How To Water Small Seeds And Seedlings

My favorite part of gardening is growing plants from seeds I haven't grown before. Oftentimes it seems like the best flowers come from really small seeds. Small garden seeds, like the bee balm pictured below, pose the unique problem of how to best go about watering the small seeds and seedlings. You can water seeds from the bottom to keep the small seeds from spilling out of their seed starting pots. If you're growing a lot of small seeds you may not have enough time to sit there and submerge individual seed pots in water. Then there's the issue of gardening with kids. Their little brains sometimes don't easily grasp the idea of when they should stop watering your seeds and seedlings.

Watering Houseplants Part 3: Watering From Below

One of the biggest disservices that I do my houseplants is watering them from below. Even though I know better sometimes I can't resist the urge to fill the sink or a large container with water and setting the plants in the water to get a drink. Watering houseplants from below is a time saver if you have a lot of plants to deal with but you should avoid it when possible.

Watering Houseplants Part 1: Pick Them Up

Probably the most frequently asked question I get asked when people find out about my interest in plants relates to the watering of houseplants. Specifically, people want to know what I call "the houseplant numbers"-meaning they want to know how many cups of water they should give their houseplants per week. Unfortunately houseplants don't operate on our schedules and they don't understand liquid measurements.