Mandolls, you have a great setup, and you sure do get a lot of wonderful plants from what you're doing. I plan to get some grow lights. You're inspiring me. Kiskin, and Janna, do you have any tips about propagating from cuttings? Tishtosh, do you cloche them with soda bottles? Or in milk bottles? When it comes to winter sewing, would you put your plants on a second story deck, or on the ground? Would they get colder on the deck do you think? Sprout, I got a vision of you/me slamming on the brakes, running up to some stranger's house and collecting seeds. Made me lol. I think you meant you got all the seeds from your own yard? So how do you sow your seeds? Grow lights indoors?

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You don't need to purchase pots or cups to start your seeds either. I recyle soda bottles, any kind of plastic container that food items come in, paper towel and toilet paper rolls for sowing seeds of plants that dislike transplanting (just plant the entire roll, soil, and seeds in the. ground, or a pot Sometimes nurseries and garden centers will sell you their discarded black nursery pots for el cheapo. For seed starter mix, you can buy a big bag of milled sphagnum moss and mix half and half with perlite. You can get a bag (3 cubic feet or so) of peat, and the same for perlite, at American Plant Products. They are wholesale but will sell to public if you call in advance and tell them you can't find source at local garden centers. This will make a ton of seed starting mix. It won't have fertilizer or starter growth ferts in it like the seed starting mixes sold at garden centers and such, but you don't need it to get your seeds to germinate. You can then fertilize with a diluted water soluble fert. Other pot suggestions: plastic see-thru to-go containers. For instance, I got a Sundae to go at Braum's today and it came in a clear, domed container that I will wash and use for seeds. You can make a seedling flat out of the waxed cardboard boxes that fruit arrives in at the market. They will part with them for nothin. The waxed coating will prevent the cardboard from getting wet and deteriorating long enough e to start some plants in. Clean these or wipe down with a cloth in 10:1 bleach/water solution. Always make sure you have drainage holes in the bottom, and a few holes in lids, too. You can get tons of other stuff from APP in larger amounts and for much cheaper than it is sold retail. Use old blinds cut up for making plant labels, or I have also used the larger size popsicle sticks with a sharpie or pencil. You'll probably have to figure out something different for when they go into the garden if use the wooden popsicle sticks, tho. Right now is a good time to start looking at the curbside trash for items like blinds, buckets and other containers, etc. to be converted to garden use. If you need veggie seeds, I've got tons I will give to you. I got several last year from Seeds of Change and I will never use them. They include beans, eggplant, corn, cukes, sunflowers, cilantro, peas, and so much more. If you want them, they are yours. I never used any of them. Plus I have tomato and papper seeds and many other vegetable seeds from last year, too, a few used from the packs, and some unopened packs. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: American Plant Products

Be aware of upcoming holidays for all religions and cultures. People entertain more for them and supermarkets will use some ingredients that would be part of a typical holiday meal as loss leaders to entice shoppers to go there and purchase the fixings for the entire meal. Most pumpkin pie recipes use evaporated milk so about two weeks before Thanksgiving, some store will feature it at the lowest price of the year. I'll buy two cases to last until the next year. Same with sauerkraut at New Year's time, ketchup, mustard and other condiments the week before Memorial Day and brown sugar and vanilla extract during the first week of December. After holidays, grocery stores usually drastically reduce items they've brought in or overstocked for the holiday. Some are food, like extra flavors of Fox's U-Bet syrups for Passover or ribbon candy for Christmas but the non-food items can be great bargains. Examples of items purchased at 75% off or more currently in our household: zip lock sandwich bags with black cats or pumpkins on them, red and green disposable plastic lidded containers sold at Christmastime, yellow plastic wrap from Easter, at least a dozen two-packs of heart shaped foil pans with plastic lids from Valentines Day and used for bake sales throughout the year, flag motif cupcake pan liners from 4th of July. It's a quick process after holidays though. The grocery stores around here usually go straight to half price the day after the holiday and 75% off on whatever's left late on the 2nd day or early on the 3rd.