By growing lavender inside a Jiffy windowsill greenhouse, I show you how to start seeds in the springtime.
Here is the transcript for the video:
Hi, and welcome back to Well-Grown Home. My name is Sarah and today I’ll be showing you how to use a Jiffy greenhouse to start your seeds indoors. Here I have the windowsill greenhouse. This one holds 12 plants and so inside there are 12 peat pellets. It has the plastic top and plastic bottom. I have a variety of seed packs, but today I’m going to be growing the lavender. These are my 10 germination tips. What are you growing this year?
So typically, I try to get the McKenzie seeds. I have great success with them! I typically buy my seeds at The Home Depot or Bradford Greenhouses just because they’re quick and convenient for me to access. In here, I do also have herbs. I have other flowers; there’s a variety, but I’ll grow those later.
I’m going to start with the lavender and they are “sow easy” – they are McKenzie! There’s 250 seeds within this packet. I’m going to take off the packaging of the greenhouse here, and I’ll actually be using the instructions straight from it so there’s no misconceptions about what’s going on. They’re straight from the package itself.
So, I have my instructions off here. I’m just going to open up the greenhouse. It does have this plastic lid that will go on top later, and inside you can see the 12 peat pellets. So, they’re fairly small. You can buy these individually from Jiffy itself and many other retailers. They’re usually about 20 cents each if you want to reuse the windowsill greenhouse. I advise reusing as much as possible! We don’t want to waste plastics and discard them when we don’t have to.
I’m going to start with step number one – expand peat pellets by gradually
adding one and three-quarter cups, which is about 450 millilitres of warm water,
to the base tray. Pour off excess water when pellets are fully expanded.
There’s no turning back now… and we’ll wait for those to expand. We have completed step one and each of the peat pellets have expanded to about an inch, an inch and a half so they’re very voluptuous right now.
Our next step is step two – gently pull back the netting on the top of the pellets. Fluff and level surface peat. Sow two to three seeds per pellet and cover lightly with peat. Place dome on tray and keep in a warm location away from direct sunlight. That is a very long step; that’s like six steps in one, but we’re going to start with pulling back the netting on top of the pellets.
Pull back there; just loosen that up, just a bit. I’m going to keep going opening up all the tops gently fluffing up the peat moss. Go through all 12. I’ve gently pulled back the netting. I’ve fluffed up the peat and also levelled it across. Now, it’s time to sow the seeds. So I’m now just going to drop my seeds into the peat pellets just like this: one, two and three and then I’ll gently cover them up with the peat.
I’m placing this dome over top of the seeds and now moving the whole device over to a windowsill. I’m going to choose a south-facing window because they do get the most sunlight. So that’s going to be in my mom’s office; she’ll just get to deal with these growing seeds for a little bit. And then, I’m going to read you the next steps.
Step number three (should be like step seventeen or something but…) when the first seeds sprout, you’re going to pop it up like this. Put a dowel or a pencil or whatever you have inside here to keep some air flow. Once they’ve all sprouted you’re going to remove the plastic dome, and then once all of them have two leaves (so it’s a little bit bigger/has an actual leaf from each plant) you’re going to cut back the ones that are not as strong. You’re going to keep one plant per pellet.
Throughout this process you want to make sure that you still add some water when needed. As you can see here the pellets are dark because of the moisture that’s already inside them from soaking them. And then, you’re going to add a little bit of water when they turn light brown. So to harden off the plants, you’re going to take the opened greenhouse and place it outside. You’re going to keep it in the shade though not in the bright sunlight!
When you have it by a window inside, it is protected from the other elements like the wind and rain and everything. If you’re bringing it outside keep it in the shade. Especially if it is still springtime, sometimes, depending on your climate, it’s going to get colder at night you want to bring it inside.
Keep those seeds protected. Once it has gotten warmer you can put these in full sunlight and then eventually plant them into your garden if you wish or another container. When you’re doing that, you want to make sure that the pellets are right at the top. You keep the seeds and everything right in the pellet itself and you just want to make sure it’s all level up top.
You don’t want to bury these deep inside. You want to make sure that the soil is firmly around it so it doesn’t fall over or roll around. You also want to make sure you get that water to your plants. Make sure it’s getting the nutrients it needs… then you have a full plant!
I wish you luck in trying this method. Starting seeds inside can be fun. It’s also a great activity to do with kids and I wish you the best of luck with your gardening! Subscribe and follow @wellgrownhome on Instagram and TikTok. All blog posts are shared on wellgrown.home.blog.
What other topics would you like me to cover in future videos? Let me know in the comments!
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