botanicals at the dc

I seriously don't know what I would do if I were cut off from growing plants.  In recent years I have been blessed with the knack of starting plants and flowers from seed.  Our veggie garden at home has fifty-something tomato plants that I started from seed plus sixteen bell pepper plants.  Other than that, this season I began lavender, dill, rosemary, basil, stevia and am now working on my oregano, catnip and parsley.  There's just something near to my heart about knowing a plant from beginning to end as the seasons go by.  Here's some of the plants at the day care that we are growing outside of the garden.

Pretty Seed Packets

Because I love ya, I made a little present this morning for those of you who collect and save their own garden and flower seeds.  There are many ways to save seeds from your favorite flowers and vegetables and why not be ready in advance? 

 

These seed packets are super easy.  Just right click and print the picture below.  They are best printed on card stock and prettiest with a color printer.  I, for one, think they are just gorgeous!  Make as many as you want. Simply print, cut out, glue stick or tape the edges and corners and you are done!  You can even close the top flap with a pretty sticker.  If you cannot right click and print, you can find the pdf version by clicking HERE.

  

 

Don't you love it when I make presents for you?  I do, I have so much fun making this stuff.  Enjoy!

 

Here are some other posts of mine that have seed packet templates.

 

ONE  and TWO

 



Seed Flags

Most of the time when starting seeds for the garden I will label the pots in which I plant teeny tiny seeds.  Then some of the time I will not.  At some point and time, after the seedlings begin to show their pretty little heads above the dirt line, I combine them all in the same trays and eventually forget what's what.  The seed cups get jostled all in there together and until they begin their first set of real leaves I can't tell who is who, especially when I have begun more than one type of tomatoes.  I really try hard not to let this happen.  When I use my newspaper pots I simply write the names on the outside and all is well.  But this time I didn't write the names on the outside of about a dozen Roma tomatoes and a dozen marigolds.  So I came up with a pretty little solution to my problem and thought I would share it will you also, just in case you can use it too.  And in case you use a different type of seed starting pots like the black plastic ones that you can't write on.

 

My idea is little flags.  I made a template, printed and cut them out.  Then, using a glue stick, glued the flag around a tooth pick and taa daa... I.D. flags for my lil cuties! 

 

Again, you totally have my permission to right click and save these as a picture or right click and print.  They can also be used as cupcake flags or you could even pull the Shoney's card at a picnic labelling which hamburger is well done and rare.  Easy Peasy!  Have fun!

 

 

Fill in the blank flags.

 

 

Tomato Flags

 

Little Herb Ones!

 

By the way, if this print and click thing isn't working for you please shoot me a comment or email and I will be delighted to send it to you by email. 

XO Laurie



Garden Vows

This year, I vow to have a cleaner garden. 

I vow to place newspaper in rows after they are hoed to smother weeds, or I could use cardboard. 

I vow to pull up anything I did not plant this year.  I usually call these "volunteer" plants, which I generally allow to take over because I don't have the heart to pull them. 

I vow to rework the herb bed to gain some sort of control as a gardener.

I vow not to grow anything unless I have a use for it in hopes to not take any area of our garden for granted. 

 

I feel as I should be saying these vows standing at the edge of our garden holding dirt in my hand. 

 

I will be starting seeds this weekend.  It can be hard to determine when to begin seeds indoors, depending on where you live and the last frost date estimate.  We always plant our garden on or close to May tenth, that is just how my husband's Grandfather taught him.  Therefore, I semi-calculate and begin my seeds sixs weeks before the second week of May.  As a rule of thumb for me, I get antsy and begin them a couple of weeks earlier than that and have to baby leggy plants for the last two weeks because they are ready to reach the sun but I can let them yet because it's not time.  On the other hand if I wait too late I am afraid that something won't come up and beginning them early gives me more time to start over if something didn't sprout. 

 

So far, my plan for this Friday and Saturday is to buy seed starting mix and make my little newspaper pots (which tend to mold sometimes but I like them anyway).  By the way if you go that route and begin to see mold on the sides, go ahead and transplant them into a bigger pot.  I have seeds that I have saved from last year and seeds that I have purchased to get me started. 

 

I have a small list of our freezer needs and what we use the most of so those are most important to grow more of. 

 

Do you have any garden vows this year?

 

 

Seed Packet Template

So as I was blogging earlier I was brainstorming too! Multi-tasker that I am! I came up with a template for seed packets for me and to share with you! Click here to print the packet that I created. I also have a blank template that you can download and create your own packet design here. Adding templates and downloads is a first for me here. If it works well I may have more in the future. Please let me know if you have trouble and I'll try my best to fix it so it will work for you. I printed mine on used paper from the office that is a light green color which made it all the more fun. Directions for the seed packets are as follows. Cut out packet along black lines. Make folds along light gray lines. Fold back over, fold over bottom and side flap and glue or tape them down. Once you put seeds in them you can fold down the top flap and glue or tape it shut whichever you prefer. Be sure to label them on the front as to what kind of seeds you are saving.
This one is my first attempt. The template available had better flap sizes. And my make-shift taping job will get better. Hey, I was excited to get this up here!

Have fun!

Seed Balls

Last year I decided to add flowers to our garden that I could cut for the table. I grew zinnias, cosmos and had one humongo (yea that's a word in my extensive vocabulary)marigold that I grew from seed. I grew them all from seed which makes a gardener all the more proud. They ended up on the table, in beautiful pictures and the remnants of them in seed form found themselves in jars on the top shelf of my goodie cabinet in the kitchen. Over the winter I pondered on what to do with all the seeds. I can just picture them lining the fields of our farm with red, pink and orange blooms. But what are you supposed to do, just throw them out there? Without tilling up the ground where they'll go they would either get eaten by birds or wash away. The areas that I have to put them aren't the best in flat ground. I needed a different approach. I remembered reading about making seed balls out of red clay, potting soil or compost, water and seeds. Combining these ingredients, besides making a mess, creates little balls of seeds with their own ecosystem. You can throw them where ever and they'll stay put. The spring rains will dissolve them in their soil and the seeds will come up without having to break the ground. The clay holds them together.

I found a place in Nashville where you could buy powdered clay pretty cheap and also bought a bag of Black Gold compost potting soil. No I do not compost... I know.. I should and one day I feel that I will take this step in gardening. I am afraid of attracting unwanted critters to eat the scraps it takes to make compost. It's just one of those things.

Back to the balls. There is a really good tutorial here. I realize that I should have made my own tutorial and please forgive me for not doing so but this stuff makes the kind of mess that you don't want to get on your camera. Never-the-less it was fun and I hope that it brings rewards that line our farm with beautiful blooms this summer. In the spots my weed killing husband misses that is!

Starting Seeds

Gardening is one of those things that can yield fantastic rewards. From beginning to end, delight to worry, raw ground to water, the whole experience begins with a single plant. Have you ever thought of starting your garden from seed? I'm going to help you learn how. I have yet to build our entire garden from seed because during spring and early summer I turn into some sort of plant buying nut! I can't resist the beauty in greenhouses and possibilities of what the plants may produce for me someday. Starting plants from seed, purchased seed or seed that was saved from you garden last year, has a different kind of reward. To walk down the rows of veggies and think " knew you when you were just a seedling" feels great. Today let's go over starting tomato seeds.

Now, you're going to need seeds which are available at any hardware store and even at the dollar store this time of year. To prepare the seeds, take one section of paper towel and fold it in half several times. Run the paper towel under water to soak. Place seeds on one end of the paper towel and make one last fold over to cover seeds. Allow seeds to germinate in the wet paper towel for at least 24 hours. Keep the paper towel moist at all times.

Next, you're going to need pots and dirt. You pots can be peat pots, egg shell cartons, re-used six packs and flats from last year. I prefer newspaper pots. They are cheap, a new use for old newspaper and you can plant them right in to the ground. It just makes more sense to me. To make a newspaper pot tear a folded sheet or newspaper down the middle then across the middle. That means that one big folded piece of newspaper would make four pots. Take one of the small sections and fold it long-ways twice. Using a juice glass, roll the newspaper around the glass, fold under the bottom of the glass and, sitting the glass upright, press on a table to make the bottom. Or you can buy a paper pot maker here.



Place dirt in pots leaving 1/2 inch at the top. Place one or two seeds in each pot and cover with 1/4 inch or potting soil. Stores have special "tomato dirt" available, I've not used this before. I find good ole potting soil does the trick just fine. Place the paper pots on a pan with a lip, something that will hold water. Pour water into the pan just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Within 10 minutes or so the pots and dirt will absorb the water. Cover the pots on the pan with saran wrap and place your pan of pots in a warm location such as on top of the refrigerator until seedlings appear. Water the pots twice a day, morning and evening. Like anything else, if the soil is dry.. water is needed... if it is really moist don't water. You don't want to soak the poor things to death.

Once seedlings appear, and they probably won't all at the same time, place the tray in a sunny window. Keep watering as needed and just baby the heck out of them until they are big enough to go outdoors which would be after the danger of frost. In our area, Middle Tennessee, now is the prime time to begin your seeds. We usually plant our garden on May 15th. Mainly because Shaun's Granddaddy said so. We figure he's done it more times than we have so he probably knew best.


You can begin just about any seeds this way. Be careful to read directions on the packets that you buy. Some herbs need to be planted on top of the soil, some more shallow in dirt than others. Some are just too small to need the paper towel soaking and can be started right in the pots.


Isn't this tine parsley precious?

Small greenhouses can be used inside. Last year I used a bench in our spare bedroom with a heating vent underneath it and draped a thin quilt over the bench to hold in a little heat. It was definitely a make shift green house attempt. This year Santa brought me a small green house to start seeds in. I have it in the basement and have a heater rigged up on the bottom shelf that comes in intermittently keeping it at a tropical temperature between 85-95 degrees.

It has worked great so far and when the seedlings are ready to spend a little quality time in the sun, a little at a time at first, they can do so in this green house, tied down!, without fear of wind or rain abusing them before they are strong enough to handle it. I encourage you to give it a try.
I will offer up a packet of Black Cherry Tomato seeds for free if anyone is interested. Just leave a comment with you email and I'll get in touch with you.