Seed to Seed – The ultimate seed savers reference {Natural Living Linky}

seed to seed

Hi, my name is Tiffany...and I am a book junkie. I love books and the fact that you can learn a lifetime worth of information from one book and be able to go back and reference it time after time, generation after generation. Don't get me wrong, I love the Internet too, having tons of information at your fingertips; some of it great, other stuff not. But there is just something special about a printed book that the Internet will never be able to replace. A few years ago, I joined the Seed … [Read more...]

Harvesting Sunflower Seeds {Natural Life Link-up}

sunflowers

Sunflowers are a favorite of many gardeners and flower lovers alike. I love how they are able to dominate a space in a garden and fill it with color when many other flowers are starting to fall away. Sunflowers are extremely easy to grow and in fact, I plant to do some guerrilla gardening with them next year. They not only look nice and are resilient -- but their heads make an excellent food source for birds as well. In fact, sunflowers will grow well just about anywhere with sufficient sun … [Read more...]

{Garden Life} Roasting Pumpkin Seeds

roasting pumpkin seeds

Garden Life is a day early this week for several reasons. One is that it's Thanksgiving and two is that Mackenzie is turning 3 tomorrow. So my Friday is going to be SUPER busy as I prepare for our turkey dinner on Saturday and celebrate a bit with our little girl. Hence the change. Next week, it will be back to the regularly scheduled programming.  Earlier today, I shared how to make your very own pumpkin puree. It's a very easy process and you are left with the very tasty and healthy … [Read more...]

{Garden Life} November garden happenings

garden linky

It's been a couple of weeks since I actually talked about my garden, so I figured it was time to make a few notes about what's growing, what's been harvested, what I've done out there lately and where it's all headed next. Since we've had a few batches of frost here already, anything like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are officially done for the year. While debating what I wanted to do with the tomatoes, we had another good frost, so my thoughts of trying out reader Charlie's Tennessee … [Read more...]

{Garden Life} Saving Jalapeno Seeds

save jalapeno seeds

The weather seems to be turning cooler every day here. We've gotten past the first light frosts without any losses, but I'm starting to consider what I should do with all these green tomatoes we still have on the vine. Some of them (like the yellows) seem to be very slowly ripening still. But we have a LONG way to go on the reds. So if you've got some great green tomato tips, fill me in! Today I thought I would revisit the seed saving topic, and lend some advice for those wanting to save … [Read more...]

How to save tomato seeds

tomato big rainbow seeds

As the garden season winds down here, it's time for me to think ahead to next year's planting. Starting seeds for seedlings will begin in just a few short months which means I better get going on my newspaper pots. But more important will be having seeds themselves. Because without seeds, what would I plant? I just put together a big order of Burpee seeds again which we'll be splitting with some friends of ours. I recently found out they are owned by Monsanto and will eventually stop shopping … [Read more...]

No more folds for a while – 2009 Seedling Journal Vol. 2

We planted more seeds yesterday. I folded about 30 pots in a couple hours. Does it seem excessive yet? We're wondering ourselves. But we actually have a lot more planting to do. Most of the seeds left will be planted directly in the ground, though, (carrots, more beans, onions, brussel sprouts, perhaps red potatoes, gourds) so we've got a bit more time to wait until the cold weather is gone. We also need to get the raised beds finished up (cleared of weeds and tree trimming debris, then filled … [Read more...]

Recycling a little junk mail – making origami newspaper pots

After posting new photos of the seedlings, some were asking about the newspaper pots I use. They are completely free (aside from the soil we buy to fill them with although one could use their own soil and compost) because I use papers that come to our house every week for free. We get an insane amount of junk mail here. About two inches thick every week. A lot of it is slick fliers which can't be used but about 30 pages is just local newspapers. That's 30 pots a week. I have been making my … [Read more...]

Leave no seed behind!

I made the journey into our garden today and was relieved that I didn't want to run screaming from it as soon as I opened the back door of the barn. Unfortunately (and sometimes fortunately), we cannot see our garden from the main house...only when we walk through the barn and open the rear door. I think this is a major reason why we haven't gotten further with it yet...then again, I was hoping to do great things out there this year and then Mackenzie popped into the picture. But 2009 will be … [Read more...]

An update on what’s growing

On Saturday morning, I passed by the thyme plant growing in my herb container garden and saw this! ICK!!!! I don't know where they came from or how they got to be over an inch so quickly but these little suckers were munching down on my thyme plant. I quickly picked them off and disposed of them and thankfully have not found any more...but why we have so many caterpillars around this year eating all our plants, I just don't understand. Speaking of which, the evil little caterpillars that were … [Read more...]