Those Pesky Critters

It has been several months since I last blogged and I apologize to all my subs but life happened and I just didn't have time to write. I will try, to once again, update my blog at least weekly. Thank you for your understanding and hanging in there with me.

This summer I have been having a horrible time with rabbits and squirrels messing around in my vegetable garden. For some unknown reason, much to my dismay, the rabbits have been especially drawn to the red beet greens and the spinach. Nothing that I tried seemed to work. I put up a fence around my raised beds, only to have the critters either find a way through, under, or over the fencing. I tried several store bought commercial repellents, but I didn't like the thought of all the chemicals (which I couldn't even pronounce) being sprayed onto the food that I was going to eat.

I tried several different DIY rabbit repellents, but this one is the one that seems to be doing the best job: (Original Source Unknown)

What you will need:
 1 gallon plastic container with cap ( a empty, well rinsed, milk container works fine)
 1 gallon of water
 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (the kind you get from the pizza delivery guy works excellent...I just add the whole package)
 1 Tablespoon liquid dish soap
 Spray bottle (optional)

 What to do:
 Put all ingredients into the plastic container. Put lid on and shake. Allow to sit in the sun for a day or two. Either spray or pour the solution onto the area that you are wanting to keep the critters out of. Since this is organic, it is said you can also spray it directly onto the plants. However, I haven't tried spraying it onto any vegetables that I will be eating such as leaf lettuce or tomatoes. Apply weekly for 2 -3 weeks or until the critters get the message that they don't want to come there anymore.

 Warnings:
 This stuff stinks until it completely dries which takes about an hour. So, if your neighbor is having an outdoor party, it might be wise to wait awhile before you spray this stuff.
 Apply only during dry conditions or after each rainfall or heavy watering of that area.

 Why this works:
 Rabbits and squirrels hate the smell of garlic and the pepper flakes makes the plants taste nasty to them. Rabbits have a very keen sense of smell, so even after we humans can no longer smell it, the rabbits still do. The dish soap causes the solution to adhere to the plants rather than just being soaked into the ground.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)



Blog Update

 Personal Update

While I have a ton of things that I am wanting to write about, I haven't been able to blog for a number of reasons. The main reason for that is because I am preparing for a major life event that will happen during the next few days. While this will be a very good thing to happen, I don't feel free to put it all "out there" for the whole world to know about...quite yet. If you are a person of faith, I would covet your prayers for my family during the next few days that God's hand of mercy and care would be on all of us. I will update about this as soon as I am able to.

Outdoor Garden Update

 

My outdoor garden did extremely well this summer. We had all fresh veggies we wanted to eat with plenty left over for canning and dehydrating. We are still picking some produce from the garden, but it is starting to wind down. Pictured above is one of the many cucumbers that I picked this morning. The reason why I am blogging about this is I didn't plant cucumbers this year. The place where this was growing at in my garden was a brand new raised bed this spring, and the dirt inside it was sterile dirt purchased from the store. The only thing that we can figure is a bird must of "planted" it for us. I have no idea if this cucumber is a hybrid or an heirloom. None-the- less we have been very much enjoying this surprise this summer.

Indoor Winter Garden

My indoor winter garden is also doing extremely well. All the seeds that I have planted have now sprouted. I still don't have my lettuce and spinach planted, but I will get to that later on. One of the interesting things that I "discovered" this past year is that seeds don't seem to germinate near as well in paper cups with the wax coating (like the bathroom cups that I used this past spring) as opposed to using a plastic container (as pictured above) for starting seeds in. This past spring, I only had 2 out of every 3 seeds germinate, and with the plastic, I had 100% of the seeds germinate. I am not sure the "why" of that, but it was interesting to note.

Thanks  for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Planting an Indoor Winter Garden

The summer months are starting to come to an end and thus, for in my area, the gardening will soon be over. Since I love fresh produce on my table, a couple of weeks ago I started my indoor winter garden. Picture above are some of the plants that I have growing for this winter. There are 4 "Tinny Tim" tomato plants, 2 "Bloody butcher" heirloom tomato plants, 4 green pepper plants, 2 cucumber plants, celery, basil, sage, thyme, and parsley. I still have leaf lettuce, onions, beets, and spinach that I want to plant, but I will wait for another three weeks before I plant those.I am also toying with the idea of planting some dwarf green beans, but I haven't made up my mind on that yet.

While it is impossible to grow indoors all the fresh produce that I would like to have, still, come January or February of 2014, the produce that I get from those plants will taste mighty fine when they have been freshly picked and on my table. Not only that, but if a blizzard should hit during this upcoming winter, or something else happens that prevents me from getting to the store, the fresh veggies will be an extra special treat and come in very handy.

I will eventually need more space for the plants than what my simple table in front of the windows will allow. When the plants reach that point, I will go vertical with my garden and transplant the tomatoes into a "do-it-yourself" "Topsey Turvey" (follow link for instructions on how to do that). Then I will hang my DIY planters on a curtain rod on the top of the window. I will also trellis the cucumbers using dowel rods. In addition to those things, I will be using  some grow lights that have been mounted on the undersides of shelves on an old bookcase that I have which will house some of the low shade plants such as the lettuce and spinach.

Indoor gardens take a lot more care and work than outdoors ones do, but I feel they are more than worth it. While indoor gardens do not produce like traditional gardens (at least they don't for me) it is something and something in things like this, are always better than nothing.I would encourage you to give an indoor winter garden a try and see how it works for you. If nothing else, tending to the plants does help to remove the "blahs" of the short days and long winter nights.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

DIY Envelope for Seed Saving – Follow up

I have received several private messages and emails concerning my blog yesterday about what kind of paper envelope to use to store harvested seed in. So as a follow up to that question, my short answer is I don't think that it really matters what kind of envelope you use. My long answer is that I make my paper ones myself. While there are many ways of making envelopes, this is how I do it:

What you will need: Paper, Scissors, Tape

Take a corner of a sheet of paper and fold it to the other side to form a triangle. (Fold 1)

 Cut off excess paper.

 Fold left corner of triangle into the center. (Fold 2)

Fold right corner of triangle into the center. (Fold 3) Tape down the inside edges from Fold 2 and Fold 3.

Separate (open) the paper of the third corner of the triangle and place seeds in between the paper. Close and fold over the corner to meet folds 1 &2, Tape close.

Flip envelope over and write the name of the content, any special planting instructions, and year of harvest.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Harvesting Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Above photo is from a free public domain image site

Where I live at, it is now nearing the end of the growing season. In addition to preserving the produce from my garden, I am also harvesting and saving heirloom seeds for next year's garden. While heirloom tomato seeds are sort of icky to save, none-the-less, they are easy to harvest and store and the process is pretty straight forward..

If you are saving seeds from tomatoes that you have grown, choose only the the best looking tomatoes from the healthiest plants. Wash the tomato and cut it in half across the middle (think the “equator” of the tomato). Using either a spoon, or your hands, scoop or squeeze out the seeds and liquid from the tomato, reserving the seeds and liquid in either a glass or plastic container.

Cover the container with plastic wrap and with a knife or pin, punch a small hole in the middle of the plastic. The hole is so a little air can get out of the container and help with the fermentation. Place the container in a warm, sunny spot. I use a window sill which works out great. Each day give the container a little swish around. If you remove the plastic wrap and put new plastic on, don't forget to punch a hole in the top of the plastic wrap.

After 3-4 days, nature will take over and the top of the tomatoes will start to look scummy. This is what you want to have happen. The whitish scum is the fermentation which will separate the seed from the slimmy membrane around the seeds. This also helps to destroy any possible tomato diseases that can live in the seeds.

With a spoon, carefully remove the fuzzy scum surface. Fill the container with water. The good seeds will sink to the bottom and the bad seeds will float. Discard the bad seeds. Pour the contents into a fine sieve strainer. Rinse seeds well. Once the seeds have been completely cleaned off, place seeds onto a plate that has been covered with wax paper and spread them out into a single layer. Allow the seeds to dry for a few days, stirring the seeds daily so that the seeds will dry all over. Make sure to spreed the seeds back into a single layer after each stirring. You will know that the seeds are dry when they easily slip across the wax paper when the plate is slightly tilted.

Once dried, you can store the seeds in either a paper envelope or a plastic bag. There are those that caution against using plastic to store seeds, but I haven't had any problems in doing so. Just make sure that if you use a plastic bag, to allow the seeds to completely dry before storing them. Otherwise mold and rotting can take place. Paper envelopes will adsorb any remaining moisture. Label bag and store in cool place out of direct sunlight.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Bunny in Garden Problem Solved

Click on photo to enlarge

 

For some reason this year, we had (notice past tense) a horrible problem with bunnies eating the leaves off of our green bean bushes. They wouldn't eat the lettuce (which is right next to the green beans), or the white clover (which is very plentiful throughout our yard) or any other plant in our gardens. They would only eat the green bean leaves. While they didn't kill any of the bean plants, they ate the leaves off of the plants, so that only the stems were left. Lucky for us, the beans recovered, but we knew we needed to do something to stop “Thumper” from killing the plants.

What we finally ended up doing to stop this from happening was to go to one of those “big box” stores and we bought enough decorative border fencing that would go completely around the outside of our raised gardens. Then we took some plastic window screens that we had in storage, and cut into 12 inch wide strips. We then attached the strips of window screen to the border fence using twist ties. Problem solved!! It is hardly noticeable to look at and the Bunnies have not bothered our garden since then.

Another way that would work, is to buy lattice decorative border fencing and put that up around your garden.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

DIY Weed Killer Recipe

There are many ways to get rid of weeds in your yard and garden. The number one way of course is to master the art of weed pulling. This is especially efficient and less like likely to kill the plants, like spray weed killers do, that you want to keep in your garden or yard. Simply pull the weeds and discard them.

There are places though that are hard to reach which make it difficult to pull the weeds. For example, in the cracks of sidewalks, in driveways, or in gravel. It is important to get those weeds out because leaving them there can destroy the cement and cause for costly repairs or replacement. Using a spray weed killer in these places is the best thing to do.

We used to use Roundup® and it worked very well. But several times we would run out of the stuff and have to either make an extra trip to buy more or just wait until the next time we went to the store. Neither one of those options were working out well for us. So we started to make our own, and in my opinion, it seems to do just as well as the commercial brand stuff.

WARNING: Only spray this solution on the plants that you want to get rid of. It is not discriminatory and will kill all plants that it is sprayed on. You might want to use the stream setting on the nozzle of your spray bottle to keep better control of exactly which plants the solution is being sprayed onto.

Weed Killer Recipe

2 cups vinegar

3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

2 Tablespoons Rubbing Alcohol

2 teaspoons dish soap

Mix and pour into a spray bottle. Put top onto bottle and spray onto weeds. Some people dilute the mixture by adding 2 ounces of water, but I use it full strength.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Gardening Journal

Every gardener who keeps a journal has their own reason for keeping it. Some people just like to keep a written record of the progress of their garden. Other people keep a journal for their future reference so that they will know exactly what they did when and how that worked out.

While growing up, even though our vegetable garden was over an acre, plus we had “truck patches,” we never kept a journal. The garden was plowed, harrowed, and fertilized along with the fields. We just planted when it was time to plant using seeds that were saved from previous year's garden. The garden was watered when it needed it and the produced picked when it was ready. Simple. But now as I get older, I wish that records would had been kept, so I would know exactly what was done and when. For now the wisdom of that era is gone forever.

My gardening journal is little different than other journal's that I have seen. I keep my journal in a three-ring binder, with each year having its own section. In each section I have:

Page 1: Sketch of garden: Just what it sounds like, I have a sketch of what vegetable and where I planted it in my vegetable garden. I also list if and what was added to soil such as compost or manure.

Page 2: Chart of weekly average temperature and rainfall: In this section I also have a place for notes so I can add if there was unusual weather conditions such as high humidity, hail, or a tornado.

Page 3 - ?: Plants Planted: Each variety of vegetable or fruit has its own page. On this page I list:

• Name of plant and variety
• How many were planted
• Day planted
• Day sprouted
• Day transplanted (if applicable) and how many were transplanted
• Date budded
• Date of first harvest
• Number of harvests and how much harvested
• Pictures of the plants and their produce through out the growing and harvest times.
• Empty packet of the seed taped to the page
• A place for notes

Other things that you might want to include:

• A large envelope for keeping receipts and gardening notes that you collect over the year
• A suggestion sheet for the next year. Included on this page could be plants or a new variety that you want to try.
• Watering chart. How often did you water and for how long.
• Results of any soil tests and how the soil was amended

If you don't already keep a gardening journal, I hope that this will help to give you some ideas on how to set up your own journal. If you already have a gardening journal, please feel free to share how yours is set up in the comment section below. Thank you for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

First Aid Kit for Gardeners

I don't know about anyone else, but when I am working outside in the yard or garden, I will sometimes get a scrape or cut on my hands, an insect bite, splinter in my finger, or some other kind of very minor medical emergency. While it may be minor, the wound or bite needs to be tended to before infection sets in or before I get blood every where. But it is very inconvenient for me to stop my work, come into the house, take off my shoes (so I don't track dirt through out my house), find the supplies that I need and then tend to the wound.

I have solved that problem by making up a first aid kit that I keep outside during the spring and summer months. I keep my kit under my gardener potting bench which is out of the sun and the rain cannot get to it. It is important that the kit is not exposed to the elements and direct sunlight. If you do not have a place like that outside, you could also store your kit in a tool shed, garage, or some other out building.

While you might not need or want everything on my list, the things that I include in my kit are:

• A empty, cleaned out, large ice cream bucket with a lid. This is what I store all my supplies in. It helps to keep the supplies together and the handle makes it easy for me to just grab it and go in an emergency.
• Suntan lotion
• Baby orajel. This is in case of a splinter. I rub the orajel around the skin by the splinter which numbs the skin and makes the removal of the splinter a lot less painful.
• Isopropyl Alcohol
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Bandages in all sizes
• Sterile 4X4 gauze sponges
• medical tape
• safty pins
• tweezers
• scissors
• Benzalkonium chloride towelettes
• Sterile gloves
• antiseptic hand wipes
• hand sanitizer
• antacid tablets
• insect sting relief pads
• electrolyte dehydration tablets
• antibiotic cream
• paper hankies
• rolls of gauze bandages

I hope this helps. If you have any suggestions of other things that would be good to include in the kit, please feel free to share them in the comment section of this post. Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Planting Companions

Above image is from publicdomainpictures.com

Planting some plants close to other plants will help to enhance each others growth and help to protect against pests and some diseases to the plants. I have listed below what I was taught and so far it has worked for me. I have also listed how many plants or seeds to plant per person that will be eating from your garden. Since some people like some vegetables more than others, you might want to adjust the amount that you plant according to your family's likes and dislikes.

I hope that this will help others with planting their gardens. Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Vegetable	Good Companions	Avoid	How Many Plants or Seeds to plant per person
Asparagus	Tomatoes, parsley, basil	Onion, garlic, potatoes	Five crowns per person for fresh. Ten crowns per person for freezing.
Bush Beans	Eggplant, corn, sunflowers, lavender, cabbage, cucumbers, strawberries	Tomatoes, onions, kale, fennel	A fifty foot row will produce approximately 25 quarts of beans.
Beets	Mint, beans, onions, garlic, lettuce, cabbage,	____None_____	About ten to twenty feet per person. More if you want to can them.
Broccoli	Onions, garlic, leeks, dill, sage, rosemary, potatoes, beets, celery geraniums	Tomatoes, peppers, mustard	Two – four per person
Cabbage	Onions, garlic, leeks, dill, sage, rosemary, potatoes, beets, celery geraniums	Tomatoes, peppers, beans	Three to four cabbage plants per person.
Carrots	Leeks, beans. Lettuce, chives, rosemary, sage, peas	Strawberries, fennel, cabbage	30 plants per person for fresh.
Celery	Daisies, snapdragons,	corn	Five plants per person for fresh, ten plants per person for storage
Corn, sweet	Legumes, squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, beans, peas, legumes, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, melons, parsley	Tomatoes, celery, cabbage	Figure one ear per stalk, two ears per stalk if you are lucky
Cucumber	Radishes, beets, carrots	Tomatoes	One plant per person for fresh, two plants per person for canning
Eggplant	Marigolds, mint	Runner beans	One plant per person plus 3 extra for family
Lettuce	Radishes, carrots, strawberries, cucumber, beans	Celery, Cabbage, Parsley,	Ten to twelve plants per person
Melons	Peppers, squash	---------	Four plants per person
Onions	Carrots, beets, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce,	Peas, beans	Forty plants per person for fresh , Eighty plants per person if also used in canning.
Peas	Beans, corn., lavender, carrot, turnip, radish, cucumber, corn, beans	Onion, garlic	25 plants per person for fresh, 60 plants per person for canning.
Peppers	Tomatoes, geranium, basil, carrots, onion	Beans, cabbage, kale	Five to six plants per person for fresh. Ten plants per person if used in canning or for dehydrating.
Potatoes	Horseradish, coriander, marigolds, beans, corn, anything in the cabbage family,	Cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, melons, sunflowers, tomatoes	Ten plants per person for fresh. Thirty plants per person for canning
Spinach	Strawberries, peas	--------------	Ten plants per person for fresh. Thirty plants per person for canning
Summer/Winter Squash			Two plants per person
Potatoes	Horseradish	Tomato. cucumbers	Depends on how often you use potatoes. Each potato plant usually yields five to ten pounds of potatoes..
Tomatoes	Carrots, celery, parsley	Corn, peas, kale, potatoes	Two plants per person for fresh. Six plants per person for canning or dyhydrating.

Mini-Greenhouses

Sometimes an individual plant just needs a little extra help while it is sprouting. What I have found to help is to give the needy plant its own “greenhouse”. Whether inside or outside, invert a glass jar over the plant to allow the heat and moisture to be trapped around the plant. I have found that glass works best. It has been my experience, that anything plastic that is used to cover a plant like that, will cause the air that is trapped inside the mini-greenhouse to actually become colder, which could be damaging to the plant.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Planting Tip

When planting seeds or transplanting plants into your garden, it is always wise to use some kind of gauge to make sure the seeds/plants are planted at the correct depth and that they are spaced evenly apart.

What I have found to be the easiest way to do this is for depth is to place a rubber band or rubber “O-ring” on a craft stick or dowel at the desired depth. Then stick it in the ground to the marker to make a hole for the seed at the depth you are wanting.

For spacing, use rubber bands on the handle of a rake or hoe marking the desired distance. Lay the rake or hoe along side the row that you will be planting and so you can see at a glance where to dig a hole for your next plant.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Herb Update

A quick update on the herbs that I planted a couple of weeks ago. They are doing awesome. In fact they are large enough that I will be transplanting them this coming weekend. I guess that you don't need to soak herb seeds before planting. Good to know. :-)

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. :-)

Planting/Weeding By the Moon

Some people scoff (okay actually they don't just scoff they laugh) when they hear about planting by the phases of the moon. Other people swear by it. I can't say with certainty that planting or weeding by the phases actually work, but I figure it can only help.

The phases of the moon does effect the tides of the ocean and I do know that the moon does affect people. I don't even have to look outside to know when the moon is full. I only need to look at my email inbox or answer the phone. During a full moon, my business receives the oddest and strangest questions requests, and some of my clients get downright cranky and everything seems to go wrong during that time . I have a few friends that are police officers and firefighters, and they say the same thing about what happens in their jobs during the full moon. So, to me anyway, it would stand to reason that moon could also effect other things in nature.

I don't get into planting or weeding by the zodiac signs in addition to the phases of the moon. That might have some merit to it. I don't know either way. Honestly though, I don't have the time, nor does my schedule allow me, to figure that out and worry about it.

There are tons of sites online that goes into much more detail about when to plant or weed by the phases of the moon, but I stick to the old tried and proven simple method that I was taught while growing up on the farm...and so far, it has worked for me.

Planting :

• Full Moon – Plant the crops that produce above ground such as green beans, peas, etc.
• New Moon – Plant crops that produce below ground such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc.

Weeding:

• Best time to weed  is during the last quarter right before the new moon. Although, if you miss that time, right after the full moon is second best.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. God's blessings. :-)

Herbs

Where I live at, we are under a winter storm warning for today. We are suppose to receive anywhere from 6-12 inches of the fluffy white stuff during the next 12 hours. Which is why today is the perfect day to plant my herbs.

My oldest son gave me an organic herb kit as a Christmas present this past year. I don't normally “do” gardening kits, but thought since I had it, I might as well use it. The kit came with 12 different herbs, something that they called pellets but actually they are just small amounts of potting soil wrapped up in netting and dehydrated which causes for shrinkage. A “green house” (a cake tray with a lid from the grocery store would serve the same purpose, but the “green house” had dividers to keep the pellets in place which was nice.) Last, but not least, a handy-dandy, laminated instruction sheet on how to plant herbs. It is a very nice instruction sheet and one which I will most likely use again in years to come.

The instruction sheet said to soak the seeds, but I skipped over that part. I consulted a herbologist that said that she never soaks her herb seeds, but there are those that swear by soaking seeds before planting. I opted not to do so. I will see if that was a good thing for me to have done.

I then put the pellets onto the tray and covered the pellets with 2 quarts of tap water.

Once the pellets had fully expanded, I poured off the excess water.

I pulled back the netting and fluffed up the dirt.

I then planted 2 to 3 seeds onto of each pellet and labeled each pellet so I could remember what I planted where. I color coded the markers (actually they are just “post it” tabs that I wrote on) so that each different herb had a different color.

I then put that same color on its corresponding seed package.

I then recorded what color code was used for which herb, date of planting, and sign of the moon in my gardening journal .  

I placed the dome onto the tray and put it in our library out of direct sunlight. It will remain there until the herbs have sprouted. Then they will be placed in a southern window.

Remember when planting your garden this spring to always plant more than what you need. That way you can share with others that are not able to have a garden, such as the elderly or the truly disabled. Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Starting Tomato and Sweet Pepper Seeds

In years gone by, I have always purchased my tomato and green pepper plants from one of large box stores and they always have been hybrid plants. For the first time, this year I have decided to take the plunge and start my tomato and sweet peppers plants from seeds. While I have always been happy with the results, still I wanted to grow food that I could save the seed from and replant the next year.
So , this is the first year also, that I will be growing heirloom plants. Since I have never done this before, I am very nervous about it...and a tad paranoid....because I have heard that heirloom plants are not as pest and disease resistant, as hybrids. This will be interesting for sure!!! If you see something that I am doing, or not doing, please either PM me or leave a comment to this post. I am very opened to being educated and would welcome any and all advice. 

 

Getting Started:

First you need to determine when you should plant your tomato and sweet pepper seeds. There are several sites online that can help you figure that out, or you can contact a local master gardener and they can help you. Usually though, it is about 6-8 weeks before the average last frost date for your area.

Gather up your material:

There are many ways of doing this, but this is how I did it. The materials that I used was:

• potting soil
• small cardboard box trays (used to keep cups from spilling over and to make it easier to move when I clean)
• Aluminum foil (used to line the cardboard box trays to keep water from damaging the wood surface that the trays would be sitting on.)
• Paper cups
• Permanent magic marker (to mark the paper cups so I know what was planted and when)
• Scissors
• Seeds
• Water (not shown)
• Newspaper (not shown...used under the potting soil bag to reduce clean up work)
• Plastic sandwich bag (not shown)

How I Planted the Seeds:

I labeled each cup with what I intended to plant in it along with the planting date. 

 

I filled each cup ¾ full with the potting soil.

Slipping the plastic bag over my hand, I placed some seeds onto the plastic. Since small seeds are so small, they are hard to handle. I saw this neat tip on a YouTube video “Easy Method to Handle Small Seeds”and thought I would give it a try this year. It worked great!!! I simply slid the amount of seeds that I wanted to plant into the cup to the edge of the plastic and then into the cup. The seeds slid very easily into the cup without all of the other seeds spilling where I didn't want them. Much thanks and appreciation to Rick Larson  for sharing this great tip.

I then covered the seeds in each cup with about ¼ inch of potting soil. Make sure to read the back of your packet of seed to see what it says for depth. Usually though, it is twice as much depth as the diameter of the seed. 

Then I watered each cup. (Sorry about the picture being blurry.)

 

I placed the paper cups onto the foil covered trays and placed in a south facing window. And now I wait....

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-) 

EDITED TO ADD: 3/19/2013 <LOL>18 days ago I planted about 10 gazillion tomato and sweet pepper seeds inside the house so I could get a head start on my veggie garden. Today, ONE of the tomato plants **finally** sprouted. Whooo Hoooo We're farming now. hahahaha :-D

EDITED TO ADD: (3/26/2013) All the seeds have now sprouted except for two. I think that the problem was the lack of sunlight. We have had cloudy days for just about every day for the past month. Once we put the planted seeds under a grow light, they sprouted within a couple of days. :-)

Indoor Winter Gardens

One of the problems with growing your own vegetables during the summer and then preserving them, is the of lack of fresh produce during the winter months. I am a firm believer that freshness in food is always the best. While fresh produce are easily found at the local grocery store, that isn't the desirable thing to do if you are wanting to become self reliant and self sufficient. Or if you care about how and where your food was grown.

This year, I attempted to grow some fresh vegetables indoors during the winter months. I have a friend, who does this on a regular basis. He though, has an atrium in the middle of his house that is two stories high. His indoor garden is vertical and is watered by a sprinkler system and his grow lights are powered by solar. I have nothing that elaborate. I only have a few windows facing the south. Still I was able to plant leaf lettuce, a couple bushes of tomatoes, celery, and a few potatoes. While this is not meant to, and cannot usually, provide for all the fresh produce that I may want or need , it does help to stretch what I have preserved while adding a freshness to what I canned, frozen, and dehydrated.

For those of you that live in areas where you cannot have an outdoor garden at all, planting an indoor garden, might be an alternative for you to try. Empty two-gallon ice cream buckets, plastic food storage boxes, coffee cans and so on can be used to hold your dirt and plants. A good site to learn more on how to do this can be found here. And it doesn't need to cost you very much to grow them either.

1. Potatoes – Unless you are wanting to grow some strange or usual kind of potato, just save some of the potatoes that you bought from the grocery store. I have never bought seed potatoes. There is no need to. When the eyes of the potato start to grow, cut the potato into sections so that each section has two eyes. Plant in soil about six inches deep. Water and place in a sunny window. A potato about the size of a chicken egg will regrow about five pounds of potatoes.
2. Lettuce – I used a regular packet of leaf lettuce seed. Just sprinkle seeds on top of the soil. Lightly cover with dirt, water and place in a sunny window. As the lettuce grows you can pick it as wanted.
3. Cherry Tomatoes – I have never tried any other kind of tomato, but it is to my understanding that you can also grow Roman tomatoes indoors. If you try growing indoor tomatoes, you will need to hand pollinate them. A video that you can watch to learn how to do this can be found on YouTube here.
4. Other vegetables that are easy to grow indoors are carrots, radishes, mushrooms, bean sprouts, dwarf beans and peas, beets, green onions, wheat sprouts, and of course celery.

Growing Celery Indoors

Cut off base of a bunch of celery.

Place in a small bowl, saucer ot other container with the base side down and cut stalks facing upright. Place near a sunny windowstill.

Let the celery sit for about one to two weeks. Change the water at least once every other day. (I changed mine every day.) The tops of the cut stalks will dry out, so I slightly dampened mine whenever I changed the water.

Plant the celery in a mixture of dirt and potting soil and place back near the sunny window. Water generously.

As the celery grows, I use the leaves and small stalks to make a wonderful fresh additions to salads and soups.

Enjoy and thanks for visiting my blog. :-)

Starting Seeds

I must have “spring fever” or something today. It may be only the end of January, but this morning I started to gather things together for my seed starting station in what is now the library in our home. Slowly over the next couple of months, as the plants begin to grow, our library will be transformed into what can only be described as a “garden room.” It is a wonderful thing to watch for it is the reminder that life does go on and there is a promise of better things to come.

According to the “Old Farmer'sAlmanac”, I shouldn't start the seeds until February 28^th. However, since I follow the old farmer's rule of thumb and plant seeds who's produce grows above ground, in the full moon, I will be planting the seeds on the 25^th.

 

My starting station isn't anything complicated or elaborate, but it does get the job done. I usually put my potting soil into bathroom type paper cups for planting my vegetable seeds. Some people use cardboard egg cartons, or cardboard toilet paper rolls. I have even heard of people using ice cream cones as a planter for their seeds. I have found though that the small paper cups work best for me. I then place the seeds in either the “greenhouse” in a west window, or under a grow light. 

 

Once the plant has sprouted and out grown the cup, I plant, cup and all, in a origami newspaper box that I have filled with potting soil. If you would like to know how to make the newspaper box, click here. Once it is warm enough to plant outside, I plant the newspaper box and all in my garden.

For the herb seeds, I sow 2 or 3 seeds on each grow pellet and once they are large enough, I transplant the herbs to a large planter that I will place outside sometime in May.

So far, the herbs that I will be growing for this year are: thyme, dill, sweet marjoram, chives, cilantro, sage, basil, garlic chive, parsley, oregano, and mustard.

The vegetables that I will be growing are green beans, carrots, onions, green peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, and cucumbers. I also hope to grow some watermelons as well. What are you planting in your garden this year? 

Thanks for reading. And remember, "No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow." - Proverb from Guinea :-)