The Dollar Tree Item That Makes Starting Garden Seeds So Much Easier

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For the determined homesteader, no space is too small, even one that measures a mere 9 inches by 6 inches by 4 inches. Despite being the gardening equivalent of a tiny house, the small space is still big enough to start a season's worth of seedlings and still get excellent results. And what is this tiny garden extraordinary? Why it's the Dollar Tree plastic box with a snap-top lid. Truth be told, this box looks more like the Tupperware lunchbox that grade school kids used to carry their lunches in the early 1980s than a place for a mini garden. That's what makes it an ingenious hack that's worth a second look if you're a budding homesteader.

The Dollar Tree makeshift mini plastic greenhouses are like the cold-frame boxes of yesteryear, with the old storm windows of the cold-frame boxes being replaced by a snap-together plastic lid. Despite the boxes' size, companion plants like zinnias, cucumbers, watermelons, cilantro, and much more can spend their first few weeks sleeping comfortably in these little seed beds until they're ready to be transplanted. Still not convinced?

For a number of reasons, the size of these containers is an advantage. Many people these days are interested in homesteading. However, they may not yet own the land required to have acres and acres of crops. With the help of a Portable Mini Greenhouse with a PVC Cover from Home-Complete Store, they're able to learn how to start and grow plants on their deck or in mini balcony greenhouses. The footprint of the tent greenhouse may be a little more than 5 feet high, 2 feet deep, and 1.5 feet wide. It may be difficult to fit much larger trays and pots in these small spaces, but the tiny Dollar Tree containers fit with no trouble. The seedlings will need the "double greenhouse" effect for a while, meaning that they can both be in the greenhouse and in their covered boxes, at least until they germinate. This keeps temps and moisture levels even for them.

Later, when the plants become bigger and need to be transplanted into their larger DIY Dollar Tree container garden homes, it'll be easier to move one or two small plastic boxes than a large, floppy tray of plants. This makes it easier than how seedlings are often transported from one place to another. As a corollary to this, if one box of seeds is sprouting faster than the others, it's just a matter of moving a single box instead of the whole tray. This allows you to transplant companion flowers, veggies, and berries when they're ready to move without having to cart your whole garden around in the process.

Many people who start their seedlings from scratch each year begin the process by soaking their plant seeds in water or hydrogen peroxide for 12 to 48 hours, depending on the seed. This practice is especially helpful for seeds that have hard outer hulls because soaking helps the plant break through the seed's shell more readily. There are some specific seeds that should be soaked before they're planted in the ground, including cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, beans, beets, and corn. Because they're easy to carry, can be moved to warmer parts of the house or garden shed while the seeds germinate, and help to keep spills to a minimum, the Dollar Tree snap-top container boxes are a pretty ideal place to water-germinate all of these seeds and more.

Finally, if you have leftover seeds that you want to plant next year, you should find a place to store the seeds that's cool, dark, and dry. Any opened seed packets can be taped shut in their original packets so that you can identify them at a later date. And then, once the seed packets are prepped, they can be stashed in a Dollar Tree snap-top plastic container and hidden away in a pantry or cupboard until growing season next year.