Stop The Seed Struggle With A Gardening Hack That Makes Planting A Breeze

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Growing your own vegetables, herbs, and flowers from seeds you've sown in the garden is one of the most rewarding parts of spending time in your yard. It's amazing to watch those small plants sprout and blossom into edibles and gorgeous blooms from those tiny seeds you placed in the dirt. You probably already know how and when to direct sow seeds in your garden, but this brings us to a common problem faced by many gardeners — how to sow those really tiny seeds in the most economical way possible. To end your struggle, there's a clever gardening hack that uses a simple squeeze bottle to dispense those minute seeds that are so difficult to handle.

While it's super-easy to sow larger seeds, like those of beans, corn, pumpkins, and squash, many plants have the tiniest seeds that are particularly difficult to sow thinly enough without wasting them. Although you can plant these vegetables in your garden just by sprinkling the seeds, if you scatter these using your fingers, you'll often end up with far too many plants that you'll have to thin out once the seeds germinate. This seems like such a waste because you end up discarding those tiny seedlings that put in all that effort to sprout and grow. The biggest culprits for tiny seeds are carrots, celery, lettuce, leeks, parsley, cosmos, and oregano. Luckily, the right squeeze bottle is going to solve your problem.

You can purchase a small squeeze bottle from a variety of retailers, including Walmart, Target, and Amazon, which has, for example, these Salbsever plastic squirt bottles. Just make sure that the hole isn't too large so that the bottle won't dispense too many seeds at once. You'll probably find that more than one seed will come out at a time, but this is far better than having tens of them being deposited in each hole. Besides, it's normally recommended that you place at least two seeds per hole in case one doesn't germinate. 

Another useful tip when sowing seeds in this way is to use an empty egg carton to make the holes or indentations in the garden bed. You can then decide whether to put seeds in each indent or whether you want to skip any according to the recommended spacing on the seed packet. You could even use your squeeze bottle to dispense the seeds when making seed tape using the cornstarch hack that makes planting seeds easier. 

Or you could improvise and use a small water bottle instead. All you have to do is use a heated needle to poke a hole in the cap. Heat the needle over a candle flame by holding it with a pair of pliers. Alternatively, take a look in your kitchen to see if you have a salt shaker that might have just the right-sized holes for your seeds. You can make this method even more precise by mixing those tiny seeds with some fine sand before putting them in the shaker.