Green Avalon - Part 15

Starting Seeds Indoors

Feb 15th

There are many, many ways to start seeds indoors. I’ll share what has worked best for me. Light is the most important things to successful seed growing. They must get at least 14 hours of good light every day. If you have a truly south facing window you can grow them there, otherwise expect to supplement the light needed.

I grew plants on plastic storage racks with grow lights attached to the underside of the shelves. They were in a SE window, so got light until mid-afternoon. This was still not ideal light, but the plants did sprout and do better More >

gardening, indoor seed planting, planting seeds indoors, starting seeds

Bulbs, Rhizomes And Corms

Feb 11th

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

There are both summer and fall varieties of these types of plants. In the spring everyone knows of the daffodils, tulips, and crocuses, but there are many others that you could plant.

Summer plants include iris, fritillaries, dahlias, elephant ears, caladiums, etc. These are the ones usually ordered in the spring. They, too, will be sent to you at the right time to plant in your area.

With all these plants make sure you plant them according to the directions. Some are planted on the soil surface, other just under the surface, and some so deep you’ll be sure they could never More >

bulbs, choosing bulbs, corms, gardening, rhizomes

The Much Overrated Grass

Feb 7th

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

Grass. If seen by aliens that just landed here they would think we worship it. We have all kinds of gadgets, tools, fertilizers, poisons, etc. to make the perfect lawn. Personally I think lawns are way overrated. Having a small lawn for playing on is fine, but expanses of lawn as far as the eye can see just shows a lack of creativity.

In some areas of the country spring is the time to put grass in. In others it won’t be until fall. If you plan to put in a lawn make sure when you should do it. As planting More >

choosing grass seed, gardening, grass, planting grass

Seed Chart Readied

Feb 4th

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

One of the best things you can do is be prepared for the growing season, which for some is about to start (only in the deep south is it already started). Put together a list of the seeds that need to be started indoors and plan to start them 6-10 weeks before the last frost.

Next, pull out the growing chart you got from the Ag Extension and make up a list of seeds and start dates month to month. This will be for seeds you start directly in the garden.

Then organize your new, beautiful, enticing seed packets in some sort More >

gardening, preparing to plant seeds, seed organization

Don’t Forget The Flowers

Jan 28th

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

Flowers can be planted at more variable times that the food bearing plants. Perennials, plants that come back every year, can be planted almost anytime the soil is not frozen or in the middle of the summer heat. Of course spring and fall are the best times, as the soil is more easily worked and the plants have ideal growing conditions

Annuals are usually planted in late spring after the last frost. Most garden centers will get annuals in only after it is safe to plant them in your area, but ask if you’re not sure. You can also start them More >

choosing flowers to plant, flower gardening, gardening

Nut Trees

Jan 24th

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

Nut trees require a lot of room. I haven’t heard of any dwarf nut trees, yet. If you want to have nut trees you will need a fairly large piece of property as most trees need to be placed at least 20’ apart and some even further. On our one acre lot we have three pecan trees. That is all the room we have for nut trees.

Be careful to make sure the nuts will bear in your climate. There’s a lot of variation in climate tolerance with nut trees. Some nut trees are tropical.

Lastly nuts trees are a long-term investment. More >

gardening, nut trees, selecting nut trees

Fruit Trees

Jan 21st

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

This is also the time to order bare root fruit trees. They’ll be shipped to you at the proper time for planting in your area. Bare root trees are usually small, but they will very soon catch up to the larger, more expensive and hard to ship older trees. Also, for some reason they seem to be more resilient to transplanting. I’ve lost fewer bare root saplings than their two or three year old siblings in pots.

Make sure the varieties you want will do well in your area. Trees require diligence in pruning, fruit removal and processing (once they get More >

choosing fruit trees, fruit trees, gardening

Berry Bushes

Jan 18th

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

If you want to grow your own berries now is the time to order them. You can get decent plants at your local home improvement center, but be careful on varieties. They just buy a whole bunch of one berry and ship it all over the US, whether it will do well or not. Refer to all the info you got from the Agricultural Extension. (Do I sound like an ad for them or what?) Also, they arrive in the stores too soon, so try to buy them before they sprout or you’ll have to keep them indoors until all More >

gardening, growing berries, how to grow berries

Purchasing Seeds

Jan 15th

Posted by Sadaajit in gardening

In the last couple blogs there’s a huge list of seed companies that were gleaned from internet searches. What to do with 65 seed companies?

It’s a good idea to try to grow seeds that have been produced in your climate or a climate similar to yours. One of the reasons I use Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is they cultivate seeds from around the world. Some of them come from hot humid climates, which is the climate I grow in. So, when looking at the locations, see if the company is near you. This doesn’t guarantee that the seeds were produced More >

gardening, purchasing seeds, seeds