Seed Starter From an Ice Cube Tray

There are many seed starters you can buy at local garden centers and nurseries. You can even save money and be a little eco-conscious by making your own biodegradable seed starting pots. Then there's a whole world of possibilities in things you can upcycle into seed starter pots like a ghetto greenhouse made from plastic soda bottles, and this seed starter from an ice cube tray.

A little backstory: I came across this idea one day when I wanted to buy seed seed starting trays with individual cells for multiple starts. Instead of buying the seed starters to make I came up with the seed starter ice cube tray. The idea is similar to starting seeds in cardboard egg cartons, but this seed starter can be reused and can last you for a couple of years.

Make Your Own Rooting Hormone From Willow Twigs

Bonsai was my gateway drug into gardening in my late teens. I even worked in a bonsai nursery for a bit, and one of my favorite gardening tricks I picked up in those days was to make rooting hormone from willow water. Yes, you can make your own rooting hormone from willow twigs. Use your willow water rooting hormone to start seeds, propagate cuttings and water transplants in your garden.

Square Newspaper Seed Starting Pots

When you are in the grips of seed starting season you’re looking around the house for items you can upcycle into seed starting pots. Along with yogurt cups, takeout containers, and soda bottle seed starters don’t forget to dive into the recycling bin and make your own seed starting pots from newspaper. You can roll-your-own seed starting pots from newspaper, but you can also make square newspaper seed starting pots, too.

Deceptive Garden

How I Repot A Cactus

I finally got around to repotting a couple of cacti that I own and decided to take some photos to detail how I repot a cactus. Normally I would recommend repotting a succulent during the early spring when it enters the active growing cycle but I didn't get around to it and there are still plenty of warm days ahead.

Affordable Cloches

In the indoor garden there is nothing quite like a cloche to really make a plant stand out. There's something about a plant protected by glass that automatically makes it seem special. Lately I've been seeing cloches used more as garden accents with sporadic instances of them actually serving a use in the garden. You can use them to start and protect seedlings or use them to root cuttings.

Seed-Starting Pots From Newspaper

One easy and frugal way to get lots of pots for seed starting is to make them from things you may find around your house. Making seed starting pots from newspaper is not only very cheap but you're keeping trash out of landfills. To make your own seed starting pot is very simple. First, take a sheet of newspaper and fold it in half so that it is about the length of a can of soda (or "pop" as we say in Chicago) and then just roll the soda can until it wraps around the can. After that just fold in one end of the newspaper to make the bottom and you have a quick and cheap pot for starting seeds that you made from newspapers that you were just going to throw away.

Advice And Tips For The First Time Gardener

A collection of gardening advice/tips for the person who would like to start their first garden.

Find out what your gardening zone is on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

Figure out what type of soil you have and buy a soil testing kit and make amendments.

Decide on the type of garden you'd like to start. Maybe a cut flower garden, an herb garden, a vegetable garden? If you can't plant in the ground because you rent- consider container gardening. Just about anything you can grow in the ground you can grow in a container of some kind or another. Maybe some of the recent trends in green living has got you interested in organic gardening and you would like to grow your own food.

Start your garden from seeds using plastic containers like soda bottle to make seed starting greenhouses. If you're interested in hydroponic gardening you can start your garden seeds using plastic baggies, since no soil is involved in the seed germination.

Sit down and plan out your garden taking into consideration plant sizes and the amount of light they need and make a plan of what seeds to plant in what location. If you can't draw you can still design your own garden using something like the Virtual Garden designer from the BBC. It allows you to make a plan of your garden and view it in 3-D. What could be better than a garden design you created yourself?

Going gardening forums like GardenWeb and search the forums for information that you're looking for. Not only are they a great place to learn but you can meet other gardeners who share their tips and gardening ideas and gardening ideas. You can find forums for just about any topic including but not limited to; lasagna gardening, square foot gardening, gardening tools and supplies. Forums like GardenWeb are a great resource for the first time gardener even if you're limited to indoor gardening.

Soon you'll be growing your own food or collecting your own seeds for next year and making gardening gifts for your friends and family.

Do-It-Yourself Garden Design-Virtual Garden

On Monday I was cleaning out my favorites folder and came across a link I had forgotten about. It's the Virtual Garden from the BBC website. I had a problem using the program on the website but I downloaded it and it worked fine for me that way.

It gives you the ability to sketch out your gardening space and design your own garden by planting trees, bulbs, annual and perennials and placing garden items like benches in your design. The plant selection is limited but I can't really complain because the program is free and you can see your design in 3D and move around your virtual garden like it was a video game complete with fluttering butterflies.