This time of year in Texas, it’s time for cole crops.
I bought some broccoli and califlower starts in the fall and put them in the garden. Easy peasy. A few weeks later, I was harvesting. The thing is, the difference between the cost I paid for the starts, and the cost I would pay for broccoli at the grocery store isn’t very big.
Last year at Mother Earth News Fair, I took a class from Lisa Ziegler from The Gardener’s Workshop. She teaches about soil blocking for seed starting. Last summer I tried my hand at starting some flower seeds and had success. So, I decided to start some broccoli seeds and some brussels sprouts seeds. The pack of seeds was probably $5.00 and I can end up with several dozen plants. Obviously from an economy standpoint, seed starting is a winner.
When you go buy starts, you get to choose what the local garden store has chosen to carry. When you start seeds, you can order any sort of seeds and grow whatever variety you choose. The world is basically your oyster when you start seeds.
Soil blocking couldn’t be easier. Once you spend a few dollars on the soil blockers, it is almost free. The plants do really well. Here are the ones I bought:
This is the one you will use mostly.
I highly suggest you try your hand at soil blocking. Come back and let me know in the comments how it goes. Here are photos of the broccoli and brussels sprouts I have going right now:
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