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Showing posts with the label plant

Grow your own

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*affiliate link in this post Fantastic seeds from SeedsNow.com ! Now is the time to start planning your spring and summer garden.

Award Winning Hydrogarden Bottle

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I  I found these awesome grow bottles on  SeedsNow.com . This revolutionary hydroponic growing bottles are only $29.99!  "About the Grow Bottle  |  The Grow Bottle is an  upcycled-hydrogarden  that has been made completely out of hand-crafted and re-claimed wine bottles.  The Grow Bottle was winner of the 2011 NYIGF Eco Choice Award for Most Innovative Product.  This is the ultimate gift for any occasion and is the perfect gift for the person who has everything." Use the Code SAVE10NOW to take off 10%. Shipping is $4.95 or less and FREE on orders over $40. I love their seeds and have gotten excellent results from all varieties. SeedsNow.com  sells only NON-GMO seeds. 

Taking Root, Houseplants to Share

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Starting house plants from cuttings is much easier than you may think. Many plants will take up root anywhere they can. Members of the Pothos family ( Wikki Info ) are easy to start, very tolerant of poor care and live well in limited light. I have one that was given to me as part of a gift from my office when my son was born 18 years ago, I have drug it back and forth across the county a few times, forgotten to water for  long periods, it's been mangled by cats, dogs and kids and yet it is still around. Over the years I have rooted many cuttings for myself and for friends. We have three pots in our house that are all from the same plant. I've started a few cuttings for a friend recently with only a few simple steps. Find the nodes on the vine. They are small, dark raised bumps, usually just below a leaf. You can cut off as long of a piece as you'd like, but three or four leaves from the end of the vine works well. Snip the vine above the leave that is after the no...

Regrowing Veggies from the Root Up

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Usually I toss the scraps from my veggies into the compost bin. What about using them to grow new veggies to eat from the roots, cuttings and seeds? I was looking for something else and came across a very good article  on exactly how to and what yummy things can become new plants. We have tried many of these with some mixed success. Our most recent; the avocado pit. We got farther than we ever did before. I had a tiny tree, 6 to 8 leaves and about a foot tall. I moved it from my air conditioned kitchen to my very hot, but shaded back porch. By the time I did a walk through the garden pulling some weeds, it looked very sad and wilted. Twenty minutes was all it took to make all of the leaves fall off. I snipped the top off and waiting to see what happens. Staring a new one on the sill today. Check out this article 7 Fresh Veggies You Can Grow From Kitchen Scraps   for more ideas on what to try!

What the Heck is a GMO?

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Wikipedia's  definition of  Genetically Modified Organism:  "Genetically modified foods (or GM foods) are foods produced from organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. These techniques have allowed for the introduction of new traits as well as a far greater control over a food's genetic structure than previously afforded by methods such as selective breeding and mutation breeding." Corn is one of top GMO foods consumed daily in the US. In simpler terms: a GMO is produce, grains, fruits and livestock that has been changed in a lab to be bigger, more productive, more resistant to pests and diseases to increase production and profit. This has been done for years with cross pollination in plants and breeding animals with more desirable traits. That process was slow and took several generations of plants and animals to get closer to the end outcome. Altering the DNA in a lab is quick, often the outc...

Non GMO and Organic Seeds and Supplies

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