TipNut.com: Using Organic Aids In Your Garden
Want to use some organic aids to keep pests and disease down in YOUR garden? Check out this post from TipNut.com
Hillbilly Housewife: Spring Cleaning
From the Hillbilly Housewife Blog
I’ve decided that tackling spring cleaning one room at a time this year may be the way to go.
The reason is because cleaning one room at a time may make living in the house a bit easier while the work is being done. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.
I’m dividing the house into five areas – bedrooms, dining room, living room, bathrooms, kitchen. I’ll be covering one room each week on Tidy Tuesday.
To read more on this post and more, visit Hillbilly Housewife Blog And be sure to sign up for the free newsletter!
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Courtesy of www.swiffer.com
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Freezer Jam
If you are like me, I like to compile recipes of different things I plan to use once the garden comes up and is ready to harvest. I’m not sure if that is like counting your chickens before they hatch, but it definitely gets me excited for what is to come!
Here are some recipes I found in an email from TipNut.com If you have a moment, look over under the links and subscribe to their daily, free tipnut email! It is definitely worth it! Not only do they have tips on recipes, but also crafts and many other things!
And on to the recipes:
BC Strawberry Kiwi Freezer Jam
30 minutes to Homemade SURE.JELL Raspberry-Blueberry Freezer Jam
Peach Freezer Jam – Freshest Tasting Jam With NO Canning!
These are just 10 out of the 20 from the email. Head on over to TipNut to see the rest!
Have a wonderful day!
Increase Your Success When Transplanting Seeds
Transplanting seedlings is one of my favourite tasks in the garden. There are a few simple things to consider to give your young plants the best chance to flourish – you want them to thrive, rather than just survive.
Timing
Think about the time of year. Just because certain seedlings are available at your nursery, don’t assume it’s the right time to plant them out. If you’re not sure, read the label – most tell you the best time of year to plant. You could look in gardening books, research online or ask family or friends who are gardeners (they might even give you some seedlings if they’ve bought too many).
You can plant tender plants before the risk of late frosts has passed, provided you listen closely to weather forecasts and are prepared to cover your ‘babies’ with protection or enclose them in a cloche.
Hardening Off
If you’ve grown your seedlings from seed you probably know to harden them off before planting. But if you’re buying them from a nursery take a look at where they’ve been living. Have they been in a glass-house, under shade or exposed to the weather? If you seedlings have been grown outside exposed to the weather, they won’t need hardening off. But if they’ve been pampered, they’ll need a bit of toughening up to prepare them for the real world.
To harden off your seedlings you need to leave them outdoors for a longer time each day. Protect them under a porch or behind shade-cloth, bringing them indoors at night for the first few days. After a couple of days, you can expose them to the morning sun. At the end of a week, they’ll be tough enough to transplant to their permanent plot.
Planting Out
The garden bed they are being planted in should already have been prepared with layers of organic matter, compost and mulch. Water seedlings 10-15 minutes before planting out.Before removing seedlings from their containers, arrange them where they will be planted. When you’re happy with the arrangement, use a trowel to dig a hole about twice the size of the rootball. Doing this prep work reduces the length of time that the roots will be exposed (drying out).
Fill each hole with water. This supplies moisture to the plant’s root zone rather than the surface where it may quickly evaporate. Gently ease the first plant from its container, working from the bottom and sides to loosen it. Don’t try and pull it from the container by its stem – you may damage it. Only handle these young plants by their individual leaves or by the root ball. Keeping the rootball intact will help prevent transplant stress, but gently tease the roots to loosen them.
Place the plant into the ground at about the same level that it was growing in its container. Backfill the hole until it is almost level with the soil. I like to add some organic fertilizer at this stage, to give my ‘babies’ a head start. Just use a small amount – you can add more later. Finish backfilling, pressing the soil lightly around the roots to ensure good soil-to-root contact.
Water them in well, avoiding overhead watering, immediately after transplanting. Water daily for about a week until seedlings are well established. Bring mulch around the plant, leaving about a 10cm (4inch) diameter clear around each plant.
Other things to consider
Avoid transplanting vegetable seedlings when the weather is expected to be excessively hot. If you can, choose a day that is cloudy or transplant late in the afternoon or evening so that your plants can recover through the cool of the night, without sunlight beating down on them. If you can’t do this it’s a good idea to provide some temporary shade, particularly in hot weather.
An initial watering with an organic seaweed fertilizer will provide a wide range of nutrients and help reduce stress on your young seedlings.
Get all your equipment ready before you start – hand trowel, gardening gloves, kneeling pad, your water bottle and hat.
Tomatoes are an exception to the rule as far as planting depth goes. You can plant them right down to the first set of true leaves. They will grow new roots right up to the soil level, making them more sturdy.
Seedlings from the Cucumber family (cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, melons) do better planted in hills. This allows for better drainage and warms their soil to give them a better start.
Julie Villani is an avid organic gardener and am known by my friends as the recycling queen. I live on a small country property in South Australia. It is my mission to encourage as many people as possible to start organic gardening. This will improve both our individual lives and the wellbeing of our personal and global environments. Please visit my website for more great organic gardening tips & information.
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