By putting a flat piece of cardboard or index stock on top of the soil, with a wadded paper towel or tape (if needed)
then soil and seeds will be more stable for the trip home.

Egg Carton Seed Starters

Unless one has other containers, egg cartons are a good beginners seed starter. Given the small size, the seeds should be planted about three weeks before the last frost. The seeds will emerge in about ten days and then have about ten days of growth before transplanting. Starting too soon or leaving too long in the egg carton will cause stunted plants which they will not outgrow, that is, the will grow less and more slowly.

For the school seedbee, the students should scrounge up enough egg cartons from family, friends and neighbors. Any dirt will do. The student should cut a cardboard cover for the egg holes with wadded paper between the egg carton lid and dirt-filled egg holes. This is a safety precaution to keep the seeds and dirts from shifting if the egg carton is tilted accidentally. (Of course, despite the similiarity in size, the egg carton should no be used as a football.)

Before filling the carton with dirt from the yard, the student should label the lid with the seed to be deposited in each egg hole. It is not necessary to buy heavily advertised seed starting soil. This special "green thumb" soil has only been around for some recent decades while our ancestors grew from good old mother earth soil.

For the next year, the student could walk the alleys or curbs during the spring planting to pick up traditional seed trays or cups. That is what this writer does.