8 Fantastic Reasons to Make Your Own Seed Tape For Growing Non-GMO, Pesticide Free Produce

Home gardening is getting so popular. More and more people are choosing to grow their own fruits, vegetables, and herbs every year. It’s the smart decision for so many reasons.

Benefits of Home Gardening

Home gardening gives you the best control of your food’s quality assurance. You can guarantee that your food is non GMO and won’t come into contact with toxins from pesticides.

Home gardening is also very cost efficient, with many seeds available for mere pennies (not to mention, you the free seeds you can collect from your store-bought organic produce). You can also easily learn how to make your own fertilizer from compost. Imagine growing dozens of tomatoes in your own backyard for a few dollars and some TLC, instead of buying them from a grocery store every week and shelling out money.

One of the other awesome benefits of home gardening is that it promotes mental health! Gardening is proven to reduce stress and depression, reliance on medication, and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. It also can help to improve mental alertness and even social skills.

Benefits of Homemade Seed Tape

There is a trick of the trade that green thumbs are learning to use: seed tape! It’s a biodegradable strip of paper with seeds already inside. Instead of sorting tiny seed in your hand, you can plant the entire seed tape, which will dissolve into the soil and leave you with healthy young plants growing perfectly. While you can buy seed tape, learning to make your own has many extra benefits, and is easy-peasy.

Helps you plant seeds in an organized way

Prevents growing plants from choking each other for space
Biodegradable, so you don’t have to worry
Making your own seed tape avoids using too-old seeds

You ensure seed quality (non GMO, non hybrid)
You can get creative with what you plant
You can make a fertilizer seed tape

You can use seeds gathered from last year’s garden!

How to Make Seed Tape

So, how do you get on the homemade seed tape bandwagon? It’s actually refreshingly simple. Just decide which plants you’ll be growing and taking care of this season, and follow these instructions!

DIY Seed Tape

What You Need:

Seeds of your choice
All natural, bio-degradable napkin
Wax paper

Water soluble fertilizer
Eye dropper
Sealable jar (if you don’t plan to plant your seeds right away)

What to Do:

Cut napkin into strips ½ inch wide each, place onto wax paper.
Count out how many seeds you’ll need for the space you’re planting them in.
Using the eye dropper, dampen the strips with fertilizer.

Place seeds onto strips according to the recommended distance for their variety.
Cover with a second strip. Dampen with fertilizer.
Cover with another piece of wax paper, leave overnight (you can hold the paper down with a paper weight or small rock).