seeds until after our frost date. I end up directly sowing the seeds in my container garden. My garden takes a bit longer to start producing food we can eat. Most of the time I cheat and buy vegetable plants that have already been started. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[4995,2124,2902],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-158637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget-food","tag-budget","tag-chef","tag-lazy"],"yoast_head":"\nLazy Budget Chef - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=158637\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lazy Budget Chef - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I never remember to buy trays or start vegetable garden seeds until after our frost date. I end up directly sowing the seeds in my container garden. My garden takes a bit longer to start producing food we can eat. Most of the time I cheat and buy vegetable plants that have already been started. 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