Seed containers:
Paper Coffee Cups – Originally when I started this garden I used recycled paper coffee cups to start my seeds.  They were useful mostly because they are free and plentiful.  I salvaged them from garbage bins in coffee shops and then washed them out at home.  I preferred to take cups that had been used because otherwise you’re just creating more waste rather than saving something from the dump. If you are going to salvage cups make sure you wash them well with soap and water, if there is any milk or cream residue your seedlings may develop a fungal disease and die.
Making the cups into seed containers was kind of labourious, but worth is since they were free.  I poked several holes in the bottom for drainage and was able to write the name of the seeds directly on the cups (this avoided needing to buy/find/make tags). The cups worked to a point. the seedlings did fine, however the cups were sitting on plywood and due to the lack of sunlight, moisture and heat the bottom of the cups began to mould. I tried to fix this by raising them up on milk crates to allow better air circulation but it didn’t seem to help. When it was time to transplant the seedlings I either tiped them out, or cup open the cups.  I think if you are going to use paper coffee cups mould is just something you have to learn to live with.  I’ve since been able to salvage seed starting containers so I’ve given up on the paper cups. If you can’t find anything else they would do

Milk containers/tetrapacks – the milk/cream containers that are rectangular and lined with wax work really well. They are more water proof than the paper cups and are as prone to mould.  They are easy to stock pile or gather from nearby recycling bins. Just make sure you wash them throughly.

Commercial seed starting containers – Ridiculously expensive to buy, however if you can find someone who has bought plant starts you can usually convince them to give them to you for free. Nurserys dont take back the flimsy plastic seed starting containers so once you buy a plant start you have no other option but to throw them out or keep them around waiting for something to do with them. They aren’t that difficult to find if you know where to look, but better to get them second hand then spend a ton of money buying them new.

Newspaper and toilet paper roll containers – Both are a great idea in theory and have varied results in practice. In my experience both tend to get soggy when watered and the toilet paper rolls have a glue that holds them together and tends to ‘unglueify’ when wet, leading them to unravel.

Seeds:
Organic. The most important thing you can do is buy an organic seed.  If you want to create a garden free from chemicals and fucked up genes (genetically modifed food) then you must by an organic seed. I can’t stress enough the importance of organic seed. Beyond this there are two kinds of seeds you can buy; open pollinated and F1′s.  Open pollinated seeds are ‘true to form’ meaning that the description of the seed on the packet will produce a plant with those characteristics, and the seeds of that plant will produce plants exactly like themselves. F1′s are hybrid plants, meaning someone has cross pollinated the seed to create a plant with desirable traits from two plants into one (ie. one green pepper plant had high production while another tasted delicious, so the seed of one plant was cross pollinated with the other to create a new green pepper that was both productive and delicious!). These seeds are sill organic and not genetically modified however that seed is only guarantee to produce one generation with both of those traits, the seeds of those plants may or may not produce plants with both traits. Some seeds may produce plants that are delicious, while others are just productive, only a few seeds would produce plants with both traits. F1 seeds can become open pollinated seeds through successive seed selection.

Heirloom seeds are also a good idea. Heirloom seeds are seeds that have been harvested year after year and saved from extinction by individual farmers and families.  They are passed down generation to generation because of their delicious taste, ability to store well, disease resistance or productivity or all of the above.  Due to massive agribusiness the selection of produce in grocery stores has been widdeled down to one or, at best, two varieties of each fruit or vegetable. For example, how many onions can you name? Did you know there are over 156 onion varieties in Canada? How many have you seen in your grocery store?

When it comes to seeds this is the only time I will advocate for capital investment.  In the case of seeds it’s worth while to spend some money. That being said, you should only have to buy seeds your first season. After that you should be using your own seed that you have harvested (if you don’t how know how to seed save stick around, I’ll teach you everything you need to know to save seeds from every plant I grow adn even the ones I dont!). Once you have your own seeds you can trade other seed savers for varieties you don’t have and are interested in trying.

Seed starting soil or mix:
Ok so I lied you have to buy this too. Again when I first started this I went out at night with a duffel bag, falsh light, and a ladel and harvested dirt from a local park. I quickly learned the several why this is a bad idea. 1. If you are container gardening (which you will be if you live in an apartment or dont have access to the earth) you need soil with good drainage. Dirt from your local park will quickly turn into cement when placed in a container with few drainage holes and exposed to heat and sunlight. 2. Seeds, while incredbily powerful and amazing things, sometimes need to be babied. It’s best to start your seeds in a sterile peat moss or cocopeat mixture (Ok so there are several things wrong with this reasoning. i) in my opinion seeds should not be babied. They are hardly little things that survive with or without our help. However, if you spend 3$ on a seed package and only get 10 – 40 seeds you want to get the most out of you investment and a steril seed mix will protect you from ‘damping off’, a fungal disease which will attach your plant where the seedling touches the soil and cause it to fall over, wilt, and die. This is incredbily depressing to watch. ii) peatmoss is a non renewable resource and it hurts my soul every time I use it. I hate the fact that I’m extracting it from bogs in northern ontario and trasnporting it across the country, however I live in an apartment building and since my local park is out, I’ve got to get it from somewhere. iii) cocopeat is also controverscial since it is imported and it has yet to be perfected and it’s consistency is better used once the seeds have germinated and are ready to be potted on to larger pots.) and finally 3. You have no idea what has been put on that dirt.

So for now, buy some peatmoss, cocopeat, or anything that has been sterilized and has water retention (either vermiculite/perlite/sand).

Watering Can:
salvage, find, borrow, buy whatever you can to get a watering can. I ended up having to buy one. Whatever you do make sure it has a rain shower head. You want your plants to feel like they are being watered naturally. Water is powerful and if you have a spout that does not have a rain head it will drill into the soil and hurt your seed/seedling/plant. The one I bought was missing a few holes so I drilled new ones… whatever you do do not drill a new hole in the center of the rain head. It too will drill a hole in your soil. Lesson learned.