Pot Garden One Month Later

My pot garden one month later has produced lettuce, several herbs including catnip and is now growing tomatoes and peppers. (charlotte ekker wiggins photo)

Pot Garden One Month Later

This is one month since I started planting in pots again on my deck. So many how to guides don't discuss what happens after one gets started with a container garden so I will feature the results through the growing season. As I said earlier, besides the sheer fun of saying you have a “pot garden,” growing food in pots is an easy and practical way to get yourself fresh produce.

Here's a quick 101 primer on how to set up a pot garden. This is a quick video tour of how I started. Here's a short video tour of what the pot garden looks like a month later.

What to Grow in Pot Garden 

I've been growing in pots for several decades now. It started when I was traveling for work but still wanted fresh herbs for cooking and cat treats; then expanded to wanting better flavored tomatoes.

If you haven't started yet, here is a list of some easy spring seeds to get you started:

Lettuce and mixed greens; beets, peas, spinach, onions (red, white and yellow) and radishes. All of these crops like cool spring weather.

A note about radishes. Don’t toss those green tops, add the top green to a salad, they are delicious.

Now that the danger of hard frost is over, I've added cherry tomato starts surrounded by basil seedlings. Basil will keep bugs off the tomatoes and improve flavor. Clam shells work well as tiny greenhouses to protect tomato seedlings from late cold spells.

I also started nasturtium, green peppers, tiny zinnias, more basil and dill from seed. You can buy starts but it's less expensive to grow from seeds. And catnip. I can't seem to grow enough catnip!

How to Manage Pot Gardens

• Don’t dig up soil from your garden; start with new potting soil. You don’t want to grow unwanted bugs.

• When planting summer crops, add compost to the bottom of the pots before adding potting soil to feed soil that keeps plants fed and healthy.

• Wet soil down before adding seeds or plants.

• Pick up a set of children’s gardening tools. They are a better size to work in pots.

• Add buried plastic bottles with holes on sides to make sure water gets to the roots.

• If you have a crop you can’t get to, don’t toss it just yet, let it “bolt” or go to seed and it will feed local pollinators.

• If you can’t use what you grow, compost. You can start by putting the gathered greens in the bottom of the next pot you are making.

• Once you pot herbs, you can have them year around. Plan to bring them in over winter and they won't take over your garden.

• If you have inside cats, you may find they enjoy having an empty pot of soil to curl up in and take a dust bath.

• If it’s not a hybrid, you can save the seeds for next year and you won't have to buy seeds.

  For more gardening, beekeeping, cooking and easy home decor tips, subscribe to Garden Notes.

  Charlotte

Spring Pot Gardening

Lettuce and mixed greens are an excellent spring crop to grow in pots. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Spring Pot Gardening

Besides the sheer fun of saying you have a “pot garden,” growing food in pots is an easy and practical way to get yourself fresh produce.

Growing in pots allows each plant to have its own space, allows for easy pest control and helps you provide the right soil and other unique growing conditions. In addition, you can bring some pots such as herbs inside and extend the growing season over winter. I garden in USDA Hardiness zone 6b so for about 5 months some plants need to be protected inside.

To decide what to grow, here is a list of the basic five for spring pot gardening:

1. Lettuce and mixed greens

2. Radishes

3. Peas

4. Spinach

5. Onions

All of these crops like cool spring weather.

Radishes, from the red bulbous root tot he greens, are excellent in salads. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

A note about radishes. Add the top green to a salad, they are delicious.

If you have a crop you can’t get to, don’t toss it just yet, let it “bolt” or go to seed. If it’s not a hybrid, you can save the seeds for next year and local pollinators will appreciate the flowers.

This spinach is going to seed and will become bee and butterfly flood. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

If you can’t use what you grow, compost. You can start by putting the unused greens in the bottom of the next pot you are making.

Once you pot herbs, you can have them year around. I’ve had this pot of parsley for a couple of years now, wintering it over inside.

Herbs are excellent plants to grow in pots; here I have parsley that wintered over inside. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

One other crop you can grow in pots gets your ready for summer. I grow tomato starts in a pot, then move them to their individual pots to grow more before locating them in their final growing location. Because I have to start them in February, using a pot for their nursery works well.

Start new plants in pots; here cocktail tomatoes are getting an early start. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Once starting to crowd in the pot, I carefully move them to either toilet paper pots or their own pots. I give them a few hours a day outside so they get used to the change in conditions before planting them permanently in my garden or leaving them in pots outside on my deck.

There’s a strategy to this. I have squirrels and chipmunks who have developed a taste for tomatoes. If they decide to eat those in the garden I can then bring in the pots to have tomatoes growing inside.

Cats may enjoy an empty pot for naps and dust baths. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

If you have inside cats, you may find they enjoy having an empty pot of soil to curl up in and take a dust bath.

A few last tips about gardening in pots:

Include a handful of compost at the bottom to keep your soil healthy.

Don’t dig up soil from your garden; start with new potting soil.

Wet soil down before adding seeds or plants.

You may also need small gardening tools to make the process easier.

Pot gardening allows you to grow your own in small spaces and have a healthy source of fresh produce all year. Here’s a quick peek at the start of this year’s pot garden.

For more gardening, beekeeping, cooking and easy home decor tips, subscribe to Garden Notes.

What are you going to grow in pots?

Charlotte

Pot Gardening 101

pots with snap peas, in back, then a variety of lettuce, basil on the front left and radishes front right. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Starting a Pot Garden

If you are getting the bug to garden, here’s a quick and easy way to get started and learn the basics: pot gardening. No, no that kind of pot. I’m talking about gardening in pots.

I have had a pot garden for a couple of decades now, primarily to provide tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce and fresh herbs. Since I started, I also now have a number of fruit trees from key limes to a pomegranate.

There are a couple of considerations when starting a pot garden:

One is providing your plants enough soil to support their growth and fruit production; and

How do you plan to keep the soil moist. Soil is 25% water so it’s important to keep it hydrated so it can keep your plants alive.

Pot Garden Pot Size

For cool spring crops like lettuce and spinach, you can use smaller pots. Depending on how much lettuce and spinach you plan to grow, the crops sit almost on the top of the soil.

As you graduate to deeper rooted plants such as tomatoes, you will need more soil surface to feed the deep roots. 5 gallon paint buckets with holes in the bottom make excellent tomato pots.

Pot Garden Irrigation

Wood chips, old cotton sock and compost in bottom; plastic bottle with holes, will keep soil hydrated. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

The other consideration is how do you plan to keep the pots watered. I include plastic bottles with holes all over them in the center of the pots. That way when I water I know the plant roots sitting towards the bottom of the pot will get hydrated.

I also line the bottom of my pots with broken up wood limbs, wood chips, cotton scraps and compost. The wood will naturally retain water and help keep the soil moist. You can also use new cut up diapers and old socks to form wicks to hold in water.

Compost will feed soil micro-organisms that will feed the plants.

Also plan on having dishes of some sort under your pots to slow down water loss.

Where to Place Pots

I keep my pots on little rolling plant stands so that I can easily move them to get their sun requirements. The larger the pot, the more help I need to move them.

Other Pot Gardens

As our soils get exhausted from overuse and lack of refreshing, it can become more difficult to get anything to grow. I wrote a 5-year plan for our local community garden to help them improve their soil but it was not implemented.

Today community garden users depend on large pots to grow their vegetables.

Our community garden is one large pot garden. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

To keep your pot garden healthy, compost kitchen scraps and incorporate them into your pot soil before planting.

Compost provides soil residents food to keep them healthy. In turn, those soil microorganisms will feed the plants that feed you. Yes, it’s all interconnected!

Time to get my tomato starts in their pots! (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

When you get this started depends on what you plan to grow. Our last frost date for USDA Hardiness Zone 6b is now mid-April, up several weeks from May 10. If planting heat-seeking plants early, make sure you have a plan to cover them in the event of cold temperatures.

Once you have your pots set up, it’s time to add seeds or plants. I started this pot garden late so it’s safe to get my tomato seedlings in. My first tomato is a cherry variety that re-seeded itself in flower pots that over-wintered inside.

For more gardening, beekeeping, cooking and easy home decor tips, subscribe to Garden Notes.

Charlotte

Cocktail Tomatoes

Self-pollinating cocktail tomatoes deliver fruit all year. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Cocktail Tomatoes

Sounds like something one eats at a party, doesn’t it - cocktail tomatoes.

“Cocktail tomatoes” where the darlings of the COVID 2020 year. I saw them featured on blogs and home and garden centers, the perfect tomato for that apartment or small space. I picked one up at the end of the season and not for the original $18.95 retail price. I was curious to see how they would weather inside through a Missouri winter.

Cocktail Tomatoes grow 1 foot by 1 foot. They are small, semi-determinate tomatoes that provide fruit through most of the growing season without overwhelming the supply. If they like it inside, they are supposed to be constantly growing self-pollinated fruit.

Not a hybrid, they do grow true from their seeds. I used the last tomato to start some new plants I shared with friends earlier this spring.

In terms of taste, they are nicely flavored for salads and just plain straight munching.

I now have some growing in pots on my deck to see how well they make it through our Missouri summers. I planted them with compost at the bottom of the pot including crushed egg shells, and monitor for even watering.

They were back this year at a lower price point $14.95. The plant tag also had more information, confirming that this is an heirloom, not a hybrid variety.

This year’s cocktail tomatoes are less expensive. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins Photo)

Although my fruit are still green, you can see how once they ripen Cocktail Tomatoes have a nice small size.

Ripening Cocktail tomatoes at one of our local hardware stores. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

I have grown a number of tomatoes over the years. This one has a lot of advantages starting with its size. It’s handy for small spaces while still providing fruit for salads and other uses. Besides cooking, these plants make for nice growing gifts that will keep on giving.

For more gardening, beekeeping, cooking and easy home decor tips, subscribe to Garden Notes.

Charlotte

Spring Pot Gardening

Lettuce and mixed greens are an excellent spring crop to grow in pots. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Spring Pot Gardening

Besides the sheer fun of saying you have a “pot garden,” growing food in pots is an easy and practical way to get yourself fresh produce.

Growing in pots allows each plant to have its own space, allows for easy pest control and helps you provide the right soil and other unique growing conditions. In addition, you can bring some pots such as herbs inside and extend the growing season over winter. I garden in USDA Hardiness zone 5 so for about 5 months some plants need to be protected inside.

To decide what to grow, here is a list of the basic five for spring pot gardening:

1. Lettuce and mixed greens

2. Radishes

3. Peas

4. Spinach

5. Onions

All of these crops like cool spring weather.

Radishes, from the red bulbous root tot he greens, are excellent in salads. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A note about radishes. Add the top green to a salad, they are delicious.

If you have a crop you can’t get to, don’t toss it just yet, let it “bolt” or go to seed. If it’s not a hybrid you can save the seeds for next year and local pollinators will appreciate the flowers.

This spinach is going to seed and will become bee and butterfly flood. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you can’t use what you grow, compost. You can start by putting the unused greens in the bottom of the next pot you are making.

Once you pot herbs, you can have them year around. I’ve had this pot of parsley for a couple of years now, wintering it over inside.

Herbs are excellent plants to grow in pots; here I have parsley that wintered over inside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

One other crop you can grow in pots gets your ready for summer. I grow tomato starts in a pot, then move them to their individual pots to grow more before locating them in their final growing location. Because I have to start them in February, using a pot for their nursery works well.

Start new plants in pots; here cocktail tomatoes are getting an early start. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once starting to crowd in the pot, I carefully move them to either toilet paper pots or their own pots. I give them a few hours a day outside so they get used to the change in conditions before planting them permanently in my garden or leaving them in pots outside on my deck.

There’s a strategy to this. I have squirrels and chipmunks who have developed a taste for tomatoes. If they decide to eat those in the garden I can then bring in the pots to have tomatoes growing inside.

Cats may enjoy an empty pot for naps and dust baths. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you have inside cats, you may find they enjoy having an empty pot of soil to curl up in and take a dust bath.

A few last tips about gardening in pots:

Include a handful of compost at the bottom to keep your soil healthy.

Don’t dig up soil from your garden; start with new potting soil.

Wet soil down before adding seeds or plants.

You may also need small gardening tools to make the process easier.

Pot gardening allows you to grow your own in small spaces and have a healthy source of fresh produce all year. What are you going to grow in pots?

Charlotte

Coffee Pod Pots

Cocktail tomato starts in coffee pod pots getting ready to move outside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Coffee Pod Pots

A neighbor last year gave me a little collection of her used coffee pod pots. She said she thought they would make good starter pots for plants, and she was right. To give them a test, I grew one of my favorite vegetables, tomatoes.

And not just any tomatoes, these are the pricey cocktail tomatoes, a semi-determinate variety of cherry-like tomatoes that grows only one foot tall and one foot wide. These are the perfect tomatoes to grow inside. i picked one up last year but it didn’t make it through winter so I planted the last little tomato in the mother pot to get a new start.

Once big enough, I moved the starts into the individual coffee pod pots. To ensure they were settling in, I first poured water into the potting soil, then used stick to make a hole in the center where I could easily add the tiny plants.

Now I don’t drink coffee so coffee pod pots are hard to find in my kitchen. Instead, I make planting pots out of toilet paper rolls, which gives me a similar sized planting pot for new starts. The challenge with the toilet paper ones is that they tend to fall apart before I get them in their permanent spot in the ground.

The coffee pod pots will need to be separated from the outer shell before planting.

Cocktail tomatoes are nicely growing in these repurposed coffee pods. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

You can buy a variety of planting pots but why do so if you can recycle what’s already in your kitchen.

Charlotte

Delicious Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums come in single and double varieties. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Delicious Nasturtiums

I can’t remember the first time I planted nasturtiums, they have been on my “must do” list for decades. Like zinnias, nasturtiums are easy seeds to grow and give so much back.

First, narturtiums are pretty. Their colors range from beige to a deep burgundy in both single and double varieties with several shades of yellow and gold.

They are also entirely edible, making for pretty additions to salads and to embellish dishes.

These charming flowers are also easy to grow.

• You can start the seeds indoors 4 to 6 weeks before the last spring frost. 

• Plant nasturtium seeds in moist, well-drained soil in full sun. They can grow in partial shade, but they will not bloom as well.

• Nasturtiums prefer poorer soils and they do not need fertilizers.

Soaking the seeds a good day before planting helps them to sprout. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To get them off to a good start, soak the seeds for a good 12 hours prior to planting.

Plant the seeds about half an inch deep and 10 to 12 inches apart. Water. Plants should appear in 7 to 10 days.

I like to plant them in hanging baskets so I can move them around and enjoy the flowers before i add them to my dishes.

Nasturtiums have a fresh, nutty flavor and add a nice touch to any dish.

Charlotte

Starting a Pot Garden

This year’s pot garden with snap peas, in back, then a variety of lettuce, basil on the front left and radishes front right. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Starting a Pot Garden

If you are getting the bug to garden, here’s a quick and easy way to get started and learn the basics: pot gardening. No, no that kind of pot. I’m talking about gardening in pots.

I have had a pot garden for a couple of decades now, primarily to provide tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce and fresh herbs. Since I started, I also now have a number of fruit trees from key limes to a pomegranate.

There are a couple of considerations when starting a pot garden:

One is providing your plants enough soil to support their growth and fruit production; and

How do you plan to keep the soil moist. Soil is 25% water so it’s important to keep it hydrated so it can keep your plants alive.

Pot Garden Pot Size

For cool spring crops like lettuce and spinach, you can use smaller pots. Depending on how much lettuce and spinach you plan to grow, the crops sit almost on the top of the soil.

As you graduate to deeper rooted plants such as tomatoes, you will need more soil surface to feed the deep roots. 5 gallon paint buckets with holes in the bottom make excellent tomato pots.

Pot Garden Irrigation

Wood chips in pot bottom and plastic bottle with holes. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The other consideration is how do you plan to keep the pots watered. I include plastic bottles with holes all over them in the center of the pots. That way when I water I know the plant roots sitting towards the bottom of the pot will get hydrated.

I also line the bottom of my pots with broken up wood limbs and wood chips. The wood will naturally retain water and help keep the soil moist. You can also use new cut up diapers and old socks to form wicks to hold in water.

Also plan on having dishes of some sort under your pots to slow down water loss.

Where to Place Pots

I keep my pots on little rolling plant stands so that I can easily move them to get their sun requirements. The larger the pot, the more help I need to move them.

Other Pot Gardens

As our soils get exhausted from overuse and lack of refreshing, it can become more difficult to get anything to grow. I wrote a 5-year plan for our local community garden to help them improve their soil but it was not implemented.

Today community garden users depend on large pots to grow their vegetables and flowers.

Our community garden is one large pot garden. (*Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To keep your pot garden healthy, compost kitchen scraps and incorporate them into your pot soil before planting. Compost provides soil residents food to keep them healthy. In turn, those soil microorganisms will feed the plants that feed you. Yes, it’s all interconnected!

Time to get my tomatoes in their pots! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once you have your pots set up, it’s time to add seeds or plants. My first tomato, a cherry variety is in and now enjoying rain water.

Charlotte

April Gardening Chores

The south garden close to the Bluebird Gardens apiary. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

April Gardening Chores

It’s “daffodil land” days in my Missouri garden. This is the name one of my former neighbors gave to my limestone hillside garden currently populated by a number of these wonderful bulbs.

Spring came in almost a month early this year so my USDA Hardiness zone 5B chores are getting an earlier start.

Clean out composters and add to flower beds and fruit trees. Mix with existing soil for now; you will mulch this later. Leave a good bucket of finished compost as starter for the next compost batch and start adding leaves, grass clippings if you have them, kitchen scraps and water. Don’t forget to mix.

Put up your birdhouses if you haven’t already. Songbirds are natural pest control and add so much interest to our gardens. 60% of all bird species depend on insects for their food.

Prune lilacs immediately after they bloom. If you wait until later in the season, you will be cutting off next year’s blooms.

Continue to sow lettuce, spinach and radish seeds every 10 days or so for fresh spring salads in your pot garden. Call it your garden in pots, if you prefer.

If you like to grow peas, this is the last month to plant sugar snap peas and snow peas, they prefer cooler weather conditions. To keep their roots happy, mulch with cardboard to keep them cool, then add a layer of wood chips.

As daffodils and tulips continue to grow and bloom, sprinkle compost around them to keep the bulbs well fed.

As the flowers fade, remove them by snipping off the flower heads. Leave the greenery until it turns yellow; the green leaves help the bulbs store energy for next season’s blooms. Don’t mow the leaves down with the lawn mower until they turn yellow or the bulbs will gradually become smaller and you will not have any more blooms next spring.

If you have a vegetable garden area, this is a good time to add cardboard to kill off any growth prior to summer planting. Don't till, the prevailing thought now is that tilling damages the soil ecosystem. Kill the plants you don’t want, make holes to plant the ones you do, or make trenches to plant seeds, and cover. Easy peasy. Who doesn’t like easy gardening??

Start your summer plants inside in containers you can transplant outside later; tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini.

Don’t forget companion plants to reduce crop damage; basil is a good bug deterrent for a lot of plants and grows easily from seed.

Plant for pollinators as well. I love zinnias and so do butterflies and bees. Native plants such as New England Asters, yarrow and purple coneflowers are good choices for pollinators because they have long blooming seasons. For another good annual, try sunflower seeds. Birds will love the seeds in the fall.

Enjoy the beauty of Missouri’s native trees including Eastern redbuds and the state tree, flowering dogwoods. Better yet, plant a few more native trees along with compact dwarf fruit trees. Although planting native flowers is still good for pollinators, trees provide better, and more reliable, pollen sources for bees. The smaller fruit trees are good pollen sources as well and, when pollinated by bees, will also give you easily accessible fruit to pick.

Charlotte

Home Pot Garden

One of my past pot gardens growing on my back deck. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Home Pot Garden

Some people are calling the resurgence in gardening Victory Gardening 2.0, a reference to the gardens US citizens grew during World War II. I think “Pot Garden” is more appropriate. These pot gardens can grow almost anywhere and still provide fresh produce and herbs.

I have grown a pot garden on my southern facing deck for many years and here are my tips to getting started, with the help of the National Gardening Bureau:

1. Know your hardiness zone, which is an average over 13 years of the coldest temperatures where you live,. This will determine what you can grow. I am in USDA Hardiness zone 5B. If you don’t know your growing zone, enter your zip code here to find your zone.

2. What do you and your family like to eat? No point in growing something no one will touch. Make a list of what your family likes to eat and research their harvest times. Right now snow peas, lettuce, radishes, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower are good to grow, they prefer the cooler spring temperatures.

   Also consider growing favorite herbs you use in cooking, there’s nothing better than fresh herbs out of your own garden.

Herbs are excellent to grow in pots and great to add to cooking. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

More on Setting up a Home Pot Garden

3. Seeds or Starts? If this is your first foray into gardening, get plant starts, those will grow faster and encourage you to plant more. Seeds will work as long as you read the packages and plant at the appropriate time.

4. Know Your Soil. If you are sowing, or adding starts, to soil, make sure you know what kind of soil you have, your local Extension office can run a test and tell you. One test costs $15.

5. Plan where you will grow. If you are making a pot garden that’s easy. If you are growing directly into soil it helps to have an area planned.

6. Grow both vegetables and flowers. Flowers attract pollinators that will make your vegetables healthier and more abundant. Mix vegetables and flowers, don’t plan them separately.

7. Start Composting. If you don’t already compost, start composting. You will repurpose kitchen scraps and help keep your garden soil healthy.

Keep gardening tools handy, here I have children’s tools close by. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

8. Punch holes in plastic bottles and bury them in your pots to help keep plant roots hydrated.

9. Stake plants. Some plants like tomatoes and peppers will need support to grow. Find straight garden sticks and consider tomato cages for vining plants like peas.

10. Monitor for pests. Check under leaves; remove by hand. Some garden pests like rabbits and deer will tend to stay away from pot gardens.

Pot gardens are not only easy to establish but work well through the growing season and don’t require a lot of space. Good luck and have fun!

Charlotte

My Hardy Geraniums

My favorite geraniums are these raspberry-colored ones. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My Hardy Geraniums

As you think about what plants you want to have in pots this year, make sure you include geraniums. I have had a variety of different geranium colors in pots for many years, giving me wonderful color in the dead of a dreary winter.

Most geraniums offered on the market are annuals, and it is assumed they will be planted one year and allowed to die when cold weather sets in. Even if you have them planted in your garden, you should be able to dig them up and move them inside in pots to continue growing, and blooming, through winter.

The raspberry-colored geranium in the top photo is my favorite. The plant is now 4 foot tall and lives in my business office, keeping my printer and desk company through the year. It tends to bloom most of the year taking a short break around fall.

I do give them watered down fertilizer, 1/2 tsp per gallon of water every other month, and worm castings a couple of times a year mixed into the soil. I remove the top soil, mix in the worm castings, then replace it all back into the pot. Every three years or so I remove as much soil as I can and replace it with new soil.

This next geranium is blooming in living room pot. Its red color pops nicely against the purple leaves, a beacon among the sea of plants wintering over in the bay window. The red color compliments the red in the amaryllis blooms currently in bloom.

These red geraniums are pretty among the purple leaves. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

One more reason why you should save at least one geranium for winter. This is a tomato red geranium blooming in another pot in my dining room, brightening up the area on cloudy, gray days.

Tomato red geraniums in bloom in my living room. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now these geraniums are different than the native, hardy geraniums. Even though they are only annuals with a little care they can bloom year after year if you keep them inside over winter.

Here’s another way to bring in these colors to your room, our Ribbon Flowers Lap Quilt will add the same colors to the back of a chair or sofa and be ready for that unplanned nap!

Charlotte

Tomato Starts

One of my tomato starts in their own pot near my kitchen. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Tomato Starts

It’s about time to start planting seeds indoors for outside growing after the danger of frost. Where I live, that is usually Mother’s Day, around May 10. But before you start, check your potted plants for any volunteers that have hitchhiked in that soil. If you replanted in previously-used soil or had plants sitting close together, you may already have plant starts growing.

Although I love having fresh, homegrown tomatoes, I don’t grow tomatoes from seed. They tend to take matters into their own seeds and sprout all by themselves and, this year ,they are right on schedule.

Over the years, I grow tomatoes in pots on my deck. The seeds end up in neighboring pots and tend to start growing on their own late winter. This year, I found the tomato starts in a potted banana tree.

Tomato starts popping up all by themselves in a banana plant. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The tomato seedlings don’t show up all at once. The first one is now sitting in its own pot, crushed eggshells in the bottom and coffee grounds mixed up in the plain potting soil, no added fertilizer. This way I can control how much fertilizer is going into the soil.

After noting the first tomato plant, I started to check the soil for any other arrivals. Sure enough, more tomato plants are showing up so I will be potting those as well.

See the little seed on the tomato start bottom left? (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I let the little seedling get established before I move it and I take a whole glob of soil around the roots so that it has the least amount of trauma making the move.

When I see these seedlings, I can’t help but think of my Vegetables Baby Quilt with talking tomatoes.

This is gardening at it’s easiest. How many of us overlook those seedlings by pulling them out or piling rocks on top of them?

Charlotte

First Lettuce

There are a number of ways people mark the arrival of spring. Purple crocus; yellow daffodils in bloom; maybe a favorite tree blooming. In my world, it's lettuce.

In addition to a dedicated vegetable garden spot, I keep a series of pots on my back deck where I can easily access herbs and greens. Sometimes the potted garden grows faster. It's on the equivalent of a second deck surrounded on three sides by glass. It also faces west so the soil warms up faster than the vegetable garden.

To get an early start on vegetables and herbs, I usually have a pot share lettuce seeds on one side and an herb on the other. I use shards from broken pots to set up growing guides. This year, lettuce is sharing space with sweet basil.

When I harvest my first greens for a salad marks the official beginning of spring for me.

It's a healthy, delicious and easy way to start!

Charlotte