All the Dirt on Gardening

Start saving plastic jugs from milk, vinegar and tea to use this spring.  Heat mats are used to keep the soil around 20-degrees F warmer than the surrounding air and eager gardeners are using them to start tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tobacco, savory, sedum and other warm season plants this month. To use plastic milk jugs as seed starting hot houses, first wash the bottles with soap. Cut them in half horizontally to make a planting pot on the bottom and a greenhouse on the top. Poke or cut a few holes in the bottom for drainage. Fill the bottom with 3-inches potting mix and moisten it. Plant the seeds according to the seed packet instructions and water gently to settle the seeds. Close the lid and tape the two halves together. Put your mini-greenhouses in a sunny location. The moisture inside will condense and water the seeds but check them once a week. You can use a heatmat or make a warm-soil box with a little wood and a rope light. See https://bit.ly/2SY8R5z. Make...

Gardeners may be the easiest people to have on your gift-giving list since their interests range from houseplants and herbs to landscaping, water gardens and vegetable production. Gift ideas can range in price from free garden help to high end power tillers with decorative containers and seed packets in between.  Easy to find items such as gloves, small tools and a magazine subscription can be combined in a gift basket. For stocking stuffers consider nature-themed ornaments for pots, binoculars for bird watching, an Eco newspaper pot maker or a rain gauge. For more ideas we visited Grogg’s Green Barn in Tulsa, a local resource for everything organic. They have squirrel-proof bird feeders with an outer wire cage where birds can perch and an inner wire cage where the seeds are placed.  Grogg’s also has Water Right Featherweight hoses, Tumbleweed WormCafe above ground worm farms, Gorilla Grow Tents available as complete indoor growing systems and Rokz Spirit Infusi...

My question was, "Can you grow lettuce in the winter in Oklahoma?" The answer is "Yes" and the photo is the illustration. I used seeds from last year purchased at a local produce and seed store. They were planted in cells outside in a cold frame. We have had temperatures as low as 19 F and as high as 78 since the seeds were started. The all plastic cold frames from Harbor Freight and Tool were left uncovered on the coldest nights, opened on the warm days when we were home. They were watered with a hose nozzle set on mist. Fresh lettuce in February and March! One of the appeals of gardening for those of us on Social Security is the maintenance of our health, strength and stamina. Being outside and in movement are two aspects of a healthy lifestyle that are imperative if we want to remain vertical. A gardener in Boca Raton reached 106 years - a testament to the benefits of gardening. She was born in 1903, a daughter of German immigrants, grew up in New Jersey. Click h...