EZ Indoor Seed Starting

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EZ Indoor Seed Starting Setup

Gardening Tips

Indoor Seed starting is really easy and cheap.  You get so many more plants by starting your own seeds.  My mantra in my seed starting classes is “Seeds Wanna Grow.”  You just have to give them a little help to mimic outdoor conditions.

All seed-starting setups are pretty simple, once you know the basics.  I just finished designing a new setup for myself this year because BBB Seed Head Honcho Mike added so many new varieties of seeds this year, that I need more space to try them all.

Design your own setup by remembering these basics.

Light

You need long hours of bright light.  I run the lights for at least 14 hours a day. I used a timer because I’m forgetful.  For seed starting, you don’t need special full-spectrum lights…simple fluorescents or LEDs will do.  The full-spectrum is needed for adult plants that you want to bloom.  I like the new T-5 fluorescents that use less energy, but my old shop lights worked great for many a year.

Warmth

Temps need to be in the 70-degree zone for most seeds to germinate quickly and evenly.  In the bookshelf setup I’ve used, the lights themselves made enough heat.  In my cold basement, I put a heat mat under the seed tray.

Soil and container

 

Seeds will germinate happily anywhere, but to develop their root system they need some kind of substrate.  I used new germinating soil to avoid fungal problems.  Containers can be anything. Last year’s pots, egg cartons, yogurt containers, etc.  It just needs to drain.

Water

Even watering is the key.  I water from the bottom by filling a container underneath my seed starting tray. Humidity helps.  The most important thing to avoid is the surface of the soil drying out during germination or early growth.  That is death to the new baby plants.

Air

I always have a fan near my seedlings.  You don’t often see air mentioned, but the gentle movement of the air reduces mold and stimulates growth.  You can get by without moving air, but I get sturdier plants and less disease.

 

 

Picture credits:

https://littlehouseontheurbanprairie.wordpress.com/category/seed-starting/

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/10376/diy-pvc-grow-light-stand

http://www.harvesttotable.com/2011/04/vegetable_seed_and_seedling_pr/

 

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Windowsill Basil

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How to Have Basil in the Winter

by Sandy Swegel

Two Ways to Have Basil all Winter.

August heat is hard on basil. The plants keep producing seed heads and as fast as you try to cut them back, new flowers start with the warm weather. Once the basil goes to seed you can still use the leaves, but they often have a bitter flavor.

But there are ways to keep enjoying fresh sweet basil all winter, besides the obvious strategies of drying or freezing the herbs.

In order to have windowsill basil you need to start seeds in a small window box planter now. This planter starts outside and comes into a bright windowsill as soon as temperatures go below 40 or so. Strew an entire packet of seeds over the soil. You will be growing the basil to a size somewhere between micro-greens and full-sized. The seed should germinate quickly and with regular watering, young plants will start to develop and should be several inches high by frost. Once inside, you can cut them down to the bottom leaves with scissors and the young plants will keep regrowing. If it gets really cold outside, you have to move the plants away from the window because the basil will freeze if they are leaning again the glass. If the basil gets buggy with aphids, you can bring the entire container to the kitchen sink and give it a shower.

Mason Jar Basil
If you don’t have seeds but you have purchased one of those pricey basil plants with the roots still on from the grocery store, you can keep growing that plant indoors. These have been grown hydroponically so you can put them in a mason jar with water on a kitchen windowsill. It might wilt for a week or so adapting, but will usually revive. Change the water every week or two. Again, harvest down to the bottom couple of leaves and the plant keeps regrowing.

Other greens and herbs like cilantro and lettuce also do well if you seed containers now and bring them in before they freeze. By winter the plants will be much bigger than micro-greens and will provide you with lots of intense flavor!

 

Heirloom Vegetable Seeds

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Best Wildflower Seed Mixes

Wildflower and Grass Seed Mixes
Photocredits
http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/urban-gardening/backyard-gardening/5-herbs-perfect-for-container-gardening.aspx
http://melissaknorris.com/2014/02/growbasilindoorsallwinter/

Start your Seeds…Again.

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Why You Need to Restart Your Seeds

by Sandy Swegel

This time it’s going to be a lot easier. You don’t need lights and cold frames. You don’t even have to use trays and little pots. You can start your seeds again and put the seeds directly into the earth.  You don’t need much time.  Seeds germinate in warm soil really fast. All you really do need this time of year is water.  Seeds you start mid-summer are at risk of germinating and then drying out, so you have to remember to sprinkle them daily and keep the soil moist.  But that’s about it.

  1. Why Start Seeds Now?

The least romantic reason is to Save Money.
The second least romantic reason is to Save Time.
The romantic reason is Beauty and Abundance.

Veggies


Lettuces. In most gardens, your lettuces and even spinach have bolted and gone to seed.  You’re probably trying to salvage individual leaves here and there, but they are pretty bitter because of the heat.  Seeding new beds will give you young sweet leaves and plants that will feed you well into Fall and even Early Winter.

Cold Hardy Greens.

The key to being able to eat out of the winter garden is to have big plants with enough leaves to feed you all winter.  Chards and Kale and Spinach seeded now will be big enough come to Fall that even in cold climates you can pile leaves on them and harvest from under the snow.  But you need big plants because come October and November the plants aren’t going to be re-growing much.

Peas.

Peas germinate and grow easily this time of year.  By the time they reach maturity, the chill of Fall nights will make them sweet and yummy.  In Colorado we kind of got cheated out of our peas this year because it became so hot so fast, the peas dried up.  But we have a second chance.

Root crops.

Carrots and beets planted in summer have time to grow to maturity and wait in the soil until cooling Fall weather turns them into sugar. As long as the ground isn’t frozen solid, you can continue to harvest delectable root veggies that taste much better than the spring and summer harvests.

Herbs.

Parsley and thyme are among the many herbs you can harvest all year.  Thyme can be frozen solid.  Even parsley that has frozen will plump and be bright green on warm sunny winter days.

Perennials

You know the adage about perennials. First, they sleep, then they creep, then they leap.  Perennials need their first year to establish roots and many don’t even make flowers until the second year.  Perennials that you seed now will still consider this their first year and then be ready to bloom next year.  If you wait until next Spring to plant perennial seed….you won’t get flowers until 2016.  Planting perennials is one of the most thrifty things you can do in your gardens.  Foxglove and lupines are both underused magnificent bloomers in gardens.  And they can easily cost $8 each in garden centers. You can have dozens and dozens of them blooming next year if you seed now.  All those flowers for cutting you’ve always wanted — daisies and echinacea and rudbeckia – they are simple from seed. One packet of seed will give you dozens and dozens of flowers next year.

So save an entire year of time by planting perennial seeds now. And save a bundle of money by growing your own perennials and by having greens you can pick from for the next six months.

 

Photo credit:  www.modernfarmer.com

 

 

 

Heirloom Vegetable Seeds

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It’s Time to Divide Iris

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Wildflower Seeds

by Sandy Swegel

Bearded Iris meet many of my criteria for a flower garden.  Their flowers are big and colorful.  They are sturdy and withstand hail. Here in Colorado they are virtually disease free.

One of the best and the worst things about iris is that they reproduce like crazy.  Especially in rainy years like we’ve had the last couple of years.  You can ignore the massive clump of green blades, but if you want more flowers, you have to divide iris every few years.

A few facts:

July to September is iris dividing season. After bloom but give the roots some time to reestablish.

The roots of iris are called rhizomes…big clunky and ginger-like.  Photosynthesis occurs in the rhizome.  If the rhizome doesn’t get some light, the plant rarely blooms.

The fan (the leaves) that bloomed this year will never bloom again. So you can cut it off and throw it away.  Two buds on either side of this fan will send up their own leaves and bloom next year.   Those are what you’ll be replanting.

Giving away iris is like giving away zucchini in August. Some gardeners are thrilled but others run when they see you coming.

The two most important things to remember when replanting iris:

Good drainage.  Iris will handle drought and bad soil, but standing water rots them.

The rhizome needs to be slightly above soil level.

Now iris come in many colors and there are definitely fads.  This year no one can give away purple iris.  They’ve somehow become commonplace.  But I  brought a huge clump of white iris to a garden meeting and grown women were fighting over single rhizomes.  Go figure.  Fortunately, before digging from the mixed iris bed, we had used a permanent marker to write on the leaves the color of the flower.

It’s a bit of work but there is one awesome secret about iris that means you have to grow them.  They smell just like their color.  Purple iris smell like grape snowballs.  Yellow iris smell exactly as you’d think yellow should smell.  Apricot iris have a delicate sweet aroma. What a delight to plant a walkway with irises.

 

Photo credit txmg.org/elpaso/event/farmers-market-series-2014-07-26/

Art by Nancy Baker www.hear2heal.com/bearded-ladies-limited-edition-fine-art-iris-garden-nancy-baker-p-756.html

Grow Your Own Food: Best Return on Investment

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The Three Foods You Must Grow

by Sandy Swegel

There are so many vegetables you can grow in your garden. If only there was enough time. If you have limited time or space for your garden, think about what is the best return on your investment of time and money when you grow your own food as well as the best outcome of flavor and nutrition. Three things I grow even if I don’t have time to grow anything else are:

Salad greens.
Loose-leaf lettuces, spinach, kale, chard, and arugula are up and ready to eat in as little as three weeks after planting. You can pick what you need for tonight’s salad, and let the plant continue to grow for another night’s salad. Baby greens and mixed lettuces cost $6 per pound (and up) at the grocery…and they aren’t necessarily that fresh…sometimes they’ve been traveling in a semi-trailer from California for a week already. Grow your own greens to get maximum nutrition and taste for a couple of bucks worth of seed.

Tomatoes.
You’ve tasted one of those grocery store tomatoes that look perfect and taste like absolutely nothing? Enough said. You have to grow tomatoes because home-grown tomatoes taste so much better than anything you can buy. But tomatoes have also gotten really expensive. One or two tomato plants easily save you a couple hundred dollars if you regularly eat tomatoes in your salads and sandwiches. Cherry tomato plants are especially prolific.

 

Herbs.

Fresh herbs are the best way to give oomph to your cooking. They taste so much better than dried herbs and can often star in a simple dish …such as basil leaves served with mozzarella and tomato. Many herbs are perennial (like thyme and oregano) and only have to be planted once. Annual herbs, such as basil and dill produce lots and lots of flavorful leaves.

It’s always fun to grow everything there is to grow, but if you’re strapped for time or space, let the local farmers grow the long-season crops like winter squash, the root crops like onions and carrots, or the water-hogging melons. You’ll be enjoying your own magnificent home-grown healthful salads all season.

Early Spring Flowers for Pollinators

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Why to Plant These Wildflower Seeds

by Sandy Swegel

Hungry pollinators are starting to wake up. Well, maybe not this week in Colorado if they are smart. We still have a foot of old snow on the ground, but the sun will come out later this week and I expect to see the first crocuses poke out from the melting snow.

The first warm days of Spring bring out lots of our pollinator friends. In a long winter like this, honey supplies are running short and honeybees are eager for fresh food. Wild bees and bumblebees who don’t have honey stores are very hungry. Ladybugs that woke up a few weeks ago and have been eating aphid eggs in the leaf litter are eager for some sweet nectar or pollen. Everybody’s hungry and are flocking to the first flowers to gather nectar and protein. They need to build up their own strength and to provide food for Spring babies.

 

You can spot some of the first pollinators of the season if you look closely at the first Spring bulbs. Plan to plant more flowers for pollinators in your garden if you want to attract more. You can lure pollinators to your yard by having the first flowers. Then they’ll stay for the rest of the season if you have flowers in bloom all year.

 

Some of the easiest spring flowers to grow are:
Crocus
Snowdrops
Grape hyacinths
Daffodils
Tulips, especially native tulips.

Little bulbs like snowdrops and grape hyacinths re-seed themselves and naturalize a good-sized patch. If you don’t have these in your own yard, it’s easy dig up a few bulbs from a friend’s overgrown patch and transplant into your own garden. They don’t mind the transplanting too much and will bloom as usual…attracting more pollinators to your yard.

So bend down close to those little crocus flowers to see our pollinator friends. Bring a camera. The bees get groggy from gorging on pollen and are often moving pretty slowly, so it’s easy to get a good picture.

 

Photo credits:
Mason bee on crocus: http://www.earthtimes.org/scitech/saving-bees-new-pesticide/2612/

Bee on tulip: http://matthewwills.com/tag/honey-bees/

Bee on muscari and fly on snowdrop: http://urbanpollinators.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/more-early-spring-flowers-for.html

To make your pollinator garden click here!

comp

 

 

Lessons from an Orchid Show

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Indoor and Outdoor Gardening Ideas

by Sandy Swegel

Seeking solace from Winter and brown landscapes, I headed to the Denver Botanic Gardens yesterday. They have turned all their indoor spaces into a grand orchid show with orchids in the conservatory, orchids in hallways, and orchids tucked into every nook and cranny. A perfect winter escape.

Here are some ideas I got for both indoor and outdoor gardening.

Green in a Color Too.
There were intriguing green orchids underplanted with miniature green plants including mosses, creeping jenny, dwarf junipers. It was a riot of texture and color…the colors were all green but clearly, there are many different green colors: chartreuse creeping jenny and growing tips of juniper, deep dark green ground covers, bright green coleus, variegated green ivies, soft green mosses and prickly green evergreens. Oh my. This mixing of green colors and textures works outdoors especially in shadier areas too. Do what the DBG did…throw in a lone shock of purple and, voila, the planting is art.

Orchids Aren’t Just for Pots.
The orchids weren’t just sitting inside pots. Their roots were also packed in orchid bark held together by plastic wrap (disguised with attached moss) and tied to the top of trees or dormant branches. This would work in the kitchen too…how about an orchid leaning down from the top of the refrigerator…or attached to the side of the cabinet at eye level when you’re doing dishes. Orchids are very close to being air plants…they just need some humidity. Tie an orchid to a ficus tree in your living room.

 

Orchids Can Be Team Players.
Traditionally we display orchids as lone divas. One orchid, in its own orchid pot, on a bare surface…very modern Asian looking. But the world of orchids has changed. Once it took many years to grow orchids but now tissue cloning churns out beautiful flowering orchids so cheaply you can often get an orchid that will bloom for months for only $10 at the grocery store. The DBG used these specimens as one flower among several in container plantings. This would work outdoors too in shady moist locations.

 

 

 

Ultimate kitchen recycling

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Food Recycling Tips

by Sandy Swegel

Winter is going on and on. One day of sun and ice melt is followed by three days of cold and snow. I’ve been cooking a lot, trying to meet my need for gardening by preparing great food. One of the best things about cooking, from a gardener’s perspective, is that I’m making compost! But there is one more way to cheer up a snow-bound gardener and achieve kitchen recycling and that’s to regrow the vegetable scraps rather than just feeding them to the worms.

I first encountered the idea of re-growing food scraps from a children’s gardening book because it’s fun to do and a great way to teach kids about food and where it comes from. But this long winter, re-growing carrot tops and celery bottoms is also a great way to entertain the gardener yearning for Spring.

It’s super easy to regrow your scraps. You don’t even have to have soil, water works. Cute cups or plain bowls or recycled tin cans are good containers. And you just need the tiniest shaft of light to keep things green.

When you shop, choose:
Vegetables with roots (like green onions)
Roots with leaves (carrots, beets)
Whole plants (bok choy, celery or kale)
Fresh herbs (mint sometimes has little roots already growing)

When you’re making salad or soup:
Save inch stubs of carrots and onions. Carrots can go on a shallow bowl or plate of water. Onions can be put in a couple of inches of water in a juice glass.

Save two-inch ends celery or bok choy or an onion.

 

Growing your scraps is pretty easy
You want to put the roots in water and the top of the plant above water. Ideally, change the water every day so slime doesn’t happen.

As the food scraps grow, you can pot up the vigorous growers like celery and beet greens, and snip from the new growth all winter.

Remember, it’s your food. It should not only be yummy and nutritious and pretty. It should also be fun to play with.

 

 

Photo Credits
http://www.aboutone.com/kitchen-scrap-gardening/
http://www.theoldschool.com/motivate/tips/2013/propagating-beet-greens
http://www.missladybugsgarden.com/5/post/2013/02/regrowing-rather-than-throwing.html

 

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Eat and Grow

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Why and How to Regrow Kitchen Scraps

By: Holly Keehn

Don’t throw out those kitchen scraps this Thanksgiving.  Instead, eat and grow them!  Composting is great, but if you don’t have a bin this is an excellent way to get full use of your veggies, just as nature intended!

Re-grow these vegetables and save on many grocery bills to come:

Leeks, Onions, Lemongrass

  • Celery, Bok Choi, Romaine Lettuce, Cabbage, Root Vegetables
  • Ginger
  • Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes
  • Herbs
  • Mushrooms
  • Garlic

Onions are really easy to re-grow, indoors and out as long as they receive enough sunlight.  For bulb onions, take the root end and cover lightly with soil.  For green onions and lemongrass, simply place the root ends in enough water to cover the roots and harvest the new growth.

Celery, lettuce, cabbage, and root vegetables can all be re-grown by covering the roots with water leaving the tops exposed, then plant leaving the new growth leaves above the soil.

 

Ginger, oh ginger.  Simply soak the root in water overnight, cover with soil, and harvest as needed.  Repeat the process to ensure a constant supply.

If you’re like me and don’t use your potatoes quickly enough, you’ll see them starting to root, or form “eyes”.  Take advantage of this by cutting the potato into pieces with 1-2 eyes on each, leave them out for a few days until fully dry, plant them 12 inches apart and four inches deep, and continuously cover half of the new growth until harvest.

I never thought to re-grow herbs, what a fantastic idea!  They are super easy, too.  Keep a four-inch clipping in water with leaves exposed until you see significant root growth, then pot, and enjoy a constant supply of fresh herbs.

You can also re-grow mushrooms using a mixture of compost and soil.  Place the mushroom stalk in the soil, leaving only the top exposed.  If all goes as planned, you’ll have mushrooms in no time!

Garlic is truly one of the easiest to re-grow.  Simply place one clove root end down into the soil and watch it grow!

Use this season’s whirlwind of cooking to enjoy a constant supply of free, fresh, homegrown produce year round!

Happy cooking!

 

Photo Credit:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/296885800406668715/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/345510602636546064/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/166422148703165573/

 

 

Best Heirloom Vegetable Seed

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Wildflower Seeds

Organic Vegetable Seed

3 Easy Way to Get More Plants

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Multiplying Your Plants

by Sandy Swegel

No this isn’t about how to sneak into your neighbor’s yard at night with a shovel and bucket.  Although stopping by at your neighbor’s when she’s in full gardening mode can often score a few plants that she’s getting rid of.  But Spring is a time when plants are vigorously growing… so they easily transplant or divide or root giving you an easy way to get more plants.

Root in Water
The easiest new plants this week were the forsythia and viburnum blooms and curly willows I cut to put in vases in the house.  By the time they were finished being beautiful, little rootlets were forming at the bottom of the stems…so I’ll leave them in water another week or so and then plant them directly in the garden.

When I’m weeding out plants that are in places I don’t want them to be, but I don’t have time to save each little plant if I want to finish the cleanup, I keep a bucket of water with me and throw in stragglers that might survive till I have time to deal with them.  Got some nice yarrows, perennial geraniums and veronicas this week.

Annuals like geraniums root easily in water. I’ve also gotten fuschias and the wing begonias to root easily.

I’m not saying rooting in water is the best way to propagate plants….but before I knew much about gardening, I rooted lots of plants this way and it’s fun to watch the roots grow in the kitchen window while I wash dishes.

Cut off divisions
For plants one is traditionally taught to dig up, divide and transplant, (Shasta daisies, Veronica, salvia, phlox, among many more) I’ve found great success just taking a shovel or my trusty soil knife and slicing through about a 3-inch piece on the edge.  I leave the mother plant undisturbed so its growth and bloom is normal.  The division transplants easily although it may bloom later.  This works great with hostas and I’ve gotten dozens of baby hosta plants this way.

Direct seed.
I was hanging out in the parking lot at the local garden center drooling over all the perfect annuals being unloaded.  And such a deal.  $2 or $3 for a four-pack…how can one resist?  However, by the time I get to the checkout stand, all those couple-of-dollars added up to a lot of money that wasn’t in my budget.  Then I remembered my first garden as an adult.  We sprinkled one pack of marigold seeds.  True, they didn’t look like much in early May….but come June, they were blooming and there were dozens and dozens of little marigold plants for less than the cost of that four pack. Come mid-summer the tiny field of marigolds were much prettier than that four-pack would have been.  PLANT MORE SEEDS.  🙂