Weeds & Seeds Swap » Indoor Garden

Caring for my Norfolk Island Pine

Claudia — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:48:53 +0000

This past Christmas, we purchased a 2+ foot busy Norfolk Island Pine in a pot that is about 1 foot tall, so it sits nicely on the top of the chest of drawers backed up to our living room couch. I have wanted to do this for years, and having our artificial tree damaged during the past year gave me an excuse (as if I needed one). I put light-weight ornaments on it and not too many and it held up well. There’s a picture of it with some of the ornaments below and on another page I did about my Norfolk Pine. Now the ornaments have been removed, and my challenge is to keep it happy and healthy, which is possible, as this is a house plant, not a tree that you plant outside after Christmas.

A few things that I’ve learned about care:

If the humidity in the room goes below 50% misting the tree is necessary…I’ve been doing that upon rising and when I go to bed, twice a day.
It doesn’t need direct sunlight, but should be in a bright room. Ours is under a skylight and seems to be happy so far.
If the branches and leaves/fronds and fall off, they won’t come back, so the branch will have to be trimmed off…I have trimmed one branch off so far, but it actually made it look more even as it was on a “bushier” side of the tree.
Water well when soil is dry a couple inches down, but do not let the pot sit in standing water. I’m planning to put some stones under the pot at some point, haven’t done that yet so try to control the amount of water that I use, and empty the dish after all water has drained into it after watering.
I have more instructions here.

Winter Begins, But Gardening Plans Underway

Claudia — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:16:32 +0000

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Safer® brand. All opinions are 100% mine.

Welcome to the first day of winter…and it is wintery here in northern NJ – lots of snow fell over the weekend, as most of you have probably heard on the news, and it’s cold and windy, but the sun shines brightly today! This is Christmas week, and after Christmas come New Years and January, when many begin to see gardening catalogs show up in their mail boxes as they think ahead to Spring gardening…as for me, I like to do my shopping online, and most paper mail ends up in my recycling.

Last summer I enjoyed my medicinal and culinary herb garden, simple as it is, since we have a shortage of sunny property. I’m still eyeing a big section of sunny grass that we gained when a new septic system was put in because trees were removed. We don’t use many pesticides, and try to make some ourselves, naturally, when we can because it’s not always easy to find chemical-free pesticides and other “green” gardening products that are good for the earth that God has given us to be stewards of. But now I think I’ve found a source.

You lucky folks that live in warmer climates may already be able to take advantage of the wonderful green, good for the earth, good for the garden products offered by saferbrand.com. I appreciate the time they have put into helping the gardener know about many garden pests, they have a great section on insects that can threaten your garden, and an equally informative section on organic gardening. Since my “green thumb” doesn’t seem to work very well when it comes to growing plants indoors, the “houseplants” section was also very helpful.

There will be events taking place all year to promote organic gardening, and it won’t be hard to keep up with these events because Safer brand is officially on twitter, I’m going to “follow” them on Twitter and invite you to as well.

Twitter and Facebook are the primary, almost only social networking sites that I use, so I was happy to hear about Safer brand’s facebook page, and will be heading over to become a fan after posting this.

Do You Make Your Own Gardening Pots?

Claudia — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:18:50 +0000

My sister is an artist, and pottery is her favorite way to express herself. She has done some beautiful work that decorates her gardens as well as my mother’s garden. I will have to share her pictures sometime. In conversations about pottery, I have learned that “throwing a pot” doesn’t mean tossing a pot across the room when it doesn’t come out perfectly – LOL – but the term used for making a pot on a potters wheel. She tells of the importance of centering on the potter’s wheel. If you are doing a pot, or vase or other similar item, the clay must be dead center on the wheel in order for your finished product to be perfect. I am not sure whether she uses a centering device, but can see that such a tool would be very helpful. AMACO/Brent is a company that provides devices like this, along with a number of other new products for the potter’s wheel. So if you make your own ceramic pottery, whether for the garden, or other uses, this may be something that will interest you. I’m going to share the site with my sister.

Trading Seeds and Plants

Claudia — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:51:27 +0000

I was contacted last week by someone who wanted to trade some seeds for some of my mint, and it reminded me that I’ve been having so much fun posting to the blog, that I’ve wandered a bit from one of the purposes of this site. That is providing a place for people who have more than enough of any type of plant or seeds, and would like to make an exchange. I would like to build the list of people interested in this, so take a look at the page “Read First – The Swap” (needs a little updating, will get to that soon!), then go take a look at what is available now on “Swap Contributors” to get an idea of how simple this is. Hope to hear from you, email me if you have something to trade!

Grow an Indoor Kitchen Herb Garden

Claudia — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:23:26 +0000

As I continue to dream of the warmer days ahead, I keep reading articles that inspire me, and while looking about I came across the following about growing an indoor kitchen garden…something that can be done any time of the year, even when there is snow on the ground.

For many people their garden is a very spiritual place. Particularly if it links to another area of their life – a passion for creating beautiful food for example – the garden truly reflect one’s make up. As A. Austin put it ‘Show me your garden and I will tell you what you are’. If you choose to plant and maintain a herb garden it also has many practical uses from seasonings through to cleaning products and home decorations.

The best place to start a kitchen herb garden is along a south or west window. If winter sunlight is poor in your kitchen, invest in a “grow lamp” or fluorescent lighting for better lighting. As your indoor garden expands, you may want to invest in special shelving that fits into your indoor window frame. Indoor Window Gardening offers plant hangers and adjustable Plexiglas shelves that lengthen by cable, which are connected to a bracket that is mounted to your window molding. Below are tips for preparing your planter:

- It is important to ensure that your planter has plenty of holes in the bottom of it for drainage as herbs do not like their roots to be sitting in sodden soil. A drainage tray should be placed underneath to collect water.
- The soil should also include some gravel which should be placed in the bottom of the container at about the depth of one inch. Sand should also be mixed with the potting soil one third sand and the rest soil. Ground limestone should also be used at a rate of 1 tsp. for every 5-inch pot of soil.
- It also makes it easier if you plant herbs together in the planter that like the same amount of water

It also helps if you plan your garden in terms of how it is going to be used – are the herbs going to be purely aromatic or decorative or for cooking? Many herbs will fulfill all these criteria. For instance, basil, chives, marjoram, sage and mint are great for cooking, have beautiful flowers and smell great too. One way to plan which herbs you want is to look at them at your local store in the aisle with seasonings. Other herbs such as chive, thyme, saffron, dill and anise can be cut and used then or dried so that you can use them later.

Phyllis McGinley said “The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession.” This has a ring of truth as once you get to grips with growing and reaping the benefits of your indoor herb garden you won’t be able to stop.

Using herbs just like the pioneers did – There was a mix of herbs used by the pioneers – some were those brought carefully across the Atlantic from their country of origin, and others were those that had been long used by Native Americans. These were seasoning herbs and those that helped keep meat edible for the longest time. Both settlers and natives had medicinal herbs in their apothecary, and many happily shared their knowledge. Some of these cures have not stood up to scientific scrutiny, but still we tend to associate herbs with medicine.