Learn

Learn

We make planning and planting easy, so you can enjoy gardening!


Welcome to Seedsheet, a Vermont-based company with the mission of demystifying gardening and empowering anyone to enjoy healthy, homegrown food!


Most of us had a parent or grandparent that kept a garden, but over the years the convenience of grocery stores shifted our skillsets from pulling weeds to clipping coupons. Now more than ever, interest for healthy transparent food is growing, and we strive to build products to introduce you to agriculture and teach you tips and tricks to become the best backyard shopper ever!


Planting

1. Find a sunny, preferably south-facing location to plant your garden, ideally one that receives at least 8 hours of direct sunlight each day. You can garden indoors if you have sufficient light, but the easiest way is to grow outside.


2. Fill your gardening container (grow bag, or raised bed) to the brim with a high quality nutrient-rich soil. It is extremely important to plant your Seedsheet near the top of whatever gardening container you intend to grow in. If the soil is only half-way up the container, your plants will be shaded by the walls of the container and thereby not receive adequate sunlight.


3. Place the Seedsheet seed-side-down on the surface of the soil, pat flat with your hands, and secure the Seedsheet with the included green stakes by inserting them gently through the pre-slit X's. If you're in a windy environment you can add small rocks to your Seedsheet to provide extra weight to prevent it from blowing away.


4. To initially water your Seedsheet you can gently apply water either with the included green watering nozzle (which fits any standard screw-top 1Liter bottle), or if you have a Backyard Seedsheet and a hose you can use a standard misting hose nozzle. Apply gentle water directly to the pods, the general rule of thumb is to spray each pod for 3-5 seconds, and then pause for 30 seconds, and repeating that process until all pods are fully dissolved and the exposed soil is noticeably saturated. 


5. If you are growing Container Seedsheets, we recommend initially keeping them indoors near your kitchen for easy watering. Container Seedsheets don't need to be in the sun until plants germinate, so you can keep them close to your sink for convenient frequent watering. Use the watering nozzle to water at least once per day until your first sprouts are 1" high, then move your garden outdoors to a sunny south-facing location. 


6. Whether you're growing a Container or Backyard Seedsheet, it is crucially important to regularly water your Seedsheet daily until you see your first sprouts. Seeds need to be in constant contact with moisture to sprout, so especially if you're planting in a warmer climate, make sure that you are keeping your soil moist with daily waterings.


Plant care

Once your seeds sprout it is important that they have optimal spacing so they can achieve large harvest sizes. Depending on what plants you're growing, we will instruct you how best to remove extra seedlings. 

Additionally, once your plants become established you can start to add fertilizer once per week, by simply supplementing your weekly water with a liquid fertilizer, and following the directions on the bottle.


Pest and critter control

While groundhogs, squirrels, deer and raccoons can seem cute (we blame Disney), they can also wreak havoc on your backyard bounty. Between the furry and the squirmy, there are a multitude of pests that can plague your garden's crops, but fortunately there are several easy solutions to remediate the most common cases.


1. An All-Purpose Organic Spray. As the name implies, a homemade all-purpose spray made from organic peppermint soap can help keep many types of bugs away when diluted and sprayed on leaves. 


2. Neem Oil Extract is a naturally derived oil from neem tree seeds, which can be diluted in water and sprayed on your plants as a natural pesticide. 


3. Cup 'O Beer. Open a beer, drink half of it, and pour the other half into a small dish placed on your garden. Slugs will be attracted to the sugar in your beer and subsequently drown in the liquid. It may be gross, but it's less gross than finding a slug in your salad!


4. Fishing for Deer. We strongly recommend companion planting Marigolds in your garden as a deer deterrent, but sometimes that can be insufficient. You can additionally add motion with small pinwheels placed around your garden, or also string fishing line around your garden which acts like an invisible barrier and spooks deer when they walk into it. Or, the best solution, get a puppy!!!


Harvesting and cooking

As you can imagine, different plants require different harvesting techniques, and in some cases, harvesting incorrectly can result in your plant dying and being unable to produce any further harvests. There are three main plant types that require separate harvesting techniques:


1. Leafy greens. Herbs and salad greens are amazing plants because you can continuously harvest them and they will replenish and continue to grow. For the most part, you can harvest salad greens and herbs (except basil) by using scissors to trim the oldest, largest and outermost leaves and stems from the central cluster. 


2. Fruiting Plants. As the name implies, fruiting plants create "fruit", which in gardening terminology means tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, corn, peppers, etc... In many cases harvesting the fruit will signal the plant to create more fruit, so quicker you pick your ripe cherry tomatoes, the more tomatoes your plant will produce! For larger plants like pumpkins and corn, the plant will likely only produce 1-2 pumpkins and 2-3 ears of corns per plant. 


3. Root Vegetables. Rooting plants include varieties that grow large edible roots, like carrots, radishes, fennel, scallions, and beets. Since root vegetables are harvested by pulling upwards and extracting the entire plant from the ground, there is no way to promote continuous growth. However root vegetables are some of the fastest growing plant varieties out there, so most people could grow 3-4 root veggie rotations each year!

From garden to grill

Since we offer over 85 varieties of organic nonGMO seeds, there are unlimited culinary combinations to transform your bounty into gourmet deliciousness!  Explore our recipe database by clicking below, and please email us your favorite recipes so we can show off your cooking skills with our community!