Bad Seeds
- On April 22, 2010
- By Meleah
- In Seeds
0
There probably isn’t a gardener alive who doesn’t have at least a small pile of half-empty seed packets, seeds in jars, or seeds in envelopes lying around. We always mean to plant the seeds we save, but time gets away from us and at some point we find ourselves wondering whether it’s too late. And it may be. Seeds don’t last forever, but it’s surprising how often you’ll find that seeds are still good long after the expiration date on the packet.
Before you plant seeds and hope for the best, do a germination test like you did in school as a kid. Note, though, that this test is best for annual and vegetable seeds because many perennial seeds require special treatment before they’ll sprout.
Place the seeds you want to test on a moist (not soggy) paper towel and cover them with another moist paper towel. Put your seed-towel sandwich inside a sealed plastic bag or between sheets of plastic wrap. Label the bag and store it in a warm spot out of direct sunlight—on top of the fridge is usually a good choice.
Check the seeds daily and use a spray bottle to moisten them if they’re drying out. Depending on the seeds you’re testing, sprouting could take a few days or a few weeks. (If you have commercial seed packets, check those for germination times.) Once your seeds have sprouted you’ll be able to calculate their germination rate, so if just 50 percent sprouted, say, you’ll want to sow them more heavily in the garden to ensure you get the number of plants you want.
Mulch
- On April 18, 2010
- By Meleah
- In Turf Grass
- 0
When we think about gardening, admittedly, mulch isn’t the fun part, the part that you just can’t wait to dig into come spring. But mulch is worth giving some thought to and there are lots of reasons why. Not thinking about mulch, for instance, could easily lead you to make the dreadful mistake of picking any old thing like, say, gravel or decorative rock — possibly even white rock —which, as I may have ranted about before, is definitely the most hideous mulch imaginable.
Rock not only makes an ugly, completely unnatural-looking mulch, it also creates an inhospitable environment for plants since it’s usually spread on top of a sheet of black plastic. The plastic is there to keep the weeds out, but it also ensures that water and air don’t reach the soil so you can say goodbye to earthworms and all of the microorganisms that help keep soil healthy. Even if more porous fabric is used, it doesn’t solve the problems caused by all those rocks heating up in the hot sun and baking the plants and surrounding soil.
Read More»Growing Cacti and Other Succulents Indoors
- On March 26, 2010
- By Meleah
- In Indoor Gardening
- 0
I grew up in Phoenix, so I thought I’d had my fill of cactus. (Picture being a Girl Scout and taking camping trips in a desert filled with inhospitable plants covered with spines and barbs.) But this past year I’ve really gotten into growing cacti and succulents indoors. Maybe that’s partially due to the fact that the mere sight of them makes me think of warmth and vacations. If you’ve always wanted try growing houseplants but needed something incredibly easy to care for, these are the plants for you.
Before I jump into how to care for cacti and succulents, let me first explain what these plants are. Simply put, succulents are plants that are good at storing moisture in their stems, leaves and/or roots so they do well in hot, dry conditions. All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti. A few succulents you’ll probably recognize right away are jade (Crassula arborescens), aloe (Aloe barbadensis), flowering Kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) and, of course, the Christmas cactus, which is both a cactus and a succulent. (FYI: Christmas cacti have very different needs than other cacti and succulents, so don’t go by what I say in this article when caring for them.)
Read More»Start Veggies Early With Black Plastic
- On February 09, 2010
- By Meleah
- In Veggies
- 0
Normally I would deter people from rolling out black plastic in the garden for any reason. But the truth is, black plastic sure comes in handy when you want to get heat-loving crops in the ground a little early. You can plant tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, and eggplants about three weeks to a month early when you warm the ground with black plastic sheeting.
Before you put plastic down, lay down some soaker hoses or drip irrigation lines, since overhead water won’t penetrate the material. Roll out and stretch the plastic before securing it with stakes or with a few shovelfuls of soil all along the edges. Use your fingers to poke holes for your plants. After the seedlings are in place, spread some soil over the plastic at each plant’s base to keep the plastic from ballooning up over the stems and leaves.
As the weather warms up, the plastic will retain the day’s heat and help keep the soil warm on cool spring nights. Remove the plastic once temps have warmed up so you won’t damage plant roots with high heat.
Poinsettia pointers
- On November 21, 2009
- By Meleah
- In Indoor Gardening
- 0
There are close to 200 varieties of poinsettias on the market today and though they’re only sold during the holidays, they consistently rank as the top-selling flowering, potted plant in the country. That’s kind of an amazing statistic when you consider that poinsettias were in no way related to Thanksgiving or Christmas before the 1920s.
The poinsettia is actually native to southern Mexico and Central America where the warm climate encourages the plant to grow as a shrub, sometimes as tall as 10 feet. It was Joel Roberts Poinsett, an amateur botanist and U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1825 to 1829, who introduced the poinsettia to America. Taken, no doubt, by the plant’s rich, red blooms (which are not flowers but leaves, known as “bracts”) he had a few of them sent back to his home in South Carolina. There, in his hothouses, he propagated the plant and sent some to friends and to botanical gardens. By 1833, the first “poinsettias” were for sale in local nurseries.
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