Who doesn’t love flowers? I am a huge fan of cut flowers, especially if I can grab them right out of my own backyard. We love gardening in our family, so this makes it very easy for this to happen. I know some of you may consider yourselves more of a black thumb than a green thumb. That is ok! This gardening indoors with seeds post will get feeling like a pro-gardener in a week!
We are an outdoors kind of family. We love to be outside whenever we can, except for when the temperature is in the 30’s (even risking it when it is in the 40’s). What can I say? We are from the south and are not fans of those ‘cooler’ temperatures. I can proudly say that we would not survive living up north during the wintry months!
Planting flowers or any plants from seeds may seem difficult or just too darn tasking, but it really isn’t if you know what will work best! We have planted many different plants/flowers from seed, but these have been the most successful so far. After purchasing this box of Cheerios, I knew we had to get to gardening.
Bring Back the Bees
Our state insect is the honey bee. As you all have probably heard, bee populations have been declining drastically. This is not a good thing for all the flowers and fruit producing plants. Without bees to pollinate, flowers and fruit producing plants will have difficulty thriving. Cheerios has decided to take a stand on helping these hardworking insects by partnering with Page’s Seeds in #BringBacktheBees to giveaway a packet of Cosmos Sensation Seed Mix Seeds in specially marked Honey Nut Cheerios. For more information, check out their site Bring Back the Bees with Cheerios
How we are bringing back the bees with Cheerios.
Of course we had to get right to planting those Cosmos Sensation seeds as soon as we got home with our box of Cheerios. Here is how we had great success in planting our seeds!
Items Needed:
1 Box of specially marked Honey Nut Cheerios
1 small bag of planting soil (best to use soil for potted plants)
1 empty egg crate (this plastic one was a fabulous mock greenhouse!)
Get to gardening.
The first step is to pre-wash the egg carton. I like to do this especially if my kids are helping me garden with them. Raw eggs and little hands just make me anxious, so take this extra step! Once you have your egg crate ready, fill each pod 3/4’s full of soil.
Place 2 Cosmos Sensation seeds into each pod and cover lightly with soil. You don’t want to put too much soil on top of the seeds or they will not be able to get enough sun to start growing. Water to dampen the soil.
Now place in a sunny spot!
I put down the clear cover over the seedlings while they were germinating in the sunlight. This gave them a greenhouse type of environment! Of course you don’t have to worry about this if you aren’t able to find a clear plastic egg crate at your local grocery store. Our seedlings were sprouting in 2 days and already 2 1/2″ in height at 1 week!
Once your plants reach about 3″ in height, it is a good time to either transfer to a sunny spot in the yard or into a larger pot. The plants will need more room for their roots and to grow even bigger to give you those pretty flowers perfect for the bees. I would wait for a little warmer temperatures before placing outdoors. You don’t want these new plants to freeze.
Good luck on using those green thumbs to help #BringBacktheBees!
Marjie Mare says
That seems a cool project to do and it’s for a good cause. Thanks for sharing.
The Travel Bunny says
This is really helpful! I’m actually starting my balcony garden tomorrow. A bit late, but winter lasted longer than usual this year in Bucharest 🙁
Well Worn Suitcase says
This is fantastic! My daughter is a big fan of growing and planting, so she will definitely enjoy this project.
Savannah says
Oh my goodness! I did this last year when Cheerios would send you a pack of seeds in the mail for free, but I didn’t know they were putting them in the cereal boxes this year. So cool! I love their involvement with helping the bees.
Brittany says
Wow! This post definitely inspired me as I am constantly looking for advice and ideas on planting seeds indoors. (Haven’t got a yard for a proper garden yet). This is really great in keeping people informed on ways we can actually impact the bee community. No excuses for standing by! Thanks so much for sharing
Marysa says
What a great program to participate in. Cosmos are such pretty flowers. We try to do a lot to help pollinators, this would be a fun project for our family to do.
Mandy Mills says
We plant zinnias, cosmos, and marigolds every year. The butterflies and bees love them! Sadly I do think we are seeing less bees than we use to. Thanks for bringing awareness to this great cause!
Anissa says
This is fascinating and inspires me to pull out my green thumb. It also seems like a great family project. I love raising plants! We’re raising an aloe plant currently!
Julie Plagens says
I remember doing this in grade school. It was so fun waiting for the seeds to sprout. I think I would have the very same feelings as an adult. It never gets old watching something grow.
Anshika Juneja says
I’m a gardening lover. I love gardening from the scratch. I have grown lots of fruits and vegetables in my garden. I think it’s a great idea to grow indoor plants if you have a small space. I love that you are planting the seeds in your indoor plants, not many people do that.
Katie/Celebrating With The Bug says
It is so cool that they are giving out seeds! The kids and I have planted daisy’s, asters, and snap dragons in little plastic cups this year! It is our first time starting out with seeds! Wish us luck! 🙂
Joe says
Yes, yes, yes! Love this idea. We need to support all of our pollinators and be mindful of what’s hindering their species! Thanks for posting!!
ohmummymia says
Looks lovely but I’m so bad with gardening. I have feeling that everything that I will touch will die:P
Ayana Nell says
How neat is this!! I’m so bad about killing off any plants I try to grow. This might be a good starter project for me!
Holli shae says
Great article. It is so important that everyone knows about the state of the bee population.
Jennifer Maune says
This is such a fun and cute way to get the kids involved with gardening. Love the message behind it too!
-Jennifer
https://maunelegacy.com
Megan Rowsey says
My kids love doing things like this! They are also interested in bees since reading about how they are dying off.
Tabitha Blue says
How cool!!! We love gardening and thankful we live in a climate that we can get started already!
Eevi-Sofia says
I am hoping to get my first garden going this summer. This might be a way for us to test our skills before we try to get more serious about planting things!
Kate says
My 7 year old is extremely worried about the bee situation, so I promised him when the weather gets warmer, we’ll plant some seeds that bees love in our yard. Glad that we’re not the only ones thinking about the bees!
Tabitha Shakespeare says
I love this idea! And it seems easy enough that even I can’t mess it up!