I took this picture at The University of San Francisco Garden Project, a productive, organic food garden that is being built and farmed by 11 freshmen students who work the garden, take classes, and live together!
It’s an amazing project although I have to admit that while the garden part of it is a dream, I don’t know how those students do it, maintaining their sanity and their relationships while working and living so closely. In my second year of university I lived in a house whose population maxed out at ten by the summer, including a dude who lived in our garage! I guess I am just not cut out for communal living since I will never forget the madness of the social experiment that was living in that house for a year.
I am not one for communal living either, unless you count my cats (which, of course, I do! I like most animals better than most people I know.)
Have you had any success with those newspaper pots shown in the picture? It seems like they would fall apart. I tried the toilet roll seed starters this year but could not get them to stand up.
Wow that is tricky to do – newspaper seed pots. I sort of miss living with my friends in college. Looks like they have an interesting joint lifestyle. I guess it takes a team to do all the hard work.
I have a couple of seed-starting products that cover me for most stuff but I use the toilet rolls for some things. In the tutorial I made bottoms for the rolls but I have also used them just by placing the rolls in a tray and packing them with soil. They stand up a little bit easier that way.
I don’t love the newspaper pots because they do dry out quickly… you have to stay on top of them.
shoplittlegifts: there is a wooden tool-thing that makes them. it would be very tricky to make them without it.
shoplittlegifts: there is a wooden tool-thing that makes them. it would be very tricky to make them without it.
The newspaper pots really aren’t that hard to make. A soda can is a good mold. You just roll up around it and fold the bottom.
But they do dry out, and mine are falling apart a little prematurely. Maybe next year I’ll try the TP rolls.
I used the tp roll method. A bit labour-intensive but worth the time. I’m already collecting for next year.
Gayla — your tutorial is great. I followed it exactly. I found that after a couple of waterings, the rolls held their shape and stayed upright. It was also easy to remove seedlings from the starter tray as soon as they sprouted and put them in the light.