Woods

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)


"Judge every day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you sow." - Robert Louis Stevenson


Monday, February 21, 2011

Plant Camp Monday's

Got something new to share you might like to join or just visit some great blogs.


Homestead Revival http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/ is hosting a "Homestead Barn Hop". Looks like lots of fun and new bloggers to meet and share of their homestead and happenings.





http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2011/02/barn-hop-1.html

So head on over to the Barn Hop!


We had such beautiful weather last week , the break sure helped but we are backed to cold. Oh well it won't be long we'll be in those gardens before to long.

I started some seeds yesterday, tomatoes that I have saved for many years and a couple of new types of heirloom tomatoes , I love heirloom tomatoes.

I have nice sunny windows and I set the little green house in the our vintage cabin. With the sun warming it up in the daytime and our wood heat those seeds will come up in no time.







I used some really old tray's that I washed up from many uses. Most I have to double up to make sturdy b/c of cracks on the side.

On the tomatoes I just made little rows and planted seeds, when its time and its true leaves are
on the little babies "cotyledon leaves" will be transplanted in bigger pots, I even use styrofoam cups for transplanting. I'll be growing 300 to 500 tomato plants so I need everything for pots and keep the cost down too.

I love to recycle things and one thing I like to save are toilet paper rolls and paper rolls. I use them for a couple of things. For fire starters, I add dryer lint, wood chips, even cracked nut shells, load them up and add old melted down candle wax from the almost spent candles. Perfect to get those fires started.

But for the garden seeds i cut those rolls in half, four times for paper rolls , place in seed trays and add seed starter and plant the seeds. Makes perfect little seed starters.




I did them last year and they worked very well. Saved from buying all those little pots. I planted sweet peppers and some sweet basil in the toilet paper rolls.


Heres a list of saved tomato seeds

Tomatoes:

Rutgers
Mr. Stripey
Cherokee Purple
Stupice

Pea Tomato, I got this one from Powell Gardens, I asked for a couple to give it a try. I forgot the name but its sooooo tiny.

New Heirlooms

Beefsteak

Big Rainbow

San Marzano

Peppers:

Californa Wonders, sweet

Jalapeno, hot

I can't wait tell I get my seeds from White Harvest, I'm so excited about the garden season.

The weather was warm in the low 70* so a nice BBQ was in store. I cooked BBQ ribs out on the grill and made potato salad, found some green onions to add to the salad. They were growing in the garden after all that 20" of snow we got. Oh come on spring : )

Also I put the cut ends, root part of the little onions back in the garden and they should grow back, I'll have to see and check back later on this. I best get them marked today or I'll think they are the other onions growing.

Hope your growing your own seeds this season, you don't need a greenhouse, just a nice sunny window. I have grown thousands of plants this way. My folks have even used an old van to grow tomato plants when I was a kid, it worked!

Thank you for the visit, be sure and check out the Homestead Barn Hop and better yet join in the fun.

tc linda

6 comments:

  1. What a great idea! My DH save the rolls from work for the kids they are thicker but other than for wrapping Christmas lights around I never thought of using them for anything else. So the roots will bind the soil and will come out as a chunk am I correct?

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  2. I am excited about starting seeds too! Last year we made our cups out of old newspapers. I hope to be able to grow tomatoes this year. I can almost taste them :) We haven't been able to grow tomatoes the past 4 years that we have been here. They grow really well and then just rot.

    Vicki
    www.homesteadblogger.com/happyhaven

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  3. Hi all, thanks for stopping by

    Yes Laura-Liza, the rolls keep it all together ready to either transplant in a bigger pot or straight into the garden. They keep moist and because they are close together in the tray they stay together. I used them last year for the first time with success. Oh I didn't think about the Christmas paper rolls you can use to, would make lots of pots : )

    Vicki,newspaper is a great way to make pots. They even have a tool to make them but you can make them using a small soup can as well. Or just free shape em in a square little box. Great ideas for pots. Can't wait either for those tomatoes, hope you have a better crop this season.

    tc linda

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  4. I've used the cut paper rolls right in the ground to protect seedlings from cutworms. It also helps me remember where I planted things. - Margy

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  5. We're trying this method with the paper rolls this year for the first time. So far, our seedlings look better overall than they ever have. I definitely think we'll be using them from now on.

    It's been forever since I've been to Powell Gardens. I'm hoping I might be able to make the trip this summer. I'm sure it's even more beautiful than I remember.

    Thanks for the post, Linda.

    Savanna

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  6. Powell River Books , thats another good idea for those rolls, thank you.

    Savanna, my dd is saving her rolls , they have five children so they will have a bunch in no time,: ). They work great.

    Thanks everyone

    ReplyDelete

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