Tag Archives: gardening

Seed Starting by Gary Emmett ~ A Review

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Screen Shot 2012-12-31 at 2.50.33 PMI’ve been gardening for a few years, but my attempts at starting my garden from seeds has only been moderately successful. We did not have rooms with a lot of light. The house was a bit drafty. We had cats that liked to nibble on the young greens. Yes, not perfect growing conditions by far. We recently moved into a new house with a lot more room. I actually have a whole granny suite that is empty, bright, warm and can be closed off from the rest of the house, keeping cats and “helpful” toddlers away. I was so thrilled that I went out and bought all my seed growing supplies early so I would be all set.

Screen Shot 2013-03-07 at 8.43.20 AMI also jumped on the opportunity to review Seed Starting – The First Step to Gardening, a Kindle e-book by Gary Emmett. I started it knowing that I had a fair bit of knowledge about starting seeds – just horrible conditions to do so. I loved that this book was written in easy to understand language and broken down into appropriate sections that bring you right from the beginning of the process to transplanting your seedling outside. Topics include planning your garden, providing the right soil and amount of light and so much more. Because of the organization and easy to comprehend language, I am planning to have my 10 year old read this book and take charge of some of the seeds on his own. I think it will be a good spring homeschooling project for him.

While most of the information was not new to me, I did learn some very important information that will be sure to benefit my seedlings. I was sure that my bright and sunlit granny suite would provide adequate light for my plants, but I had no idea how much light young plants really needed. My poor little seedling – despite my best effort – probably would have been weak and straggly without having read this book. I cannot wait to see the difference between this years results and previous years. The garden is what I’ve been looking forward to most in our country home so I cannot wait for the snow to melt to get at it! With the knowledge provided in this book, I know that by early April I’ll be able to plant my tomato and pepper seeds with the squashes to follow about a month later. I’m sooooooo excited!

If you are new to starting a garden from scratch then I highly suggest that you check out this e-book which is currently selling on Amazon.com for 2.95$US. I love it’s step by step instructions and think that anyone would be able to use this book to start growing a successful garden from seeds.  Please check back to see what other Mosaic Review team members thought of this book. as well.

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Hydroponic Gardening – Germination

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We don’t really have a clue what we are doing, but we’ve decided to give hydroponic gardening a go. The thought of fresh from the garden lettuce and spinach, year round, was just too tempting. I plan on documenting our journey so that firstly, we can learn from the experience and second, hopefully you can learn something, too.

This week’s topic is seed germination. We decided to go the paper towel route. Basically we sprayed down some non-bleached paper towels with water and laid down our seeds (spinach and lettuce) and folder the paper towel back over the seeds. We wrapped the towels in paper to keep the humidity inside and three days later we took a peak to find this….

Spinach (Day 3)

As the the plants sprouted and their heads came out of the seeds we folded our paper towel into quarters lengthwise and lined up our little plant with the roots in the paper towel and the little head out. We then rolled the towel up jelly roll style and placed it in a little container of nutrient rich solution (we are currently going the commercial plant food root…next year, if we get good, maybe we’ll figure out the organic method).

Day 3 (lettuce from seed)

1 week (lettuce)

10 days (lettuce)

Our largest plants are about to find their way into the hydroponic system that we are setting up using yogurt containers, a rubbermaid storage box, an air pump and an oxygen stone. I will post more about our set up in the next week or so. Our little seedlings have already started a good root system so now it is time to move on and see if we can get our wee ones to grow.

Make us proud, little ones…..make us proud!