Posts under ‘Seeds’

I’d been anticipating this past weekend all week long. As I said in Sunday’s Green Thumb post, I spent a few days last week in Grand Junction, Colorado, which is not known for having particularly stable weather, but the weather it gets blows through at record speed, bringing sun for ten minutes, then hard rain [...]

Late last week, I swung by the Co-op to pick up a few dinner items, and stopped by the Seed Savers rack to see what interesting seeds there might be available. I selected a packet of spinach seeds, planning to plant them shortly, and threw them into my basket. “What did you get for dinner?” [...]

Last Saturday, Steve and I stopped at Paul’s Discount. We wanted to get a garden implement or two, but found ourselves sidetracked by the seeds. Herbs. Vegetables. Flowers. Seed packet after seed packet found their way into our cart. I don’t know how they got there. As far as I’m concerned, my hand was moving [...]

OK, I take it back. I’m not really done with the in-house seed experimentation. I’m just done with the part where I actually have to do any of the work. See, in my closet, there sits a test tube. A test tube filled with tomato seedlings. Ladies and gentlemen, meet The Plantarium. This little test-tubey [...]

My first seed experiment of the year is not…I repeat, not…an unqualified success. I realize that’s a double-negative, folks, and that there are grammar teachers out there writhing like a wounded tomato hornworm right now, but I can’t help it. This early-season venture into planting has left me feeling more than just negative in the [...]

Almost miraculously, the lettuce seeds I planted last weekend began to poke through the soil in their pot by last Monday evening. I’ve read that lettuce germinates quickly, but that seems a little quick even by my uneducated estimation. By St. Patrick’s Day, the bright green seedlings were mostly about an inch tall, except for [...]

When I went to buy the potting soil and new pot for the sunflower seedlings this past weekend, I wandered by a rack of seed packets. Some of them were four for a dollar, and I considered throwing a bunch in my cart. I stopped myself. I’m still wary of trying to grow from seed, [...]

Some time around when I started this blog, I set up a Google News Alert that searches on the terms “novice gardening.” Some days, it provides me the world’s most interesting compost. Often, I get news of small events in random counties in New Jersey, or articles wholly related to gardening, but that just happen [...]

Another winter storm swept through Iowa yesterday and overnight, and yesterday morning, the TV in the lobby of my Pilates studio was quietly providing information on the low pressure system swirling across the Plains. As I pulled on my boots after class, I looked up to see if I could glean any new information about [...]

Last weekend, I traveled to Newport News to visit my college roommate, Jenny, and her family. My airplane reading material included the following: Three issues of The Sun (February, January and December); The February issue of Vanity Fair; The January/February issue of Poets and Writers; The copy of In Touch Weekly, with “Katie Breaks Free [...]