How to Start Your Own Tomato Plants from Seed YouTube Video

I have completed another gardening video! I have started so many plants from seed this year (would you believe in the hundred thousands?) and it made me think that I should be sharing what I've learned with all of you. So I made a step by step video on how I plant tomato seeds for optimum germination. I chose tomatoes because I know everyone loves tomatoes in some way, but also because I believe that when you've grown your own tomato seedlings you will want to start all your plants from seed!

You may wonder why not just purchase tomato plants. I'll give you two good reasons--they are so expensive and you are very limited in variety and flavor. Growing your own tomato seedlings has everything going for it! I know it may seem somewhat of a challenge if you haven't grown anything from seed before, but believe me, it's much easier than you think.

So, let's get started!

Seed Swaps DO's and DON'Ts

It is a great time of year to start getting your seeds together and begin planning out your garden. I say seeds, because we all know how expensive plants are, so starting your own plants from seed is really the way to go if you are on a budget. For my family's farm we plant all our annual crops from seed, including tomatoes, peppers, and onions, which we start indoors.

Growing Lettuce in Winter - Part 2

We spaded the ground in our unheated greenhouse, removing weeds and debris. To spade, push your shovel in the ground and lift a shovel full of dirt out of the ground. Turn your whole shovel over and let the dirt fall back into the hole you just made. The point of doing this is to bring relatively untouched soil from under the ground to the surface, bury the organic material that was on the surface, and to break up the compacted soil.

Blooming Amaryllis Time Lapse Video captured by Bushnell Trophy Trail Camera

This beautiful, bright red flower brightens the dreary winter scene from our bay window. In a span of almost two weeks I let our Bushnell Trophy Trail Camera capture a photo of our budding Amaryllis every five minutes during daylight hours. January 27 at 10 o'clock in the morning the first photo was taken; and on February 6 at 5 P.M the last photo was taken.  

Camera Info: 8mp Bushnell Trophy Cam Trail Camera with Night Vision. Model: 119436C

This video sparked my interest to do a little research about this flower. See related post about what I "dug up." :)

Profile of a Plant: Hippeastrum or Amaryllis

 

• Common Name(s): Amaryllis is actually the common name even though it is the generic name for another plant that looks similar, but is a hardier specimen from South Africa.
• Scientific Name: Hippeastrum (hip-ee-AS-trum) from the Amaryllidaceae family. Hippeastrum is Greek for knights star. The common name, Amaryllis, is taken from the Greek word amarysso, which means "to sparkle," but there is no concrete story behind the name of this plant. Still, I do enjoy the shepherdess story that is circulating across the Internet. In Greek mythology, Amaryllis was the name of a shepherdess who shed her own blood to prove her true love, and in so doing inspired the naming of this bright red flower.

Drying Gourds for Crafts!

Bottle Gourds: Freshly harvested green gourds are pictured in the front and 2010-11's crop is in the back.

When I am not farming or gardening  I like to make crafts as you well know, but I especially like to craft with gourds. I've been making and selling gourd art for over a decade now and over the past 5 years I've been sharing my knowledge and experience in this unique art form through writing and videos. This blog is not going to be an exception to that either! :) This is a great time of year to show you the first step in making gourd art – drying out the gourds. Many, many people come up to me and say they grew some gourds this year and now they don’t know what to do with them. I want to answer that question here.

Photo Friday: Using Rocks in the Garden

I wanted to show you how I incorporate rocks of all sizes into my garden and what better way than with lots of photos!

My small flower garden is situated in a lush woods under the canopy of two great white oaks. It’s rather a difficult spot to garden due to the shade and lack of water (the trees soak up a lot!), but also because it is right on a rather steep hill. It’s such a beautiful spot overlooking a large lake that I didn’t mind dealing with the difficulties.

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One of the first things I did was build dry stack rock walls to brace the soil back and create level garden plots. I made a couple large retaining walls and a couple small ones. I was lucky to have

Gardener's Bookshelf - Gift giving ideas

I don't know a gardener who doesn't appreciate adding another book to their gardening shelf. So, I decided to choose a couple of my favorites from my collection and share with you why they would make great gifts for each of the flower buds on your Christmas list.

Profile of a Plant: Pulmonaria or Lungwort

Quick facts about Pulmonaria:

Common names: Lungwort, Bethlehem Sage, Jerusalem Cowslip

Scientific Name: Pulmonaria (pull-moe-NAIR-ee-uh) from the Borage family

Species: P. officinalis (common lungwort), P. augustifolia (blue lungwort), P. longifolia (long-leaved lungwort), P. rubra (red lungwort), P. saccharata (spotted lungwort).

Zones: 3-7 (zone 8 if planted in a cooler microclimate)

Size: 9-18”  high and forming clumps just as wide.

Propagation: Very easy to divide in early spring or fall. Seeds may be collected in early summer and planted right away or saved for next year.

Time of Bloom: Throughout spring

Garden Magazine Reviews - My Top 5

I don't know about you but I like to have at least one subscription to some gardening magazine, especially for those winter blue days. Magazines are the perfect pick-me up especially when I can have a stroll through someone's blooming garden. Ideas from other gardeners abound in magazines and you'll find me jotting down ideas for next spring as I flip through the pages. I wanted to share with you some of my favorite publications and perhaps someone on your list will be getting a gift subscription this Christmas. :)