This song is stuck in my head!!

Starting seeds indoors

Supplies needed to make a self watering indoor seed starter: one 2 liter bottle, duct tape, cotton rope, scissors, sharpie and a 1/8 inch drill bit.

Remove the label off the bottle and rinse it out completely.

Draw a line with the sharpie marker7 inches up and around the whole bottle and cut along the line.

Put duct tape around the bottom half to create a lip for the top half to rest on, making it easier to remove the top half to refill the water.

Drill a hole in the bottle cap.

Run the 12 inch length of cotton rope through the hole of the cap. Be sure to tie a knot so the string won't pull through.

The bottom part of the sting hangs down in the water wicking it up into the soil of the top half of the bottle.

Be sure to use a good potting mix that will absorb the water and keep it moist for the seeds to germinate.

Fill the top half of the bottle about 2/3 of the way up. be sure that the cotton rope is evenly wrapped through the soil to help keep all the potting mix moist.

Once it is filled 2/3 of the way level the potting mix to add the seeds.

Today I am adding Cosmo seeds that I got for free at last years home and garden show.

Spread the seeds across the top of the potting mix, then add another 1/4 inch of potting mix on top of that.

Finally add the water to the bottom half up to the cap and put in a nice warm and sunny spot, then wait for the seeds to do their thing.

Dissappointing Home and Garden show

I thought going to the Indianapolis Home and Garden show would be motivating and give me some good ideas for this spring, especially since we are still buried under all the snow from last weeks blizzard. Instead it was the typical Home show booths that you see everywhere and almost nothing to do with the garden side of the home and garden show. There were about 20 booths selling rain gutter protectors, another 12 selling vinyl siding, the random tupperware or Mary Kay booth and the typical Billy Mays wanna-be selling some crap that nobody needs.

After wondering up and down the aisles for 45 minutes of pure disappointment we came across an older gentleman selling some really cool looking hummingbird feeders. I stopped to listen to his pitch, he explained all the benefits of the bird feeder, how it keeps ants and bees out of it, he hit it with a hammer to prove it was a quality product and even offered us a deal if we bought it from him today instead of buying it from his wife online at http://www.birdwatchers.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=LMBLSPOM&reference=/cgi-bin/shopper%3Fsearch%3Daction%26keywords%3Dhummingbirdfeeders%26searchstart%3D0%26template%3DTemplates/SearchResult.html.

It was a little more than I would normally spend for a bird feeder so I walked away and checked out the rest of the booths. After another 15 minutes of disappointment with people selling garage floor paint or the best cooking pan in the world, I went back to the bird feeder booth and bought one. The passion he had for his product and his sales pitch was good enough for me, now I can't wait till spring when all the hummingbirds come back to see if this feeder is as good as he said it was.

Please check out my kickstarter campaign!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1046199541/tightwad-garden-greenhouse

Top Ten Countries this year!

United States	1809
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Czech Republic	5

Where are my visitors from this week?

United States	149
Kuwait	10
Germany	2
Indonesia	2
China	1
United Kingdom	1

Veteran's Farm-a great idea

Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/TightwadGardener

please go to my Facebook page and click the "like" button, I only need 20 more people to like it.

Maybe this summer

Jingle bells

Took advantage of the 69 degree December weather and put up the lights and decorations tonight!

Bored!!!

I hate this time of the year!! Not in a Scrooge hating Christmas way, more like its a cold baron wasteland outside and there is nothing to grow or do right now. All my cuttings and plants I am saving for next year are in my greenhouse and only need some attention every now and then. My cloner is doing its thing out in the garage and doesn't need me to do anything to it.

I get lazy and fat this time of the year because I can't mow twice a week or go dig some holes in my yard. I just sit inside looking at gardening websites on my Ipad and wishing I lived somewhere that was sunny and 75 degrees year round so I wouldn't have to go through this every winter!

So I just look for inspiration and ideas until February comes around and I get into mad scientist mode and start growing all the things I grow, then after that last frost I can start digging, planting, mowing and burning off all that winter fat that I stored up!

Funny Dave Grohl

One of my favorite musicians out there today. Funny and talented guy.

No till gardening

Pruning knockout roses for winter

Cuttings and Cloners

Added a bunch of stuff from the yard to try out the new cloner I finally finished making last week. Figured I would try a little of everything I could find in the yard, Hybrid Tea Roses, Smoke Bush, Weigela, Arborvitae and a few others.

I pulled some cuttings that I started about 4 months ago and found that about 75% of them had a pretty good root system started. Above ground they looked like they were almost dead, but below ground they were very busy.

This is one of the Rose of Sharon cuttings I started 4 months ago, I transplanted them into a potting mix now that they had a good root system going,  Hopefully by the spring time I should have a good batch of plants to share with everyone.

Plant Cloner

Above is a plant cloner that you can buy at most hydroponic gardening stores, catalogs or online. The cost between $200 and $800 depending on how big of one you get, the one pictured above runs about $400.

This is the home made plant cloner that I made for $40. No, I didn't forget to add a zero. The tub was a clearance item at Target for $2, the pump I found on clearance for $20, the foam disc on top that hold the plants cast about $12 and the pvc pipes for the water manifold I made were roughly about $7.

You can see it in action here misting the inside container where the roots of the cuttings will form and hang down.

               

A New Look

Thought I would change things up a bit and try a new layout! I was trying to make it easier to navigate and look at older post with out having to search month by month. Let me know how you like the new look and if it is easier or needs to be trashed and start over.

New Facebook Page

http://www.facebook.com/TightwadGardener
Just created a new Facebook page for the Tightwad Garden blog to attract more visitors and get the word out. Please check it out and share with your friends and family.

Darwin Hybrid Red Tulip

Got another good deal yesterday, 50 Darwin Hybrid Red Tulips for $5! That is only 10 cents a bulb! The wife suggested we go to Menards because they had batteries on sale, so of course I couldn't pass up a chance to go and look for some good deals!

Since it was sunny and 75 degrees outside today, I got my Awesome Auger out and planted all 50 bulbs around the front Flower beds. Next spring I should have a nice combination of bright red tulips and pink and purple hyacinth bulbs blooming all over the front of the yard!

Red Canna Bulbs

Since it was a nice, sunny day and I had the day off I thought it would be the perfect day to dig up all my canna bulbs and get them ready for next spring. Since the Red Canna plant is a tropical plant you have to dig the bulbs up every fall and keep them in a nice dry and warm spot until it is warm enough next spring to plant them. Sounds like a pain to have to do all that work every year but the reward is these things multiply like crazy if planted in good enough soil. I started out with 6 bulbs that I got for free from my parents, they were growing them out behind their garage and looked really good. I planted mine the first year a little late so they didn't get as tall or bloom as good as they should have, but when I dug them up in the fall, instead of the six bulbs that I had planted I now had 30!

This Spring I planted all 30 bulbs, some were as small as a golf ball while others were the size of a baked potato. To my surprise all 30 came up this year and most of them looked really good. They averaged about 5-6ft tall and had these great looking redish pink blooms on the top. So today when I started digging up the plants, each one was loaded with more bulbs. I would guess that I now have between 200 and 300 bulbs in various sizes. A couple months ago I posted how Lowe's was selling the bulb's for $5 a piece and a single plant in a gallon pot for $15 each. Well I put my ad on craigslist advertising the bulbs for $2 a piece!! If anyone is interested in buying some, leave me a comment and I will send some your way!