How to Start Seeds

A comprehensive guide to seed starting

www.gardeners.com/How-to-Start-Seeds

There are many ways to start seeds, but a seed-starting system, such as the Seed Starting Grow Kitensures good results.

When mail-order catalogs and local garden centers are bursting with an astonishing variety of plants of all kinds, why would anyone want to bother starting their own plants from seed? Here are a few good reasons:

• Starting plants from seed is less expensive
• There are many more varieties to choose from
• You can grow higher-quality plants
• You will get to enjoy the simple satisfaction of growing your own plants from seed to harvest.

The Compact Tabletop SunLite® Jump Start Kit includes everything you need to start some seeds:

• The Compact Tabletop SunLite Garden
• Two 24-cell planting trays
• One brick of Eco-co Coir (makes 10 qts.)
• 1.8 oz. Easy Grow fertilizer
• 50 wooden plant markers
• Power Strip: Four 24-hour timer-controlled outlets and four switch controlled outlets, all with sliding safety covers

To be successful, you'll need to provide the right conditions for good germination and healthy growth. Here are the basics:

If you are a beginner, start with "easy seeds" that are quick to germinate and don't require a lot of extra fussing. It's easy to get carried away and buy too many different packets of seeds. If you are starting seeds for the first time, you may want to limit yourself to no more than ten different types of plants.

Choosing the Right Containers

You can start your seeds in almost any type of container as long as it is at least 2 to 3 inches deep and has some drainage holes. For best results, we recommend a seed-starting system, such as our Seed Starting Grow Kit. For tomatoes and peppers, you may want to start your plants in a seed-starting system and then "pot up" to larger containers, such as biodegradableCowpots. Some gardeners always plant their seeds in little rows in a larger flat. Once the tiny seedlings emerge, they get separated and replanted into individual containers.

The Best Growing Medium

To provide the optimum growing conditions, and to avoid disease and insect problems, seeds should be started in a soilless growing mix, not in garden soil. A good blend is fine-textured, moist and spongy.

You can purchase a ready-mixed blend, or mix your own, using 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 milled sphagnum moss. Remember that soilless mixes contain few, if any, nutrients. You will need to start feeding your seedlings with liquid fertilizer a few weeks after they germinate, and continue until you transplant them into the garden. Plant Health Care is formulated especially for seedlings.

After your seedlings are six to eight weeks old, you can transplant them into larger pots with a coarser growing medium, such as our Transplant Mix. If you wish, you can add up to 20 percent garden soil or sifted compost. A standard blend may contain 1/3 compost, 1/3 perlite or vermiculite, and 1/3 sphagnum moss. This will help ensure that your plants have access to some soil nutrients, and it will also help prepare them for life in the garden.

Timing Your Planting

Seeds sprout and plants grow at different rates, so timing is very important. Some seeds, such as celery and leeks, should be started 12 weeks before they are transplanted into the garden. Others, including cucumbers and sunflowers, need only three or four weeks (and will suffer if started too early). Check the seed packet to find the recommended seed-starting times. If you plan to start more than a packet or two of seeds, it helps to create a seed-starting schedule, counting back from the date you plan to set out the transplants.

For more on how to create a customized seed-starting schedule, see When to Start Your Seeds.

If you will be growing your seedlings in a greenhouse or a very warm room, you should subtract at least a week from the recommended planting date. Heat promotes faster growth, and you may find yourself with giant plants that are ready to be put out into the garden before warm weather arrives.

Seedlings that are started very early might need to be transplanted into larger containers after three or four weeks. This is especially true if you broadcast your seeds in flats rather than planting them in individual growing cells. The sooner your plants are put into individual cells with plenty of root space, the happier they will be.

IM Kids 3rd Meal Silent Auction Tonight!

Auction Items

Jams & Jellies with Local Honey!

Tomato Based: Stewed Tomatoes & Onions, Spaghetti Sauce and Salsa

Mom's Cure All Tea & Fireside Cappuccino

More Salsa

For those who do not know where the Ionia Moose Lodge is:

The Fish Fry takes place tonight 3/14/2014 from 6-8PM

The Silent Auction for IM Kids 3rd Meal will end at 7PM to allow time for you to pick up your items tonight!

Need more information?  Email pbeeman@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at 616-755-8050.

Energize Our Families Webinar Training

Let's Move Faith and Communities: Final "Energize Our Families: Parent Program" Webinar Training

U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services sent this bulletin at 03/05/2014 02:55 PM EST

Dear Partners,

We hope you can join us on Wednesday, March 12^th from 1-3 p.m. EDT for a Let’s Move Faith and Communities webinar training that will equip health leaders to run the "Energize Our Families: Parent Program" in their communities.

The Parent Program is part of We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition)®, a science-based national education program from the National Institutes of Health that provides parents, caregivers and communities with tools and strategies to help families improve food choices, increase physical activity and reduce screen time. This Let’s Move Faith and Communities webinar is being co-hosted by Hindu American Seva Communities.

Click here to register for the March 12^th webinar on the Energize Our Families: Parent Program.

The Parent Program is designed to provide parents and caregivers with the knowledge and skills they need to help families maintain a healthy weight. Specific topics include shopping for healthy food on a budget, controlling portion sizes, increasing physical activity in youth and reducing family screen time.

After a successful year training health leaders on the core We Can! curricula, this is the final webinar training Let’s Move Faith and Communities and NIH are offering on the Parent Program. We will continue to offer webinar trainings on the We Can! “Media-Smart Youth®: Eat, Think and Be Active!” curriculum.

For more information on Let's Move Faith and Communities and We Can!, visit the Partnership Center's website.

We hope you can join us on Wednesday, March 12^th for the final webinar training on the "Energize Our Families: Parent Program"!

Sincerely,

The Let's Move Faith and Communities Team

You are subscribed to The Partnership Center Newsletter for U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services. Learn more about The Partnership Center.

Chickens 101 in Bellaire, MI

The first workshop in a series of four begins this coming  Tuesday, February 25th from 6:00pm to 7:30pm at the Bellaire Community Hall in Bellaire, Michigan put on by The Institute for Sustainable Living, Art & Natural Design (ISLAND) in partnership with the USDA RMA grant. 

Three more workshops to follow as the spring months come upon us!  We hope this is of interest to you and your farm or homestead.

Introduction to Layers 

Raise chickens for eggs! Learn about breed selection, ordering, housing, and recipes for homemade feed. Take home plans and information you need to order your own chicks this spring. 

Tuesday, February 25, 6 to 7:30pm 

Bellaire Community Hall 201 N. Bridge Street, Bellaire 

Introduction to Broilers 

Learn how to grow nutritious and ethical protein. Pepper Bromelmeier and Tom Brown will discuss how to keep birds healthy and safe from predators. 

Tuesday, March 25, 6 to 7:30pm 

Bellaire Community Hall 201 N. Bridge Street, Bellaire 

Raising Layers on Pasture 

Tour Bluestem Farm and learn how to pasture chickens to produce delicious eggs and healthy soils. Housing designs included. 

Tuesday, May 6, 6 to 8pm 

Bluestem Farm 4218 Adams Rd, East Jordan

Raising Broilers on Pasture 

Tour Raven’s Roost Farm and learn how to use managed intensive rotational grazing to produce nutritious chicken. See the chicken tractor in action! Feed plans and housing designs included. 

Saturday, June 28, 1 to 3pm 

Raven’s Roost Farm 2398 Vandermark Rd, Bellaire

http://artmeetsearth.org/events.html#34999 https://www.facebook.com/events/629354817113775

Jeannie Voller

Food & Farming Events Coordinator

Institute for Sustainable Living, Art & Natural Design (ISLAND)

Web: www.ARTmeetsEARTH.org

Facebook: http://bit.ly/artmeetsearth

Experimenting with indoor growing!

Some of our gardens have been experimenting with indoor growing as well!

Angels in the Making Preschool:  February Lesson in Gardening

We have begun planning our spring garden so are anxious to see something grow. We placed our celery stalk from snack in a bowl of water. It is growing! 

Higbee Acre Experimenting with Lettuce

 

Re-growing lettuce...simply cut of the top to eat, then sit the bottom in water and watch it re-grow!

13 Vegetables That Magically Regrow Themselves

If you’re some kind of plant wizard, you can do this at home and maybe never buy groceries again.  http://www.buzzfeed.com/arielknutson/vegetables-that-magically-regrow-themselves

Vegetables You Can Grow From Food Scraps

Posted: 03/19/2013 11:20 pm EDT  |  Updated: 03/21/2013 10:10 am EDT

We all have our ways of pinching pennies. For some of us, it's at the grocery store. For others, it's finding ways to cut corners while cooking. But there aren't many who take advantage of the easiest way to save money -- and that's by keeping kitchen scraps like onion roots and old potatoes to grow (or regrow) their food.  Read More...

This spring will you Plant a Row?

What Is Plant a Row for the hungry?

Launched in 1995 by the Garden Writers Association (GWA), Plant A Row for the Hungry is a people-helping-people program that encourages gardeners to grow a little extra and donate the produce to local soup kitchens and food pantries serving the homeless and hungry in their local communities.

The Need Is Great

• Over 36 million Americans live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger daily. 
• Almost 14 million people facing hunger each day are children. 
• 1-in-8 Americans face hunger daily.

PAR’s mission is to provide an avenue for individuals, corporations and over 84 million gardening households in the U.S. to help America’s most vulnerable citizens and the food agencies serving them.

Harvesting Hope

PAR is a unique community-based program.  It encourages individual and community gardeners to plant and donate an extra row of produce for the greater good in support of food relief organizations in neighborhoods, local districts, cities and counties nationwide. There is no “typical” hungry person.
Rather, he or she looks like all of us and is usually someone who, due to some unforeseen events, finds him/herself needing help. Hunger affects us all, prompting health problems and deteriorating productivity.

Local food agencies are often the only hope some people have to put food on the table for themselves and their children. By donating produce directly to the food agencies, gardeners help organizations and their patrons stretch their meager resources. 

Keeping the Focus on Communities at Home

The American public has responded with open hearts and unprecedented donations to calls for aid for disasters like the Maldive Islands tsunami in 2004, the New Orleans hurricane in 2005, and the Haiti earthquake in 2010. At the same time, local food agencies depend on many of these same charitable sources to help provide food and services to Americans who suffer the daily threat of hunger. Studies show that gifts to local organizations drop significantly following major disasters. By keeping our focus on local community gardens donating produce directly to the food agencies, gardeners help organizations extend their limited resources at a time when their need is greatest and its impact is felt the most.

You Can Make A Difference Through "Plant a Row!"

PAR is rooted in the heartfelt tradition of gardeners sharing a bountiful harvest with others. Sharing can happen on many levels. Home gardeners, schools, church groups, youth and community organizations, and area businesses can all help make a difference for their neighbors who experience hunger or the threat of hunger. Nothing beats the taste and nutrition of fresh-picked vegetables. Growing and eating from your own garden can improve your health, save you money, increase your
sustainability, and decrease your carbon footprint. And most important, your garden can help a lot of people in need. as an individual, YOU can Make a Difference:

• Plant or glean vegetables, fruit, herbs or flowers. 
• Deliver the harvest to a food agency near you. 
• Give a PAR brochure to anyone who could help.

Use the Community Food Network Map to find a food pantry or community garden near you!

Contact the Community Food Network to register your "Row" as a local partner!

Print out this Donation Card to send with your produce to a local food pantry to assist us in tracking donations.  

If you need help with choosing a local food pantry, registering your row, or printing donations cards please contact IccFoodNetwork@gmail.com and we can assist you!

February Meeting Reminder: Think SPRING!

Community Food Network Meeting

Date and Time: February 25th, 2014 at 3:30pm 

Location: H.O. Steele Education Center

North 66 between 57 & 44 (10260 S Sheridan Rd., Fenwick, MI 48834)

Committees

Gardens & Pantry Committee:

• 2014 Survey Available on our Website.
• Growing Patch Garden is hosting an informational meeting on March 8th at 10am at the MSU Extension in Ionia and will be discussing “How to Grow a Weed Free Garden!”
• Feeding Angels Garden: In need of compost
• Higbee Acre Garden: In need of topsoil and chicken fencing
• Ionia ISD Garden: Looking for a volunteer to help plan layout
• H.O. Steel Garden: Looking for volunteers to help build fencing, benches, and tables.

Awareness & Resource Committee:

• Website Updates for 2014
• Review your Garden’s page and submit changes to iccfoodnetwork@gmail.com.
• Ionia EXPO: March 15th at Ionia High School
• Plant A Row Outreach Plan

Educational Committee:

• Outdoor Learning Lab soon to be set up at H.O. Steele Education Center.
• Seed Starting Classes for Global Youth Service Day

The next meeting will be the on March 25th at 3:30 pm at the H.O. Steele Education Center?

Click HERE to download this agenda!

Click HERE to review the notes from January's Meeting!

Remember we will have an Awareness & Resource Committee Meeting and an Educational Committee Meeting taking place prior to the CFN Planning Meeting on Feb 25th starting at 2:30pm!  This is to set the goals for these committees for 2014, so please come and help us decide what needs to be done!

Click HERE to download the PDF for the Growing Patch Garden Awareness Meeting with the Weed Free Gardening Workshop.