Natural Potting Soil

There are a lot of potting soil recipes out there. Most of them require some sort of purchase since, at least, I don't have any perlite or moss on me. Ok so I do have moss but it's spanish moss which is really good to put on top of soil to keep moisture in. I recomend starting with dirt. I don't really care what kind of dirt since I'm going to be adding things to it to make it more useable anyway. Add to that an equal or slilghtly more compost. If you don't have any compost then you should start making some today. I'm sure you have some kind of something that can be composted. Start one on your apartment baclony if you have to. This is where your nutrients will come from. Seeds will sprout in almost anything but they need nutrients to keep growing. Finally add some coarse sand to the mix. About as much as you added dirt. Beach type sand is good. It your sand is too fine it will not drain properly and can become packed and hard. The reason we added sand in the first place is to help drainage and keep the soil pliable. Coarse sand gives water a path to travel down not only for drainage but also to get to the roots. Good drainage is important because the soil needs to have air in it as well. If it is full of water then the plant's roots can't breathe properly. Remember that no matter how good you soil is, if your pots are infected then your plants might die anyway. Always clean your pots.

University of Texas at Arlington Community Gardens

Saturday was the dedication event for the community gardens here in Arlington, Texas. It had been tried before without success but with the State and City working together there is now a half acre of land with around 70 raised beds. Granted I didn't count them.
I have turned in my application to grow some food there. This would be in addition to the raised beds at the house and the beds in front of the house and on the side of the house and a little in the study. I think I would go by anyhow and see what's growing even if I can't grow anything there this year. It's always interesting to see how different people grow the exact same plant.
Half of the food is being donated to food banks while the other half goes to the growers.
There is also a master gardener who has decided that even food banks need seasoning and is growing herbs.
Pictures to come, eventually...

Popping Up Annually

I've always heard that planting annuals is a waste of time and money since you just have to buy them again next year. Where this might be true in some cases where the plant doesn't grow and propagate well in your area this doesn't have to be the case. One of the best things about annuals is that they spread so easily by seed. Otherwise we would soon have none left since they die every year.
Some annuals that I have in my garden are basil, cilantro, lettuce and onion which are all prolific seeders. Although I harvest most of the seeds, there are still many others that produce the next year's crop.
Some less self seeding plants are your peppers, tomato, melons, squash and cucumber. These have to have the fruit eaten and the seeds scattered in the process or saved by the gardener for the next year instead of the plant just dropping seed.
It's well worth the little bit of time it takes to successfully save seeds. Although we live in a fast paced world seeds need to be dry before storage. This can takes days if the air is too humid. Make sure you store the seeds in airtight containers. If you notice mold growing in one of the containers you might be able to save some of the seeds still if you catch it in time.
First, make sure the seeds you are trying to save had no mold on them. I like to use plastic bags which keep seeds spread apart and limits the ability of mold to spread. If they started to mold I wouldn't bother. if you do use plastic bags it's easy to cut out the area that doesn't have the mold and start over with drying. There was too much moisture.
After a few seasons you should be able to tell when the seeds are ready for storage. Note however that every type of seed is different even if the difference is only slight.

Tomoato Sprouts

I planted a few roma tomato seeds and they've sprouted. All I have to do now is keep them alive and healthy for planting in the next few weeks. So far there are three sprouts but it looked like there could be two more popping up.
I gave them a nice drink of warm water to make them think it was warming up and time to grow. Again root temperature is very important to plants even more than air temperature.