Photo: Great grandparents at their farm in Blandinsville, IL, with five of their six children .. my grandpa was yet a twinkle in grandma's eye. Stable boy and governess also pictured. Hodges farm, circa 1903-4

Sunday, February 22, 2009




Recycling for the garden. I've been collecting odds and ends to use for the garden. Empty toilet/paper towel tubes, plastic take home salad containers, paper egg cartons, yogurt cups, and dryer lint to name a few. Also the compost bin is filling up with veggie and fruit scraps, along with said lint, and strips of newspaper. In another day, this bin will be finding a dumping off spot in the back forty under a tree that has some dirt poking through the snow. The top two pictures show my tomato, petunia, and marigold seeds that I've planted using household 'trash'. I also discovered that my oven's lowest setting for proofing yeast bread makes to perfect temperature for germinating seeds (75-85 F) ... so don't be alarmed seeing my starter trays in the oven :). Let's just hope I don't forget about them and accidentally turn the oven on ;) After they sprout and get a bit bigger, the plan is to make little biodegradable pots from newspaper to plant them in while they continue to grow indoors.

Bottom photo: indoor compost bin. this gets dumped in a old kitchen waste basket mixed with newspapers just out the back door and later dumped again onto bare soil.

3 comments:

donna said...

working on my seeds also...this willl be my first year (in a very long time) that I am starting from seed...and am excited for the results...

Maggie Ann said...

Oh boy, this is great stuff you've got going! I'm hoping to get some seeds started this Friday or Sat. It really depends if I can find the seed-starter soil. It can be hard to find around our area. Thanks for sharing your great ideas...I'm now saving my tp rolls to use also. Wish I'd saved the take-home containers...I've never seen ones with the clear lids though. I have used to top of the fridge for starting seeds in time past. Your oven sounds wonderful, the lowest mine goes is 170.... You know what? I couldn't find the directions for the newpaper pots. I did yield to temptation and buy a pkg of seeds and pots at the drug store. Have a nice day..hope you are having sunshine too!

Deb said...

At first glance, I thought that top photo was a pan of meatballs ---and now to hear that you're putting them in the oven...don't confuse them, for sure! We have a huge compost pile on our "back 40" too --makes for great gardening!