Vegetable Garden...Starting My Seeds

This summer I decided to attempt to grow a vegetable garden again. Last year my garden didn't quite go as planned and was pretty much a failure.
 

Shelf Greenhouse

This year I began my seeds in a shelf greenhouse that I got at a yard sale for $10. My shelf green house is perfect because it is on wheels so I can leave it in front of the window seat most of the time and when it is nice outside I can unzip it and wheel it outside. If you have family members that may forget to bring your greenhouse back inside I recommend restricting them from moving your greenhouse. My father forgot mine outside and I lost half my plants.  I live in Northern California in a Zone 2 climate where it still gets quite cold at night.
 

 This year I found Jiffy Peat Pellets at my local hardware store for $3. The ones I bought came in a bag of 25, they start as 1/4" disks then I soaked them in warm water and as they absorbed the water they became 3' tall with a hole in the middle. I put my seed in the hole at the depth stated on the seed packet. When they need to be watered they turn a lighter color making watering easy. Since I'm frugal I used disposable aluminum baking pans that I bought from Dollar Tree to keep the peat pellets in.



To keep track of which seeds are which I made name tags. First, I used Popsicle sticks that I cut in half and cut pointy ends using my kitchen scissors and wrote on them with a sharpie. I wouldn't recommend this since the Popsicle sticks absorb water and eventually started to mold (as you can see on two of the front Popsicle sticks). Instead I am using a milk carton which I cut into strips then gave pointy ends (something I saw on Pinterest), the plastic doesn't mold like the Popsicle sticks and you can still write on them with a sharpie.

Since I really have to no clue what I am doing I have been doing research on growing vegetables. I have a Western Gardening book and have been watching YouTube and reading articles etc. If anyone has any suggestion I'd be happy to hear them.Thanks for reading.

One day on Pinterest I saw a pin about growing your own Avocado tree from an Avocado pit. I was ecstatic since I have an amazing authentic Guacamole recipe and love Guacamole. Next time I had an Avocado pit I saved the pit and put toothpicks in the pit just like the post described (if you haven't seen this before you can see it here). I filled the water to the appropriate level and waited weeks in anticipation... AND my pit broke in half! I was so disappointed, but I did not give up hope and started a second Avocado pit. While all of this was occurring my family was cleaning out my grandfathers estate and I found a planter  made just for growing avocado trees from pits. And best of all it had instructions! 

It even came in this adorable little crate.

 I followed the directions cutting off the pointed end of the pit and pointing it up in water. I use the small hole in the container to add water occasionally.  It did take a few weeks before I saw any growth. I also misplaced the directions for a while so I actually translated the tree and it had leaves before I pinched it off.

Here is my Avocado tree after it was transplanted and pinched off. Pinching off all the leaves made me nervous so I pinched all the leaves except one big one and one little one. I wanted the tree to have a way to obtain energy still. You can see the new growth at the top.

I found these instructions to be super helpful, hope they help you too. I am sure using tooth picks to hold the pit will still work, but these directions will give you a better idea of what you are doing. Good luck!