Using gardening seeds is less expensive than buying seedling from the local garden supply center. You can start your plants indoors. Then when the weather allows it, you can plant them outdoors.

 

You will need a box or a tray that is about three or four inches deep and roughly a foot wide and two feet long.

 

Gardening seeds need good potting soil or peat moss or a seed raising mix from the garden supply center.

 

Your gardening seeds should be planted about a half-inch deep or a little less and they should be planted about two inches apart as well.

 

Water the seeds regularly to keep moist, but do not over water them. If you over water your seeds they will potentially rot and you will not have any plants grow.

 

The box should be covered with saran wrap or a piece of glass. The reason that you do this is hold the moisture inside. It creates a greenhouse effect for the gardening seeds to germinate.

 

Once your seeds have germinated, you can remove the cover from the box. Your seedlings can be placed near a window for stronger light at this stage.

 

As your seedlings grow, you will need to thin them out a bit to allow the stocks to grow. Two inches apart is a good rule of thumb.

 

Once the weather warms up outside, you can place your box of seedlings outside for part of the day. Make sure you bring them inside at night.

 

Once the chance of frost is gone, you can start to plant the seedlings in the garden. Give them a good watering before they are transplanted, this allows a good ball of dirt to stick to the roots before transplanting.

 

Preparing your gardening seeds in this manner is a great way to get a head start on the growing season.

 

Having your own vegetable garden is very rewarding. Nurturing your vegetables from gardening seeds into healthy and tasty food is something that many people take great pride in achieving.

Tom has been gardening for years. He hopes to pass along his experience on such things as gardening supplies. Visit his site for more information on how to grow your own vegetables. http://www.mygardeningbasics.com
By T. Houser

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Everyone has their favorite tomato growing tips that help them to produce beautiful and juicy fruit that is great for any purpose. When you are deciding on the tips that will be best for you, it is important to think about the tomatoes that you are going to grow. There are many varieties of this fruit and most stores carry a small selection of the many varieties available.

Depending on the area where you live, you will want to choose a variety of fruit that will grow best in your area. One tip is to keep your plants watered. When you keep your plants well watered, they will be juicier and have a softer outer skin. Tomatoes that are sold in stores are usually picked green and ripen on their way to market. This results in fruit that has a tough skin. Tomatoes that are homegrown will not have the thick skin of store tomatoes.

A great tip that is often used by people who grow roses in their flower beds is to plant tomatoes between their roses. Tomato plants are very high in acid and roses help to stimulate their production. In addition, when the tomatoes are planted in a rosebed, they will receive the water they need and keep weeds from growing around the rose bushes.

These plants love sunlight, so it is important when you plant them to put them in an area where they will get lots of direct sunlight. If you are going to grow your plants in a pot, it will be important to spread them out. Tomatoes do not do well when crowded together in a pot. When planting, bury the plants deeper than the container that they come in and be sure that the soil is warm.

Another tip that works very well with these plants is to put some used coffee grounds in the hole that you are going to place the plant in. The coffee grounds help to stimulate the growth of the plants and they do not go into shock as often as plants that are put in a soil they are not used to.

If you soil has a high acidity, you will not have to worry about your plants getting the amount of acid from the soil that they need. If you want to raise the acidity of you soil, there are several natural ways you can achieve this goal. Most people plant complementary plants with their tomatoes to keep the plants healthy.

When your tomatoes begin to grow, it will be important to provide support for the fruit. Some people put stakes around their tomatoes to support the plant. There are several different types of support made specifically to keep the fruit off the ground. You will also want to watch out for diseases and bugs. There are some types of garden insects that are very attracted to the plants and keeping your plants and fruit safe can be a challenge if you do not treat your plants or ground regularly.

Author: Gerald Tommey has been online for 8 years. He enjoys writing about home improvement, gardening, and health topics. Visit his latest web site at BocaRatonFlowers.org where he provides floral arrangement ideas, and advice on how to get quality flowers from Boca Raton flowers retailers.

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Many people are afraid of growing plants from seed but it’s really very simple and anyone can do it. All you really need is patience and diligence.

There’s nothing more rewarding than scattering a few seeds in a box and seeing them grow into real flowers or vegetables. In addition, it’s much less expensive to buy a few packets of seeds and some compost than to buy the equivalent number of plants from a garden centre. This is particularly true if you have a large garden and need plenty of plants to fill the spaces but if your garden is small, why not share a few different packets of seeds with a friend or two. If, say, three of you each grow one variety then you can all have three different types of flowers in your garden or window boxes.

So, to get down to essentials: it has to be the right time of year. Most annual flowers and summer vegetables such as tomatoes, salads, beans, cucumbers, etc. need to be planted in late winter or early spring but perennial plants and vegetables like spring onions should be planted in autumn so you must check the seed packet. You also need good quality seed compost. Don’t skimp on this; you really do get what you pay for and the cheaper varieties don’t contain the nutrients that growing seedlings need. You will also need some sort of container, usually a tray about 5cm deep by 22cm wide by 35cm long. Specialist seed trays from a garden centre are quite cheap and obviously designed for the purpose. Alternatively, you can buy strips of tiny pots, which are useful when you come to prick out your seedlings (more of that later) or for larger seeds, pellets which expand in water and which hold individual seeds.

Fill your seed tray with compost and lightly firm it down with your hand. Water with a fine rose or spray bottle and be sure not to soak the compost or the seeds will rot; it should be just damp to the touch.

The next step depends on the seed that you are planting. If they are tiny such as petunia seeds, check the instructions on the packet but normally you would need to sprinkle them over the whole surface of your prepared tray and cover with a very fine layer of compost. If the seeds are larger, for example nasturtium, then make individual holes in the compost using the end of a pencil or similar and insert your seeds and close the holes gently with your finger. For these larger seeds, planting in rows makes life easier later on. Again, read the packet, but some seeds need a damp atmosphere to germinate so cover your seed tray with transparent plastic or glass. Some need dark so cover with brown paper.

Once your seeds are planted, keep in a fairly warm place such as a south facing windowsill but preferably not in full sun. The seeds will probably not need watering if they are covered in plastic or sealed in a plastic bag – you will be able to tell by the condensation forming on the plastic (or not), but if the compost starts to look dry, water gently or spray from a bottle. Whatever you do, don’t overwater.

Keep an eye on your seeds and as soon as they are germinating, remove the covering and continue to water as before. When the plants are about 3cm tall and have developed two or four leaves, prick (thin) them out so that the remaining seedlings are about 2cm apart. You can replant the seedlings which you have removed in other seed trays at the same distance apart. Be careful when handling these, grasping them very gently by the stem, not the leaves. Alternatively, you can transplant the seedlings to individual pots about 5cm in diameter.

When the weather warms up, you can put the seedlings outside during the day and bring them in when darkness falls. This is called hardening off as it acclimatises the seedlings to outdoor life. As the plants get bigger, they can be watered with a normal watering can or fine hose.

When all fear of frost has past, you can leave your young plants out at night as well as during they day and after about a week, they will be ready to transplant to their permanent outdoor positions.

Before planting out, give the plants a good watering and include the ball of compost in their newly dug hole as this will continue to give them nourishment and will prevent too much disturbance of the roots.

Once in the ground, continue watering in accordance with your local weather conditions and you will be amazed how the plants flourish. Come summer, you can sit back and admire your flowers or veg with the additional satisfaction of knowing that you grew them yourself.

Liz Canham
Liz is a keen gardener who has exchanged the relative ease of gardening in Southern England for the trials of gardening on the Costa Blanca in Spain, where her garden is at a 45% angle on the side of a mountain. She is webmistress of Gardening for All.

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