Seed Starting

Wooden plant labels are just the ticket for identifying and keeping track of your newly sown seeds and seedlings. Made in the USA with New England white birch veneer, they are a welcome alternative to plastic and biodegradable, sustainable and renewable to boot. Use both sides with permanent marker or write in erasable pencil to extend use.

6” x 5/8”. Package of 24.

Our favorite gloves – hands-down!  We’ve tried about every type of glove out there and we still swear by Atlas nitrile gloves for everyday gardening duties.

Made of breathable nylon knit, the thin and grippy nitrile coating offers good protection without compromising dexterity. They’re perfect for fine motor tasks like planting out seedlings, weeding and sowing – anything where you need to be able to feel what you’re doing. Plus, nitrile is three times more puncture resistant than ordinary rubber – protecting your palms and fingertips from splinters and thorns.

Elasticized wrists keep dirt out without being too tight. And they’re washable, too, holding up well without shrinking or snagging.

We offer Small, Medium and Large gloves in four bright colors that make them easy to spot in the garden: Pink, Orange, Purple and Green.

Unfortunately for home gardeners, birds of many kinds love young seedlings and baby plants. Sometimes they eat them, but they also frequently just pull them out! It’s frustrating, especially after all the work we’ve put into raising tender young plants. The best way to keep birds out is by exclusion. We use and recommend reusable Bird X protective netting.

Made in the USA, this high-quality, heavy duty 5/8-inch polypropylene mesh holds up because it has UV inhibitors, does not tear easily and holds up over time. It’s an excellent product that ensures protection for both tiny seedlings and young plants of vegetables, flowers and herbs in your garden beds.

Simply stretch the bird netting tautly over supports to hold it above the seedlings. We recommend using pliable irrigation tubing (aka poly tubing) bent into hoops over the bed so it holds the netting securely 12-15 inches above the plants. Even if birds land on it, they won’t be able to push it down and peck at your plants.

Each package contains a 7’ x 20’ length of netting.
Easy to cut to the size of your garden beds.

For fast and effective garden weeding, we rely on and use this lightweight Japanese hand tool every day in our trial gardens. Its sharp, laminated carbon steel blade quickly and easily scrapes weeds right out of the ground, efficiently and cleanly cutting through their roots, even tenacious taproots. With its pointed edge, the scraper is perfect to carefully weed around other plants and is great for weeding containers. You’ll also find the blade good for digging.

We also use this multipurpose tool as a planting aid to make perfect shallow furrows down or across prepared garden beds and then directly sow seeds into the uniform, straight furrows.

Overall length: 13.25 in., Blade 5 in., Weight 7 oz. Blade can be easily resharpened.

Available both right and left handed.

Our FAVORITE "go to" tool for a multitude of everyday gardening tasks; trials manager Lindsay carries and uses her Hori Hori every single day. Its polished, top quality stainless steel blade has 2 working edges: a serrated sawing edge and a cutting edge. The Hori Hori is perfect for all kinds of digging (In Japanese, Hori Hori means “dig dig”), sowing seed, planting seedlings, transplanting, every kind of weeding chore, and easy harvesting.

You’ll find the convenient inch marking on its blade invaluable for sowing seeds at just the right depth. The tool easily digs out deep tap roots and the blade’s serrated edge literally scrapes weeds right out of the soil. Better than any trowel, the Hori Hori is perfect to dig holes, cut sod and divide perennials. When harvesting, it cleanly pops out root vegetables like potatoes and beets or cuts squash and pumpkins from the vine.

A garden essential! We never go into the garden without these all-purpose little scissors. They are the perfect size to cleanly and quickly trim dead leaves, cut flower stems, harvest greens, vegetables, or cut sprigs of fresh herbs and blossoms. We also keep a pair in the kitchen for everyday cooking tasks like snipping herbs and scallions and cutting thin bones. 

Sharp 1.6” blades are precise for cutting thin lettuces or spinach leaves and strong enough to cut a whole head of broccoli or cabbage at its base even if you do not have strong hands. Flexible soft-grip handle fits comfortably in either hand and is especially good for folks with arthritis or tendonitis.

Made of high carbon-steel and hard chrome-plated to resist rust/sap, stay sharp and last for years. Cheerful purple handle makes them easy to spot in then garden. Made in Japan. 

Smart Pots in Great Colors for Container Gardening

Smart Pots are the top-quality line of soft sided fabric containers we use and recommend. Originally developed by commercial tree growers, these lightweight pots are much easier to move around when filled with potting soil than ceramic containers. They hold their shape nicely and the porous fabric prevents overwatering and enhances aeration and healthy root structure, allowing excess heat to escape.

Made of sturdy BPA-free polypropylene fabric that feels like thick felt, this breathable fabric keeps roots cool and provides optimal drainage. Tough and reusable year after year, you simply unfold the Smart Pot, fill with soil and plant. At the end of the season, just empty and fold for storage. 

Smart Pots are weather and UV resistant, extremely durable with reinforced seams and do not fray, split or crack. We offer them in three sizes with lots of color choices that happily brighten the garden all season.

This high-quality electric propagation mat makes a critical difference in successful seed starting and growing strong seedlings. The mat provides the consistent warm temperature needed day and night so seeds can germinate well and develop into strong, well-branched seedlings for planting into the garden.

The mat is UL approved and its patented double-layer construction is tough, waterproof, and frugal in electricity use. This reliable mat will last for years to keep your seedling trays 10°F (50°C) to 20°F above ambient room temperature.

Mat measures 8 7/8” x 19 ½” with a 6’ cord and fits a standard 72-cell seedling tray.

This top-notch fan-shaped hose-end watering nozzle is a real game changer! It allows you to control the pressure and amount of water with just a touch of your thumb on the slider valve, so you can walk through the garden easily adjusting the water flow up or down as needed.  

Use it to very gently water your most delicate tiny seedlings, fragile plants or container plantings, or open the nozzle up to fan out over a large area like your big vegetable beds or wildflower garden. This adjustable tool allows you to apply just the right pressure and amount of water wherever you need it. 

These sturdy, well-made and durable Dramm nozzles feature an ergonomic insulated grip and are fully guaranteed. Order your choice of four strong colors, so your nozzle is easy to find in the garden. The corrosion-proof head contains a filter that can be cleaned or changed as necessary. A great precision watering tool, especially useful where water is scarce and precious. 

When you start seeds indoors, this sturdy and practical grow light unit is the best investment you can make to meet your seedlings’ critical requirements for long hours of intense light. You can keep this adjustable florescent light very close to the surface when seedlings are just germinating to provide both light and heat, and then easily move it up as they grow taller and fuller. Seedlings really thrive with this constant light bath and will mature into the stocky, healthy, deep-green transplants that succeed best in the garden.

The easy to assemble 2-foot tall stand includes its own high-output, full-spectrum T5 fluorescent bulb with integrated reflector and has a 6 foot power cable with an on/off switch and toggle cord for easy lamp height adjustment.

Can accommodate up to two 72-cell seedling trays. We highly recommend using it with our Sunkit Seed Starting Kit.

Sorry, we cannot ship to Canada.

Top-Quality, Reusable Seed Starting Trays: Garden Innovation That Really Works!

These well-designed and infinitely reusable silicone propagation trays are BPA-free, UV resistant and truly make starting, growing, and transplanting seedlings much easier and more successful!

Sili-Seedlings trays are made of heavy duty 100% BPA free, food-grade silicone. They are flexible, durable, sterilizable after every use and dishwasher safe, so cleaning is a breeze! Rooted seedlings slip easily out of each pliable, tapered cell with their roots intact, so transplanting is less messy and there is minimal transplant shock.

Unlike plastic trays, Sili-Seedlings trays don’t become brittle or break and don’t melt, freeze or crumble. They literally last for years, so you can rely on and use them every season. You can even use a dry erase marker to label the trays with what is in them.

We offer Sili-Seedlings in sets of two trays each in two sizes and multiple colors.

6-cell trays: 
2” x 2.25”, tray: 6.25” x 4.25 x 2.7”
 
10-cell trays:
2" x 3.5", tray 10” x 4” x 3.5”

Using the right seed starting mix is critical for successful germination of tiny seeds and sturdy, fast growing seedlings. We use and recommend this top-quality, organic compost-based mix from Vermont Compost Company, a trusted source of organic growers and gardeners since 1992.

This well-balanced, complete germinating mix is good for both indoor and outdoor use and will increase the mineral and antioxidant levels of your seedlings and provide good moisture retention at a crucial stage in their development. A great choice to give your seeds the best possible start in life.

Carefully blended from expertly composted manure, blonde horticultural grade sphagnum peat moss, perlite, blood meal, kelp meal, steamed bone meal, mined gypsum, vermiculite and washed coconut coir, all ingredients have been approved for certified organic production.

We trialed it against three other popular seed starting mixes and it outperformed all the others – you can see how lush, green and vigorous our Italian Genovese basil seedlings grew in the photos at left.

Before you sow seeds, be sure to wet your soil mix with tepid water and incorporate it evenly throughout, so moisture levels are uniform. Your moistened mix should have the consistency of a wrung-out sponge before planting.

One 6 qt. bag is enough to fill 8 of our silicone Sili-Seedling 6-packs or 4 of the 10-packs with a little leftover.

Many gardeners live in climates where they must start heat-loving vegetables, flowers and herbs indoors, so we have put together this easy-to-use seed starting kit to make it easy and successful.

The kit includes a high-quality heat mat, a 72-cell seedling tray and waterproof tray to go underneath, and a 2-inch humidity dome with adjustable vents – everything you need to start your own vigorous, well-grown seedlings.

The sturdy humidity dome, cell insert and base tray are made with high-quality BPA-free, food-grade plastic. The well-crafted, UL-approved electric propagation mat provides an ideal temperature-controlled environment, automatically maintaining necessary warm temperatures day and night. This allows heat lovers like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, snapdragons, rudbeckia, and all heat loving herbs to germinate reliably and grow well. The mat’s patented double layer construction is tough and waterproof and uses little electricity.

Sorry, we cannot ship to Canada.

Potting Tray With Endless Uses

It’s no fun to clean up spilled potting mix when you are actively gardening, and this handy tray solves the problem once and for all. We’ve had ours for over 20 years and are so pleased to discover a good supplier so we can now offer them! Made from recycled polypropylene, this lightweight but tough tray is large enough so you can set both empty pots and a bag of potting soil in it to fill pots; move started seedlings into larger containers; fill seed starting trays or mix water or amendments into dry potting mix. Any loose or excess soil falls into the tray, so it’s easy to scoop up with no loss and no mess.

Our potting tray is dirt and water resistant and cleans quickly with a spritz of water from a hose. Tip: we store gloves, trowels, etc. in the potting tray at the end of the day so we will know where to find everything ready to go!

Measurements are 24” long x 21.5” wide with a raised front lip and 8-inch tall backwall to hold pots steady.

The perfect small multi-purpose watering can for seedlings, the greenhouse or windowsill. With a removable brass fine spray pot rose, we’ve found that it’s the ideal size and spray pattern for gently watering delicate seedlings (and we tested several cans!). Balanced and comfortable in the hand, the long spout gives you extra reach.

Made in England from durable recycled plastic, the domed lid prevents spillage when pouring. Great for houseplants and containers, too.

Pair with our Sili-Seedling Silicone Seed Starting Trays or all-in-one Seed Starting System, and you have everything to get your seedlings off to a great start.

Choose from three sweet colors:
Dark Green, Sage Green or Light Blue

Strong, All-Purpose Natural Jute Garden Twine in Handsome Colors 

This classic, sustainably sourced, 3-ply garden twine is made of natural jute fiber and is truly indispensable for a wide variety of garden tasks. Start the season by marking out lines for sowing and use it for training and attaching vining plants like tender cucumbers and fragile snap pea vines to trellises. Later, use it to support climbers like flowering sweet peas and mini pumpkins, and to keep plants heavy with fruit or flowers from toppling over. It’s also useful in the kitchen or the shop and an attractive way to tie up bunches of flowers or herbs to dry. It’s pretty enough to use for wrapping presents or even to give as a gift.  

The vintage style tin keeps your twine dry and tangle free and lets the twine spool out easily. The Nutscene brand of jute twine has been sourced, manufactured and wound in Great Britain since 1922! This workhorse product will serve you all season long.

Each 3 x 6” tin, each contain 325 feet of 3-ply jute twine. 

Available in 3 color options: natural, lilac or green.