Hardy Pecan Tree Seeds For Sale (Wisconsin Strain) and Video on How to Start Them From Seed!

 Head on over right now to Magicland Farms to purchase your seed nuts so you can get them growing ASAP. The faster you get them in some soil, the better!

http://www.magiclandfarms.com/

 

 

 

What to Plant in Your Garden First Thing . . .

Winter lettuce, of course!

I have planted lettuce in January and harvested it in March here in Michigan, zone 5b. Of course I had to baby it with keeping it warm with low tunnel and radiant heat, but to have something green and delicious so early! So I had the camera out during the whole process of planting the lettuce from seed to harvesting it. I have my first of three videos uploaded to YouTube. Check out step by step on how to start your lettuce from seed. I will be getting the whole "winter lettuce project" uploaded to YouTube soon, so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it.

DIY Gardening Video: How to Grow Watermelon from Seed

Watermelon has been a staple crop at Magicland Farms, my family's farm and roadside market, since the beginning. My dad direct seeded them late Spring, when the soil were toasty warm, and crops of huge, delicious watermelon were the result. However, demand for watermelon encouraged my dad to try planting watermelon much earlier, for earlier harvest. He found cold soil just doesn't work and poor germination or no germination ensues. Furthermore, any attempt at direct seeding seedless watermelon was futile. So, later on we found that starting watermelon in pots and then planting out was a good way to get early watermelon as well as the ONLY way to grow seedless watermelon. In this five minute video I made I share with you the method we use to start watermelon seeds in pots.

Ink Garden Coupons and Promo Codes

Ink Garden is the place where I purchase my business cards, as well as personalized gifts such as mugs, thermoses, calendars, notebooks, and other little things. I wanted to share with you some money saving codes and cookies for your next Ink Garden purchase.

For those of you who are newbies, make sure to click this link: 50% Off Your First Order at Ink Garden! Use Code: SPECIAL50 (Sorry, S&H is not included and it cannot be used in conjunction with other offers.)

10% cash back at Inkgarden.com if you go through Mrrebates.com. Click on banner to become a member and start saving!

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!

Quick and Easy Raised Garden Bed

Years ago my sister, Rebekah, made a raised bed to grow some annual cooking herbs. Although the bed is still looking good, she hasn't kept up with the herb growing. Instead, she has a new found passion - cut flowers that are deer resistant. We have a large family of deer who like to devour everything around the house, herbs included, so I have been helping her figure out which flowers deer will leave alone. I thought of daisies and asters because a species of both grow wild on the farm - so my guess deer don't particularly like them. I chose gaillardia, mainly because they are such a tough plant with tons of blooms. A little deer browsing shouldn't hurt. Rebekah may add some more plants, but those three are the ones we figured out so far and have started them from seed indoors (to get a head start). I am eager to see the flower beds in bloom and will post a photo of the results.

As for the quick and easy raised garden bed. Photos! I wanted to show you how we built it step by step so you can make one yourself.

We made the frame of the raised bed using scrap 2x4s, which we pounded in the ground in an L shape. We took slag wood (lumber yards and mills have piles of leftover pieces from making standard lumber. You can purchase them on the cheep) and screwed them into the 2x4s as shown. Pre-drilling helps and 3" long deck screws are the easiest to use.

Hundreds and Thousands Tomato - Collecting Tomato Seed

Photo taken from http://www.dobies.co.uk

I've heard so many good things about the Hundreds and Thousands tomato that I had to grow it myself. Last year I searched all over (eg. catalogs, online) for a place that sells this tomato. Sadly, I found that it just isn't available here in the U.S. It is mainly a British tomato phenomenon, but I still wanted to get my hands on the seed somehow and see for myself see what all the rave was about. A nice lady from Canada sent me a few leftover seeds she had purchased from overseas. Even though it was late by the time I received the seed I decided to plant them right away. They came up quickly and grew fast. I transplanted them into hanging baskets (that's what I heard they do over in Britain with this particular tomato). They did produce a good amount of fruit even though

Delphinium Blue Lamp Makeover DIY Youtube Video

I recently completed a two-part video tutorial about how I took an old lamp from the basement and up-cycled it into a beautiful, elegant, and feminine desk lamp. This makeover was for my sister Rebekah's computer desk. She was looking for a blue lamp so I made sure to paint the whole base blue. I am especially taken with the base and am so happy with how it turned out after taking two broken vases and "texturizing" them with plaster. As for the lampshade, I added a little glamour by spray painting the whole shade in silver. I personalized the shade just for my sister with a silhouette border of her favorite flower, the delphinium. Then, I penned some of her favorite movie quotes in various fonts - just a way to make her smile each time she turns the light switch.

Pinteresting Tuesday: Coat Hanger Crafts and DIY

Pinteresting Tuesday: Favorite Family Tried and True Recipes

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.

Pinteresting Tuesday: Ribbon Scraps DIY Crafts and Ideas

Gourd Craft Video Tutorials by Bernadette's Gourd Creations

I put together a Pinterest board in order to collect all the videos I made about gourd crafting into one place for you to view.
1. I show you how to clean the outside of the gourd.
2. I show you how to cut open the gourd and clean the inside.
3. I show you how to use embossing powders on gourds.
4. I show you how to make a Art Deco inspired gourd with wax relief technique and coin shell stitched rim. 5. In my most popular video I show you how to woodburn a gourd with a roof.
6. In this video I show you how to make a decoupaged bird feeder with an original Robin motif.
7. I give you tips on how to attract specific birds to your gourd birdhouse.
8. I show you how to make a real simple birdhouse for Purple Martins.

Home-canned Tomato Sauce vs. Store Bought? Any difference?

I just finished reading a post my dad wrote about homemade tomato sauce vs. store bought and thought to share it here on my blog. My dad makes a meatless spaghetti sauce and yesterday we enjoyed a pot full. It was one of the best batches - he even added big chunks of carrots which are stewed in the sauce and pick up all the wonderful flavors for one delicious bite!

See my dad's post here: http://blog.magiclandfarms.com/?p=462

See my sister's take on our homemade spaghetti sauce and a delicious Spaghetti bread recipe: http://sabbathsupper.blogspot.com/2010/12/we-call-it-spaghetti-bread.html

See how we make our homemade tomato sauce on the farm's YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/eDi6tRZOueA

Pinteresting Tuesday: Valentine Crafts and Ideas ♥

Growing Lettuce in Winter: Part 1

Starting lettuce in winter was successful for us. We transplanted it into a raised bed inside our unheated greenhouse. We covered the raised bed in a low tunnel as well, we then snaked a heating cable through the bed and set out a heat lamp that turned on when it got close to the freezing point. Step by step photos below will show you how we started the lettuce from seed. The interesting thing about this "lettuce-in-winter escapade" is

Tips and Tricks: Reusing Silica Gel

You know those little packets of silica gel that come in shoe boxes, furniture kits, and many other things you've purchased? Well, I collected a whole bunch of them over the years thinking I would use them to dry flowers without pressing them. I still may do that, but something a bit more practical came around and I found myself needing some silica gel to store clothing and stuffed animals. So, I took those packets I've been collecting for years, poured them all in a foil lined baking pan and dried them out in a 250 degree oven for 4 hours. I then took coffee filters and folded them into little bags, stapling the sides. I filled each bag with about two spoonfuls and closed it up with more staples. I think these will do the job just fine! ♥