Getting Ready for the New Gardening Season

So this year as in years past, I have learned some lessons from the past and am also applying some new lessons I've gotten from fellow gardeners.  First of all, I have to clean up all the algae that love to feed on my liquid fertilizer.

My attitude towards algae is the same I feel towards any other weed sapping up all my plants' nutrients.

In order to conserve water -- since that's all I'll be using to wash away the build up -- I use these pressure gallons to "power wash" away the grimey stuff.

This solution is not just good for algae build up.  It also helps with any other pressure washing I need around the outside of the house.  And there's no gas or electricity involved.

Since there's always a little residue left over after power washing, I tend to leave the trays outside in the sun to dry out the rest of the algae. Without water to feed them, they won't survive very long.

Although a bit more expensive, I like these self-watering pots I purchased several years ago.  They hold up very well and since the water is shielded from the sun, there is virtually no algae build up at all.

I have some extra water collection trays that I alternate year by year.

And of course, the plants love the fresh new water!

Proving the Pros Right

If you remember from a previous post, I was able to harvest the soil from some church poinsettias.  Here is the "fruit" of that labor. I will be using this to pot up my tomato seedlings from the seed starting tray. 

As I've said before, "waste not, want not."  So I always try to set up all the soil transfer on a spare tray in order to reuse any spilled soil. 

Of course, we all know by now that when potting up tomato seedlings, make sure to bury them deeper in order to promote more root growth and therefore a stronger plant. 

I've wrestled over and over again over whether or not to purchase a greenhouse for my plants. Among some of the reasons I haven't yet and probably won't are the expense and the hurricanes ruining that investment. 

So instead, I have purchased these relatively inexpensive Rubbermaid totes to do the same thing. If these get ruined, it won't break the bank to replace them.

 So here is where the title of this post comes to play. I thought I would be able to just start setting out my seedlings as soon possible, but the experienced gardeners are correct. The seedlings grown indoors are just too delicate for the intense sun and wind. 

But as soon as I put them inside, they perked right up.