The Egg Tray DIY That Will Make Planting Seeds In The Garden Quick & Easy

The next time you find your recycling bin stacked high with old egg cartons, rescue one from the pile for this quick and easy DIY project. Home gardeners have long appreciated the humble egg carton for its ability to transform into everything from simple seed starters and beautiful bespoke flower pots to mini succulent propagation gardens and more. But there's another way to use an old egg tray: as a DIY seed stamp.

The gridded structure of an egg carton makes it an ideal seed spacer, allowing you to gently press even rows of cells into the soil. Vegetable crops like carrots, radishes, lettuce, and other hard-to-thin plants would especially benefit from this garden hack. Proper plant spacing is particularly important for promoting air circulation and thwarting things like powdery mildew. Plus, even rows in a garden bed are always so satisfying to look at.

You can also feel good about reusing the carton and extending its use, especially if it's plastic. According to a 2022 report from Greenpeace, only about 5% to 6% of plastic is recycled into something new — a decline from 9.5% in 2014. So, giving a second life to an egg carton might mean one less thing getting tossed into the trash.

This project could not be easier. To get started, all you need is a small piece of wood, some sort of handle or an old drawer pull with corresponding screws, a hot glue gun, and an egg carton. The entire project will come together quickly. First, find or cut a piece of wood that measures no smaller than the carton of eggs and attach the handle to the middle. It should resemble a tile trowel at this stage. In fact, you could even skip this first step and reuse an old tile trowel you have lying around or purchase one from Home Depot for less than $5. 

Next, use a pair of scissors and carefully separate the two halves of the carton, retaining the side with the cells and recycling the rest. Finally, use a hot glue gun to drop a series of dots in the center of the wood/trowel (the part that doesn't contain the handle), then gently press the egg carton atop it so that the "bumps" are facing out. Allow the glue to dry, then put it to work in the garden and start direct sowing some seeds.