California Plants

After more than 25 years of gardening, I’ve got to suggest 5 top products that almost any gardener can really use. I know these items are very useful for most gardeners I know. To me, a product has to be well built, useful, and have top reviews. These gardening products all fit these specifications.

1. Red wiggler worms can be bought here. I’m my case, I just needed one set of red wiggler worms to start. They have multiplied over the months and years. These red, wiggly worms are great for indoor or outdoor worm composting. Yes, a person can buy a worm composting unit (here is our favorite worm composter), or also make one with a plastic container or big pot. Kitchen scraps are broken down over months by the worms and compost is made. We don’t need to buy compost in our garden these days due to quite a few sets of red wiggler worms making their magic.
2. A great motion activated sprinkler can be bought here. These are not cheap, but then again to keep dogs, squirrels, birds, or other animals off your grass or garden it is an effective, safe solution. One route is to keep trying cheap solutions, or to just go ahead and do something easier and more effective, which is this.
3. A spectacular composter can be bought here. Some nice things about a composting unit such as this is that it will be around for years, it has three stages, and it makes a good amount of compost.
4. A reliable cordless grass shear can be bought here. These are so useful. Of course a string trimmer can be used for big areas, and hand weeding can be used for tight areas. But, so many areas can be trimmed with this cordless unit. It is very useful for a home gardener.
5. A very affordable, compact home grow light system can be purchased here. The great thing about this unit is that for the price, you get a lot. You can grow seeds, cuttings, or regular plants with this. I especially like it as testing new growing techniques is easy with this system. Since it is so affordable, it it not meant to compete with systems that cost hundreds of dollars. It is what it is, a great priced system that works!

The California Plants Discussion Forum is now live! Click here to either go there and learn, ask questions, or share information to help others. Indoor plants, outdoor plants, shrubs, trees, and more are discussed.

The pink poppy in the photo below is about three and a half feet in height. Because I’ve grown this poppy in good compost rich soil, and only watered it every 2-3 weeks, it has become more drought tolerant. It gets about 3/4 a day of sunlight. Without a full day of sunlight it stretched up high to reach the sun at various times. This is our favorite poppy seed.

Tall Pink Poppy

Here are the steps to create a seed starting rack for your home. Creating this seed starting system doesn’t require much effort at all.

1. Purchase a wire rack. You can get this at a kitchen store, restaurant supply store, Costco, or another store. Ensure it has casters so it can roll. Ensure the shelves are adjustable.
2. Buy fluorescent tube grow lights or shop lights, with one warm and one cool bulb.
3. Hang shop lights from the rack shelves. Use the chains they come with.
5. Get a seed starter kit from any local home improvement store. Or just get a tray and punch holes in the bottom.
6. Use a soiless mixture for these seeds as new seedlings like a light and airy mix. Pre moisten the mixture in a bag before using it.
7. Don’t plant your seeds too deep. Just plant them about 1/2 centimeter deep, pressing into the mix.
8. Put a layer of sphagnum moss on top of your mix to prevent the seeds from dying overnight from damping off.
9. Optional: put a plastic dome on top of your seed tray so it acts as a greenhouse to give seeds a moist environment to sprout. Remove this dome once the seeds sprout.
10. Note that seedlings need 10-12 hours of light per day. You can use a timer so no there is no need to worry when the lights will come on. Keep the light close to your seedlings.
11. You can move the lights as close as possible as the seedlings grow.
12. Don’t forget to water the mix so it does not dry out at any time.
13. Once seedlings have grown 3 sets of new leaves it is time to be fed.
14. You can water with a soluble fertilizer at 1/2 strength so the plants feed themselves.
15. Pant seedlings in peat pots so when the weather is right they can go right into your garden - learn how to plant them with high density gardening here.