Starting seeds indoors

Starting Garden Seeds

Starting your flower and garden seeds indoors is easy if you follow a few simple steps.

Start with a seed starting soil mix, however, if use Miracle-Gro potting soil for larger seeds. Place the “soil” in a bucket and add a little water. This way the medium does not float off the container when you do water it.

Add the soil to your containers about ½ inch from the top and gently firm it down and make it level.

Place soil in container and gently firm.

Add the number of seeds you want plus a few extra. I have made the mistake of having 36 tomatoes of one variety wondering what am I going to do with all of the plants.

Space seeds and cover

Cover the seeds where you can no longer see the seeds and gently firm the soil around the seeds.

Place the containers in a tray and water from the bottom gradually soaking to the top of the soil. Then remove the water and cover the containers with a cover or saran wrap.

Cover and place under lights

Place under lights for 16 hours a day (you can use a timer). You can use regular shop fluorescent lights or use grow lights. Check every day for growth, some seeds germinate within 48 hours. Most seeds need some light to germinate. If you have a waterproof heating mat for germination, great. I just bought one (1X4 foot from Walmart.com) for $40.

Grow lights

When the seedlings germinate, remove the cover and keeping them under the lights, again for 16 hours. Let them grow until you transplant to larger containers. (I will explain this on Monday).

Success!

Home Improvement

Bidet vs Toilet Paper

Now we are in a “toilet paper crisis” maybe you want to turn your attention to a bidet. These units wash and dry so there is no toilet paper involved. Europe has been using these toilets for decades with Japan having over 80% of its population using theses. So it is the bidet vs toilet paper!

Bidets starting off being a separate unit from the toilet. You would use the toilet then hop over to the bidet. Now you can buy a bidet toilet seat to install on your old toilet. They are easy to install and do not require any technical renovations.

Bidet seats come with little heater providing warm water and drying air. Some come installed with night lights and deodorizers starting below $100 on up depending on quality.

You may have seen the bidet sprayers called shattaf. These look like your dish or garden hose sprayer. Just basically hold and spray. The toilet seat bidet seems like a better choice.

Pruning trees and shrubs

Pruning Shrubs Made Easy

Last week we spoke on pruning fruit trees. Now let’s talk about pruning shrubs made easy (multiple stemmed woody plants). There are two types of shrubs: ones that bloom on old wood (lilacs) and ones that bloom on new wood. For the ones that bloom on old wood (usually early flowering), wait till the shrub is done blooming before pruning (why sacrifice the flowers). The rest can be pruned now.


Most shrubs will be pruned because they are a tangled mess.

1. Remove up to 1/3 of the plant. Remove the oldest canes by cutting them down to the ground. In three years, the shrub will have new canes and renewed vigor.

2. You can reduce the height by cutting the canes back. Cut above an outward bud using a bypass pruner and cut at a 45-degree angle.

3. If the shrub has a lot of growth in the middle, thin out the center by cutting the twigs back to the main cane. This allows air and light to get to the center of the plants reducing disease and insect damage.

Just doing these three things will reenergize the plant making an old shrub new again.