Sustainable Vegetable Starts: Homemade Soil Mix and Pots

You can’t always rely on the starts you pick up at the garden center to be sustainably grown, and you never know what varieties are going to be available.  One easy way to eliminate the uncertainty around garden starts is to grow your own.Living off the grid at Dancing Rabbit I have to think about the amount of power I use giving artificial light to starts in the late winter when solar power is minimal.  It’s also a difficult time to start seedlings because I can’t just turn up the thermostat and burn more fossil fuel to heat my home.  I’ve learned organic methods of starting vegetables like tomatoes and peppers that use far less power, take advantage of passive solar energy,  and reduce plastic waste.  I also find the methods I use are far less work and more reliable than less sustainable methods.   This is yet another area where appropriate technology can make a big difference.