My tap water is so hard and full of chlorine that I have to find a different source for watering my plants.
The very first thing I did when I noticed that the chlorine was burning my plants was to go to the store and buy 3 jugs of water immediately! I was in a panic and I was worried that all my house plants were going to die! As I was using the water I kept thinking about it, and I had heard about using rain barrels etc…
And then I looked outside!! Our landscape is covered in a blanket of about 3-4 feet of snow right now and will be for at least another month or more. In fact, last year we got a snow storm in April that was feet deep. What better source for water! (Duh right?) So I am now watering all of my plants and seedlings with snow that I melt down and place in one of the empty jugs of water. (I also use a very light water soluble fertilizer every time I water.)
Thanks for stopping by!
Sara M
I have started my indoor garden!
So far it consists of a small shelf, lots of shop lights with daylight bulbs and one with a grow bulb in it. I have some old pots that I am using as well as a few new seed starting trays with biodegradable seed pots inside for transplanting.
The regular pots that you see that are not specifically for seed starting are the pots that I want to try growing veggies and herbs from seed to table all indoors. Then maybe next Fall when everything is dieing outside I won’t feel so sad because I know I can really garden indoors year-round.
So far in those pots I have cilantro, basil and 5 tomato plants.
The seed starting trays will have flowers and veggies that I will transplant into the outdoor garden in the Spring. The packets say to start the veggies 6-8 weeks before planting, which means I am still waiting on a lot of that for 1 more month. The first safe planting here is the 3rd week in May!
So far all the plants are very happy and healthy. I have the lights on 12 hours per day, and I have a small fan on them almost all the time as well.
Thanks for following!
Greenly, Sara M
In my search for the eternal summer I have started an indoor garden here in Minnesota! The purpose; to be able to garden from seed to table year-round.
I have started some seeds indoors before with mixed results. Most of the seedlings got too tall and toppled over and died. Some of them were too wet all the time and their roots rotted. When it finally came time to transplant these babies to the outdoor garden the majority of them died because they were not hardened properly. There are a lot of gardeners out there, particularly in the Northern United States that just go buy their plants at the garden stores at the start of the season claiming that starting seeds just doesn’t work.
Patti inspired me to try again with the seed starting and also to try a full out indoor garden! She has so many videos and so much awesome information on how to do it all how could I go wrong?
So, apparently the first time I tried to start seeds I did not have an adequate source of light. That’s why the plants got too tall – they said “I need light!!!!!!!!!!!!” Also, when you garden indoors you need more movement in the air so the top soil dries out in between waterings to prevent root rot. This air circulation also helps in the hardening process before you transplant! All of this makes a lot of sense, so I am going at it again!
Thanks for coming along for the ride!
Greenly, Sara M.
