The "Krone" Lower Austria column

The little bot grows her first plants

(Bild: Krone kreativ/Daniela Gaigg/canva)

How we start the city garden season in spring with the simplest of means. As a columnist, "Die kleine Botin" aka Daniela Gaigg writes about topics relating to life with the family. These include sustainability in everyday life, self-care and food for thought for parents.

As soon as the calendar shows March, it's high time for me to get back to gardening! I've been looking forward to tending to the little plants again for weeks, even if the gardening season starts indoors first.

I'm starting with the tomatoes and chilies and am already growing them now. If I still have seeds, I use those from the previous year or make sure I buy new seed-resistant varieties so that I can get my own seeds again at the end of the summer.

You don't need much for pre-growing, a small planting tray is enough. I have also used egg cartons, newspaper and small cardboard boxes for this and it has always worked really well. The tomato and chili plants only need water and light to germinate after just a few days. To make sure they don't get too warm as soon as the first green leaves emerge from the soil, I put them in a cool room with the greenhouse.

DIY greenhouse
The greenhouse is very easy to make yourself from garbage! All you need is a plastic tray from the supermarket! Depending on the size, the planting tray will fit directly underneath or will need to be scaled down a little.

As soon as the first sprouts emerge, it is important that they do not have "wet feet" and that they do not get too warm, otherwise they will grow long and large too quickly and produce less in summer.