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Vegetable Garden Tips

Here are a few easy gardening tips from a very passionate and accomplished gardener, Martha Stewart. These gardening tips and tricks can help to jump start your Vegetable garden this season.

You can create a garden by laying out a geometry shape to yield maximum results and easy access. To help minimize weeds and to help retain moisture, she uses mulch of salt hay, which can be harvested in marshes along the east coast. ( you can also use straw hay to help minimize weeds)

Make sure your plant seeds or small starter plants are spaced evenly to prevent crowding. You can use a tool called a dibber, which places holes into the ground . Set plants too close together and you’ll stunt their growth. Set them too far apart and you’ll create an opportunity for weeds, so if you can’t find a dibber, simply use your hand as a measuring tool, each plant should be a hand apart from one another.

If you decide to plant tomatoes in your garden, try using Martha’s tomato stake method. It consists of white nylon twine supported by bamboo tripods. The vines are attached to the twine with trellis clips. Staking tomatoes allows for a clean, disease- and pest-free crop and even ripening of the fruit, and the clips can be reused each year.

Seeds saved from past gardens may be worth planting — but only if they pass Martha’s test: Fold 10 seeds in a moist paper towel, place in a resealable bag, mark with date and type. Watch to see how many germinate. Multiply that number by 10 to calculate the percent of germinations. More than 70 percent is passing. If between 40 and 60 percent, sow thickly. Below 40 percent, it’s best to buy fresh seed.

Watering your garden. Gauging how quickly a sprinkler delivers the right amount is easy if you follow Martha’s example. Set an empty, regular-size coffee can about 10 feet away from the sprinkler (or closer, if 10 feet is outside the watering zone). Turn on the tap, and monitor the time needed for the sprinkler to deposit enough water to reach 1 1/2 inches on a ruler dipped into the can (the equivalent of what your plants need). Next time, you’ll know just how long to run the sprinkler.

These tips should point you into the right direction and you can read our next blog to help see which vegetables are compatible with one another!

What to plant in April

When spring comes, there are plenty of spring flowers to plant. Perennials are ideal when it comes to flowers that grow in April. They grow fast and provide abundant color during the summer. Nurseries and online catalogs sell them. The plants are ready for sale after they grow for a year and have their growth trimmed to about an inch above the crown. They arrive ready for transplanting outdoors with the soil removed from the roots.

To begin the list of spring flowers, daylilies grow in many climates, and numerous hybrids are available in a variety of colors. Secondly, vine plants that quickly climb up trellises and gazebos. They include numerous species in colors such as white, pink, blue, red and purple. Clematis bloom shapes vary by species. Some resemble tulips, while others are bell shaped, star shaped or like tiny lanterns.

Summer-blooming annuals that may be planted in April include several easy-to-grow plants. Sunflowers are sturdy spring flowers to plant that require little care once planted. They adapt easily to a wide variety of soil conditions and include short varieties that grow no more than a few feet tall to tall plants that reach up to 8 feet and taller. For annuals that provide numerous color choices, select zinnias to plant in April for summer flowers. They have round-shaped flowers with multiple short, narrow petals and are perfect for floral arrangements.

Drought-tolerant shrubs planted in April fare well throughout the summer. Such as Rosemary bushes not only provide fragrant leaves used for medicinal purposes and cooking, but its small blue or purple flowers provide attractive blooms. The flowers are also edible. Depending on the species, rosemary shrubs grow from a foot to 6 feet tall.

You can find rosemary and sunflower seed packets at Printhousedesign1 on Etsy. Follow the link to see all the different types of flower/plant seeds they offer: www.printhousedesign.com

Gardening for Toddlers

Your toddler will find lots of things to explore in the garden, and if you are prepared with a few toddler gardening activities, you can enhance his or her experience. Gardening with toddlers is a healthy way for parents and children to enjoy the outdoors together.

Theme Gardens for toddlers should center on their five senses. Choose textured plants that they can feel and sensitive plants that snap shut when touched. Fragrant herbs appeal to a child’s sense of taste and smell. Honeysuckle is very fragrant, and if you catch the flowers at just the right time, you can squeeze a drop of sweet nectar onto the child’s tongue. There is no end to the variety of bright-colored flowers that are a delight to look at, and toddlers enjoy them even more if they can pick a few to enjoy indoors. Ornamental grasses that rustle in the breeze are plants that toddlers can hear. Consider toddler garden design ideas that involve several aspects of nature. Ladybugs and butterflies are a delight to little ones.

Creating the garden with your little one…

Let your child dig and scratch in the garden with small plastic garden tools. Large kitchen spoons and measuring cups make great toddler tools. Talk to your toddler about earthworms as “garden helpers.” Little ones that like to get dirty will enjoy digging for worms. Place a worm in his or her hand to hold for a few minutes. Let your toddler move small ornaments, such as pinwheels, around the garden. Help your toddler pick flowers and place them in a vase of water. Let him or her help add water to the vase as necessary. Show your toddler how to water the garden with a small, plastic watering can.

This can be a fun and learning lesson throughout the spring, summer, & fall

Pothos propagation

This method of pothos propagation is super easy – all you need is some time and glasses of water!

What you will need:

Sharp scissors or an x-acto knife

Glasses full of water to hold cuttings

Pot for planting

Indoor or all-purpose potting soil for planting

Decide how long you’d like the vines to be and trim them directly below the lowest leaf node you want to leave. Untangle the vines and lay them out individually to get ready to make some cuttings!

Cut along the stem to create individual leaf cuttings. Cut to the left and right of every leaf stem, leaving a small piece of vine attached to the bottom of the leaf stem. See the little brown bumps on the vine? Those are called nodes, and that’s where new roots will form.

Fill your container(s) with water and place the cuttings into the water so the cut ends remain submerged.

Place the cuttings in a warm, bright spot and leave them to grow roots. Check on the cuttings every couple of days and dump out the old water and replace it with new. (Oxygen dissolves in standing water after a time, so it’s important to refresh!

Leave pothos cuttings in water until they have at least one inch of roots. In this case, I ended up with much longer ones waiting for more of the cuttings to root, so the roots are between two and three inches. Keep in mind that the longer the roots remain in water, the harder it will be for them to make the change to soil.

Fill a pot about 2/3 full with fresh potting soil and start placing the cuttings around the edges of the pot, adding soil as necessary to keep the cuttings in the right place. Then fill in the middle of the pot with cuttings and add more soil as needed and water slowly and thoroughly until soil is wet.

While pothos do well in a variety of light conditions and can even tolerate low light, moderate indoor light is ideal. Outdoors they can be grown in shade to partial shade. Wherever you decide to display your pothos, just be sure to avoid direct sunlight.

Stovetop Potpourri

Create a perfect natural homemade scent that will bring the smell of spring into your home.

A stovetop potpourri is a mix of edible ingredients that you simmer away on your stove for hours. You just need to replenish the water as it cooks down. It’s cheaper and natural alternative way than store bought potpourri.

This simple DIY project will make your entire home smell fresh, plus if your home is dry simmering pots will also help you add moisture to the air.

Try this blend of ingredients: Lemon, cinnamon, mint, & thyme

This homemade scent is spicy and warm, but fresh to create the perfect aroma to help you transition from winter to spring.

Cut lemon into slices, use a handful of fresh mint, fresh thyme, and 2 cinnamon sticks, place all ingredients into a pot and fill water and simmer.