A New Heartsease...

Early-Starting My Tomatoes From Seeds

By March 29th, my tomatoes are getting tall under their grow light!

 

    Each year, early in spring, I start tomatoes from seeds, under a grow light suspended from hooks on a shelf in my office.

    This year, I'm planning a pot of Tumbling Tom tomatoes - a miniature plant bearing small, cherry-sized tomatoes. Also, I'm growing my Kitchen Garden yellow tomatoes - a sunshine yellow cocktail tomato, some Campari - red, cocktail size, and Rutgers - medium-sized fruits, red, and good for eating and canning.

    First, I make newspaper growing pots by cutting strips of newspaper (the soy-based inks are harmless), rolling them around a small bottle, taping sides, and bottom, then adding moist seed-starting mix, and three seeds to each pot.

 

My frugal option is to make my own seed-starting pots from strips of newspaper wrapped round a vitamin bottle about three times, and taped. In felt pen I write on each cup the name of the variety I'm planting.

 

Three seeds are evenly spaced, and pressed in with a toothpick just beneath the soil. I use a spray bottle to gently mist the soil surface and set my pots into a plastic tray to catch water.

 

A mini-greenhouse effect is created by covering the tray with plastic - in this case an elasticized bowl cover. Or, one can insert the tray into a clear plastic bag and twist tie the end closed.

 

About five to seven days later, shoots of green emerge. At this point I remove the plastic cover.

 

On sunny days I place my tomato babies out on the balcony to get them used to sun and prevent the legginess that can occur when growing under lights.

 

My tomatoes (April 20th) have outgrown their newspaper pots and have been transplanted into empty butter tubs. Holes poked into the bottom of the tubs allow for drainage.

    One of my favorite tastes of summer is the flavor, and aroma, of home grown, vine-ripened tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes are pretty, but have little flavor. So each year I make room on my balcony to grow a few pots of tomatoes, green beans, and a few other selections that appeal from year to year.

    It's not too late to start some tomatoes of your own if you live in an area with a long growing season. If you live in northern climes where the season is short, nurseries and hardware stores have selections of well-started tomatoes you can grow so you, too, can enjoy the summer savor of home grown tomatoes.

 

 

Creating A Balcony "Garden" Room

Created with items I already have, my balcony has now become an outdoor "garden" room! "Party" lights strung around the perimeter of the balcony walls add a festive feel to evenings on the balcony.

 

    I love my cottage-style condo at the edge of the woods!

    I love my balcony that looks into an old crab apple tree that changes her "dress" from season to season and provides food for all manner of wildlife. I love the leafy screened privacy it provides to the balcony, all the while acting as my personal window-on-nature.

    I also love that my balcony is covered so that I'm able to utilize it as an outdoor space year 'round. 

    I've always wanted an outdoor garden room but I'd already decorated my balcony with a chair, a chaise lounge, and plant stands in a rather typical manner. However, this Spring I decided that just because something was done one way, it didn't mean it had to stay that way. 

    I also love that I was able to decorate my new garden room using items I already owned! Money not spent is money saved!

    After moving the chaise down to the garage, I scavenged my slip-covered love seat from my office where I seldom ever sat on it. Then, I removed the old rug from the entry way where it resides in Winter to soak up rain and snow melt.     

    In Spring, Summer, and Fall, the rug is rolled up and stored under my bed. Now, it will add to my balcony decor until next Winter instead of taking up space under the bed.

    The vintage "yard long" print of roses was also salvaged from my office and replaced over the love seat in its new balcony location. A white-painted oak TV tray/side table, lace runner, and lamp were removed from my office, too, leaving one wall pretty bare!

    The glass-topped, wrought iron table once sat at the side of the chaise. Now, it serves as a coffee table in front of the love seat. The love seat is comfy and I can choose to sit, or recline on it.

    My garden room wouldn't be complete lest there was a comfy chair for my feline friend, Junie.

 

With a pillow beneath a fabricated cover that can be removed for laundering, Junie has his own chair on which to nap and watch birds visiting the apple tree.

 

    The weather is still a bit nippy for spending much time enjoying my new garden room, but with days beginning to hit the 50-degree mark, it won't be long until I'm spending more time outside!

 

A lamp next to the love seat assures that I'll be able to spend summer evenings reading while waiting to watch the moon rise or listen to night sounds.

 

    My new garden room is a bit "cottage", a little shabby-chic...with a few "farm-style" touches in the form of a galvanized washtub, and an "out-of photo" feed bucket.

 

When not being used as a cachepot for potted herbs, this galvanized tub serves as farm-style wall art.

 

Galvanized pitchers, tubs, and buckets make nice cache pots for nursery-potted plants and herbs.

 

    More galvanized buckets will emerge from the storage room to act as cache pots for flowering plants as the Season progresses. Because our growing season is short here, as it was in Utah, I often don't re-pot nursery-purchased plants. Instead, I simply slip them into a bucket where they happily grow until the first hard frost. The bucket keeps leakage off the wood deck of my balcony.

 

Galvanized buckets make great cache pots for nursery-potted plants. In time this bucket will attain that delightful patina of old galvanized metal. Time and weathering will do the trick in a season or two.

 

A lidded dish on the painted tray-table adds a bit of homey decor.

 

On the wall opposite the love seat, I've created a montage using items from the gardens of my old folk-Victorian farmhouse in Utah.

 

My new outdoor room blends seamlessly with my indoor spaces.

 

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Golden Leaves of Indian Summber

 

Just outside my balcony an old crab apple puts on leaves of gold to celebrate Autumn

 

 

Just after the death of the flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season,
When nature is all aglow—
Aglow with a mystical spendour
That rivals the brightness of spring,
Aglow with a beauty more tender
Than aught which fair summer could bring....

~Emeline B. Smith, "Indian Summer"

 

The crab apple also fills the living room windows with its golden aura

 

 

My "Winter" Garden

 

Here in far Northern Idaho we're expecting our first frost anytime!

 

    On the living room bench under a bank of south-facing windows I've gathered my geraniums from front porch and balcony to sit out the Winter safely from the frosts, freezes, snowstorms, and ice.

    Temporarily, I brought in my hosta to enjoy for a few days. However, hosta require a period of Winter dormancy so after I trim and feed it I'll return it to the balcony to freeze and go dormant.

    First, I'll wrap the hosta's pot - sides and bottom - with bubble wrap, then add several layers of burlap and set the bundle into a cardboard box all for the purpose of insulating the roots from freezing. I want only the surface of the soil to freeze. If the roots freeze the plant may die.

    Winter hardy plants in pots may be wintered over outside if the bottom and sides of the pots are insulated or the pot is buried to the rim in the ground.

    If I continue to feed the geraniums they'll bloom all Winter long on the bench. Usually around November and December I stop feeding them. I'll keep them watered, of course, but by not feeding them they'll cease to bloom for a couple of months. I do this to give them a rest and allow them to draw strength and rest from the bloom cycle.

    In January or February when I begin to long for brightness and color amidst Winter's drear, I'll feed the geraniums and within two to three weeks they'll be covered with blooms so that I may be sustained with their joyous blooms until Spring comes again.

    Geraniums winter over wonderfully. So does the herb, rosemary, although I haven't had much luck wintering over other potted herbs. I'm going to try spearmint (potted in the green watering can with the gold handle sitting on the bench) this year.

 

A wall of south-facing windows will give my geraniums much-needed light on sunny Winter days.

    

Gathering and Drying Homegrown Herbs

It makes sense and "cents" to grow and dry your own herbs!

 

    When I lived at Heartsease Cottage, my old Folk Victorian farmhouse in Utah, I grew a large medicinal and culinary herb garden. Now, I live in a condo at the edge of the woods in Northern Idaho and still have an herb garden. It's not as large, and it's mostly now made up of culinary herbs that I've tucked into a few spots in the common gardens that surround the building I live in.

 

Beneath these topiary crab apples on either side of the walkway going to the front entrance, I've planted sage, thyme, chives, parsely, burnet, tarragon, and lavender. Most are still small, but can be harvested. A couple orris iris will become more robust in time. In other gardens I've slipped in horehound, lemon balm, motherwort, catmint, violets, and lovage. I simply must have herbs wherever I live!

 

    It makes sense to grow your own herbs! It's become quite expensive for those small jars and tins of irradiated, mostly flavorless sticks that pass for herbs at the supermarket. Before planting sage, I purchased a jar and paid around $8:00 for an herb that is so easy and productive to grow.

    If you simply can't or don't want to grow your own, I've found that the cello-packaged herbs found in the produce area and ethnic aisle of the market are a better buy and more flavorful.

    Homegrown herbs, gently dried, are tastier, and, you can dry what you think you'll need, replacing them each year, instead of having a cabinet full of old, flavorless dregs that most of us are loathe to toss because of the investment needed to replace them each year, as should be done.

    Dried leafy herbs should be replaced each year in the Fall. Their flavor fades faster than seeds such as poppy, celery, lovage, mustard, etc. Spices made of roots - ginger and tumeric - last several years, as do those made from bark, pods, or berries such as nutmeg, mace, vanilla bean, and cinnamon.

    Tins and jars of homegrown and dried herbs make nice Holiday and hostess gifts, too, as does a bouquet of fresh herbs in a water-filled pint or quart Mason jar with a twine or ribbon bow.

    After gathering my herbs I remove any yellowed or tatty leaves, then rinse them of dust and organic debris under running water and give them a few dunks in large mixing bowl of water. After a gentle shake to remove dripping water I lay them on clean dry towels so most of the remaining moisture will air dry.

 

I've gathered sage, thyme, and tarragon to dry for Winter use.

    

      After they're mostly dry I tie them in bundles of three or four sprigs with kitchen string and hang them where they can dry for two to four weeks. They'll be fully dried and crumbly when ready to store.

 

Grill work or a potting rack, cabinet knobs, hooks, the edges of exposed shelves are good places to hang herbs for drying. Hooks hanging the bundles may be fashioned from rebar wire or paperclips that have pulled open and made into double-ended hooks . Sage and thyme hang from an antique cooling rack off an old coal cook stove that now decorates my kitchen.

 

Even the candle sconces in the dining room are pressed into service for drying a bundle of sage each!

 

    Most leafy herbs I dry in bundles. Tarragon is an exception. If dried in bundles it tends to turn brown. Flavor isn't affected. However, it's less appetizing looking. Instead, I zip tarragon leaves from their branches and dry them on waxed paper-covered trays.

 

Some leaves will still turn brown, but dried off the branch, fewer do. Trays of tarragon are set on the top of the fridge until the leaves are completely dry, then they're put into small jars for storage. Small Mason jars or clean herb jars work well.

 

   The easiest way to remove the dried leaves from their stems is to hold each bundle over a large mixing bowl between both palms of your hands and rapidly roll the bundle back and forth between your palms. The leaves will fall into the bowl. Sort through the leaves and remove any tough stems that may have fallen with the leaves before storing in jars.

    The empty stem bundles can be used as fire starters that will lend an herbaceous fragrance when burned or tossed on the coals. 

    By growing my own herbs I have fresh herbs to use Spring, Summer, and Fall. By harvesting my own herbs and drying them before Winter snows fly I have high quality dried herbs to use until they come out of dormancy in the Spring.

    

 

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I've fashioned utensil hooks - both light- and heavy-duty from rebar wire for my pot rack. The bundle of thyme in the center of this photo hangs from a paperclip I  bent into a double-ended hook.

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

In Full Flower!

 

A close up of crab apple flowers. The blossoms are many times bigger than the fruit that follows.

 

    The fruit of this apple tree, beloved by birds and animals is too tart for humans. It's also too tiny to utilize for canning or cooking and would take lots of sugar to tame its tarty nature.

    Lying out on the balcony the other day I became aware of a lovely floral fragrance. Less bold than lilac, lighter that a rose, less cloying than gardenia or jasmine - I can only describe the light sweetness by what it is not. This gentle, sweet fragrance wafting and filling balcony and the rooms beyond must be the apple tree. The mock orange had since ceased to bloom. Nothing else could be the culprit that might be nearby.

    It must be the apple tree. It simply must! Each blossom's subtle aroma compounded by many thousands until it became knowable to my nose.

    Sticking my nose into a bundle of blossoms...Yes! It is the crab apple! When living at the Cottage I grew Red Rome Beauties and Mackintosh apples for eating, juicing, canning, but never caught a whiff of a scent from those smaller, but productive blossoms.

 

This tree cools the sun-heated air that enters my home on its warm south side.  The wee, moist exudations of hundreds of thousands of leaves mitigates heated air passing through its canopy and thus to me and into my home. Want to cool your home? Plant a tree to shade its hot south side!

 

    Windows situated away from its influence on the same south side  must be closed on warm days to keep my home cool.

    Beauty, blossoms, cooling, attracting wildlife, soft sweet fragrance! It's all here in this lovely tree.

 

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Crab Apple Notes:

    Crab apples make wonderful pollinators for apple trees humans like to grow and eat.

    Crab apples bear the loveliest blossoms of the entire apple family. From white, to shades of pink, and into deep rose, crab apples will adorn orchard or garden with a spectacular Spring show.

 

     

When the Rhubarb Comes Up...

 

...it's really, really Spring!

 

    There've been small signs of Spring for several weeks, but for me it's all about the rhubarb! When I see this, I am assured that Spring is fully here! It's not quite ready to gather, but given a week or two I'll be gathering, canning, freezing, cooking with it, fermenting, etc.

    To keep me busy in the meantime, I'll forage for Spring mushrooms, ramps, fiddle head ferns, sorrel, nettles, miner's lettuce, dandelion greens, and more. All these things are great Springtime tonic foods and "eats". Just remember...nettles must either be dried, cooked, or steeped (as in tea) to tame their sting!

    Nights are in the 40's, another sure sign of of the Season. Days are in the high 50's, 60's, and later this week we'll hit 70-degrees. Last week, I was able to go out and do a little weeding in my herb gardens beneath the apple topiaries, and prune the plants I've added to the condo's landscaping that made it through the Winter which was all of them!

    My wee pruning and sprucing up fest took all of 20 minutes, much better than the hours each day I used to spend tending the gardens around the Cottage.

 

These white crocus are some of the earliest bulbs to come up in the gardens around the commons.

 

Sunny yellow crocus are just past their prime. Deer don't bother them or the daffodils, but have nipped all the tulips down. Drats!

 

     Around town the bright yellow forsythia are in bloom everywhere!

 

Harbinger of early Spring - forsythia

 

    After a Winter of quiet cocooning (so wonderfully peaceful), I'm ready to play at a wee bit of gardening and get into the woods to forage and see all the wildflowers that are beginning to bloom. Ahhh...Springtime!

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 Daughter of light! thy fairy step
Steals softly over vale and plain,
And with thy bright and joyous smile,
Beauty and life awake again.

~Mary Ann H. Dodd Shutts (1813–1878), "Spring"

    

 

Seedlings Are Up!

 

These seedlings under a grow light in my office are about a week old.

 

    The parsley isn't up as it does take longer to germinate. But, you can see the basil sprouts on the left, the yellow tomatoes, and red tomatoes. Yippee! 

    It's fun. Kind of magical. And, rife with potential. It's good, clean kid-fun and adult-fun, too. Kids are more likely to eat veggies they've sprouted from seeds themselves, tended, weeded, watered, watched, and grown to maturity. And by all means, teach the kids to cook simple and tasty meals with their homegrown produce!

    On sunny warm days I take my seedlings onto the balcony placing them in a sheltered area with moderate sun exposure. They're still too tender and tiny for direct, hot sun...not that we have any hot sun just yet. By the time things heat up, they will be robust enough to enjoy it.

    Later this coming summer I'm looking forward to picking yellow and red grape tomatoes for fresh eating and for making sun-dried tomatoes. Fresh basil will be added to almost everything!

    

It's Seed Starting Time!

 

Homemade paper pots, a plastic bottle, tape, starting soil, and seeds! A few tools.

 

    When I lived at Heartsease Cottage I started lots of seeds in late Winter or early Spring for my large vegetable and flower gardens.

    Now that I live in a lovely Condo (The New Heartsease), I still start a few seeds for transplanting into pots on my balcony or front porch. 

    Yesterday, I started both red and yellow Tumbling Tom tomatoes - these miniatures will get about 24-inches long, tumbling down the sides of pots and bear "grape" tomatoes. They're very compact and may be grown in pots with flowers. They have fine, fern-like leaves.

    I also started curly parsley - less bitter, less tough than the flat-leaved Italian types - and Genovese basil. These will be grown in pots on the balcony for easy picking. 

     I used to make my paper pots from the black and white pages of newspapers because the black soy ink isn't harmful to seedlings. Now, most newspaper pages use lots of colored inks with questionable ingredients.

    So, I use plain packing paper. Contractor's paper from hardware stores, or brown paper bags. Really, most any type of plain, un-inked and un-bleached paper should work.

  

To make the planting cups you'll need:

Scotch-type, masking, or painter's tape

Felt pen or marker

Paper strips 3-inches wide by 12 - 20-inches long (depending on thickness of paper, longer strips for very thin paper.

Glass or plastic bottle about 6-inches in circumference.

Scissors

    Cut strips of paper and wrap each around the bottle to make as many pots as needed. Secure the seam with a strip of tape. Push the bottle up from the bottom so you have a border of paper at the bottom about 3/4's to one inch long. Fold this down all around. and secure in place with a piece of tape. Add another piece of tape crosswise to the first + to further secure the bottom of the paper pot.

    With the bottle still in your pot, write the name of the seeds on the pot. Remove the bottle and make your next pot. Repeat, until you have all the pots you need.

 

To plant your pots you'll need:

 

Seed starting mix

Seeds

Bucket 

Trowel or large spoon

Toothpick

Water

Spray bottle with plain water inside

Waterproof tray (styrofoam or plastic food tray without holes)

Plastic bag and tie

 

    If you're filling your pots on the kitchen counter, as I do, you'll need to lay down some newspaper or something to catch the spills - and there will be some no matter how tidy you try to be.

    Now, pour some seed starting mix into a bucket or container. Add water a bit at a time, stirring and mixing with the trowel until the mixture is fairly damp, but not soaking or dripping wet.

    Trowel some of the mix into each pot, lightly tamping it down with your fingers or the butt of the trowel.  Add three or four seeds to the appropriately labeled pot - one in the center and two or three spaced nearer the edges, equally apart. Use the toothpick to lightly press the seeds just beneath the soil. Tamp lightly. 

    Place pots in tray and mist lightly with sprayer. Slip each tray of pots into a plastic bag and twist the end closed, and tightly twist on a tie, allowing air to remain inside the bag so it's puffed up over the top of your pots. The bag will act as a mini-greenhouse until your seeds sprout. 

 

My pots are under a grow light. Water mister is nearby for watering once they're removed from the bag. Until then, you shouldn't need to water your seedlings.

 

    Place the pots under a plant grow light (Walmart and hardware stores have these), or in a sunny warm (but not hot) window.

    When your seedlings almost touch the top of the plastic, remove the bag carefully. Then, don't allow the soil around them to dry out. Mist them with the sprayer as the top of the soil begins to dry. Mist until wet.

    When your seedlings are more robust then "thready", you may water them with a gentle trickle of water just until water seeps out the bottom of the pot. Allow your seedlings to grow and thrive until all danger of frost is past and they have become somewhat robust. 

    On sunny, warm days I like to take mine out from under the light and allow them to sit in a sheltered spot in filtered sun. Don't forget to bring them back in a few hours later. This helps them to begin to acclimate to outdoor conditions and grow used to sunlight. Gradually, I introduce them to stronger sunlight, unless they are plants meant to grow in shade.

    Plant the seedlings into your garden or into pots.  Enjoy!

   Seeds are a fun and frugal way to get plants. Kids love to watch the magic of seeds as they sprout into something to eat or pretty to look at. Seeds are less expensive than single plants. For the price of a packet of seeds you get quite a few plants. 

    With seeds you get to choose the varieties you want rather than accept the limited choices stocked at nurseries and garden centers.  

    Plant companies have so many delightful varieties! Go on line and request a catalog or catalogs, or order from online catalogs.

    Some of my favorite seed companies are:

Pinetree Garden Seeds

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company

Shumway

Burpee

Johnny's Selected Seeds

Jung Seeds

 

    Don't forget to check Amazon. There's lots of seed sellers there! On Amazon I like "Under the Sun Seeds".

 

Good Growing!

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

What a Difference a Year Can Make!

 

Google Photos reminded me in an email what last year at this time looked like at my place.

    

    Last year at this time the apple tree out back had snow over halfway up its trunk and snow piled against the garages was on its way to the eaves!

    This year with very few arctic storms coming down we have experienced warm Pacific storms bring rain, rain, rain! Yes, we've had some snow but warmer than usual temperatures have seen it melt off after each storm. Yesterday, it was 55-degrees! In February!

    Check out the difference this Winter!

 

This view of the apple tree from my balcony is...no snow!

 

No snow here either!

 

    Yesterday I lay on my chaise lounge on the balcony, no sweater, a cool libation in hand. It was sunny and warm. Wow! Who knew February in North Idaho could be like this?!