A picture of my home grown salad

Alright. I promised to put some pictures of my" baby salad greens in a container"  up for you to see, so here one is for all to view!!  Yes, that's my salad bowl, grown on my kitchen counter from seeds. These are a few weeks old, and could be cut at this stage, or allowed to grow more. It's completely up to the grower.(That's you)
If you have questons about growing your own counter top garden, just ask. tsmith203@hotmail.com

WINTER TIPS FOR WARM CLIMATES

This post is for all you gardeners who, like me, can garden all year round. I'm in California, and in the "cold" months, I still have lots of things to grow. If you haven't tried to keep color in your winter garden, why don't you start this year?
   Take a quick trip to your local nursery, and choose from a very large array of flowers and flowering plants to grow right now. Everything from azaleas to vincas, to the poinsettias you bought at Christmas, and dozens of other choices, you can have a lot of fun and keep a beautiful garden all thru these months.
     For you vegetable gardeners, this is a great time of year!!! Now is the time to plant lettuce, spinach, broccoli, strawberries, and any other vegetable that is grown in the cooler months. Don't hesitate, do it now, and you'll have a fine crop in a few months.
     And, last but far from least, get ready to plant outdoors by starting your favorites from seed, inside. Yeah, buy some seeds, for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc. and start them inside. They'll be ready to put outdoors by March, when the temperatures should be safely above 40 degreees at night thruout southern California. In Hawaii and Florida, you shouldn't have to worry about cold nights, so go ahead and get started outside with the winter flowers.
  Keep gardening, and have fun. Questions? Email me at: tsmith203@hotmail.com

Ok, here we go with a new blog. Since it's January, I'll talk a little about what you can do to garden indoors!! Yeah, indoors, since most of the country has weather that's too cold to do anything outdoors right now. We all know about houseplants, the african violets, the amarylis, and all those, but what about herbs, and even things such as baby salad greens?
  It's not only possible to grow your own baby salad greens, but it's easy, and can be done on anybody's kitchen counter. Really. All you need is a container, (for you beginners, make sure it has drainage holes in the bottom) a small one so it fits on a counter top, and it only has to be a few inches deep, some soil or other growth medium, and some seeds. So, get yourself some salad seeds, any type you want, fill a container with your soil, spread some salad seeds on top, (you don't have to put salad seeds in the soil), water, wait just a few days, and they will sprout.!!
    After they sprout, don't forget to give them enough light, in  a window sill, or put a lamp right next to it and keep it on for about 6  or more hours a day. Then, before you know it, you'll have baby salad greens to eat, cook with, anything you want, all through the winter.
      I have some pictures of just such a project that I've done in the past, and I'll post some for you to see.  If you want more than one crop, just cut the top of the greens off and leave the rest of it in the soil. They will grow again for you, from one planting. Not bad, and almost too easy to believe, but it's true, and you can do it. So, go for it.
   My next blog will be for people in warmer climates, such as mine here in California and the projects we can start in January. Don't forget, if you have any gardening questions, ask me at: tsmith203@hotmail.com   I'll be glad to answer them.

WELCOME TO MY SITE !!!!!

     I'm a lifelong gardener, and so is everybody else in my family, so I come by this interest naturally. I'm also a certified Master Gardener,and hope to give you some great tips, and share news about developments in gardening through this site. Your input is really important to me,too,so we can all find out what's happening in your corner of the world, too.
    This should be a lot of fun for all of us, and I'll be writing my first real blog very soon!!
By the way, I'm also ready to answer your questions, and use the information and skills I learned when I was becoming a Master Gardener. So, email me with our questions, and I'll give you the answers. My email is: tsmith203@hotmail.com