Earthly Garden

Starting seedlings indoors take a lot of care and you must have everything right in order for them to sprout. The right potting mix, the right pots, the right light, and also the right temperature. If any of these things is off you may get stunted sprouting or even none at all. Here are few things to keep in mind when you want to start you herb seeds or any other garden seeds indoors.

1. Always read the back of the package the seeds come in. It can tell you exactly what you need to know. Whether to start the seeds indoors or whether you can plant them right into the dirt in your garden or flowerbed.

2. Never use all-purpose potting soil. I actually learned this the hard way and lost a very delicate, sentimental tree my husband gave to me on our first anniversary. This type of potting soil gets too hard for delicate plants and seed starts especially. It is a great mix to use with other types of potting mix or in your compost to help with breakdown.

3. One of the biggest mistakes many people make when starting seeds, it over watering. One watering a day in the morning is a great way to start and as the seedlings sprout and begin to grow taller, more watering can be given. Be sure to do some research and find out just how much water that particular plant needs. You don’t want to have a rotting root system on your little sprout.

4. To learn more about what plants are the best to start indoors and how to keep them strong and healthy before they are planting in the ground visit Ed Hume Seeds.

Mornin’ earthly gardeners! I thought I’d share a photo of my little Mexican lime tree with you. A friend says it’s the same as the “key lime.” Last year it bloomed off and on all spring and summer, and actually made a handful of fruit. What fun! It sits on a semi-shaded porch, and was doing great until we got a lot of ice last winter. I thought it was dead, but it’s not–it’s coming back! I’m always amazed at the rejuvenation power of plants.

It’s been raining profusely here off and on for the past week or so, and the garden is waterlogged. I’m really anxious to get these seedlings out of the office and into the ground. They aren’t quite ready, but I figure IF the sun comes out, they’ll catch up eventually. That’s the hope, anyway.

I hope some of you others are closer to spring. I haven’t heard the weather reports from other parts of the country in a few days, but I expect some of you are still chillin’. Now is the time to pore over those garden seed catalogs (if you still do the paper thang) or sit and browse through all the online garden seed suppliers.

If you haven’t started seedlings yet, there’s still time. My new idea is to set out a few at a time, spaced a few days apart. I don’t really have room for all these seedlings, so some will have to go into containers. Speaking of containers, the tomatoes in the EarthBox are doing fabulously, as are the two remaining tomato plants out in the raised beds.

Next week, I’ll talk about using raised beds in your garden, and tell you how you can build an easy, fast, almost instant garden anywhere! Really! So until then, do a Google for “small raised bed gardens” and get some ideas. And have a good weekend…

Until then, dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights to photos and text reserved.

raised bed gardening, rain, tomatoes, small space gardens, easy gardens

Mornin’ gardeners! About this time of year, the seed catalogs start pouring in, and I love sitting beside the fire (when it’s not 80-degrees) searching through them. It’s a peaceful, zen kinda thing with me. Anyway, I thought I’d set up a resource page with a few of my favorite online sites on it. As I’m sure you know, there are millions of online sellers of gardening seeds, supplies, etc. but not all of them carry stuff for organic gardening.

Here’s just a few to get you started. A lot of the garden companies will send free catalogs if you contact them through their web pages, too.

Gardening Supplies Link

Still watching for those basil seeds to pop up, no sign of that yet. You’ll be the first to know when I see them!

Dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2005-2007 Bobbi A. Chukran.

gardening catalogs, seed catalogs, gardening supplies link, basil seeds, free seed catalogs