Mineral deficiencies - a homepage

Mineral deficiency. No one wants that - it weakens the plant and makes it vulnerable to other diseases and pests. If you grow stuff in containers or hydrocultures it's particurlary important to be able to diagnose it, since you can't count on Mother Earth to provide what's needed via the soil. And since Mother Earth sometimes can be pretty tight-fisted I think we all can benefit from this homepage

Color Pictures of Mineral Deficiencies in Plants

Thanks to Parkettmaken (the Indoor Gardener Hubby) who found the link!

Another thing about winter...

... is that my lust for gardening is hibernating. I look at my tufty containers and my dried out precultivations and instead of feeling that rush of
"Hi ho, lets go, clean this up!"
I think
"Meh."

Winter

You won't stand free from seasonal changes, even when you are growing stuff indoors under plant lights (as I said before). My lemon balm growth has slowed down to a fourth of the summer pace. On the other hand its leaves are much darker.

Quick update

The tigernuts and the sciriadaes have regained strength in almost equal pace. I've sown some more garlic to fend them of (the sciriadaes, I mean), they keep diminishing as long as I put fresh chopped garlic or garlic leaves on the soil.

A one week paus...

...for business planning. Will be back next Monday.

Gah! Yet another batch of dead seedlings!

Oh well, the seedlings died as soon as they sprouted. I suspect a combination of bad light and lack of interest to be fatal. (Who wants to water something that doesn't grow?) Should I give up my attempts to pregrow plants in special little pots? When I think of the fact that I'm fully able to get plants when I sow directly into normal soil I am tempted to change policy. But I still want to learn to pregrow plants.

Harumpf! I'm going to the library tomorrow. I'll borrow a book on precultivation - a good one. In the meantime I'll water my seedlings, it looks like the common purslane is still alive...

It's blooming!

The calamondin! The buds are opening! And there are loads of them! Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah!

That's MY blog!

This spring I reviewed a new swedish gardening/interior design magazine called Rosie. I did subscribe to it too, since I liked it. Now, a few days ago the last issue arrived. I flip through it in that semiconsiuos stage the parent of a toddler experience in the evening. Today I finally read the copy. To be honest I had a plan to plug my blog by sending a letter to the editor and include my url in the text.

Someone else had already done that. (Do read her blog if you know swedish.)

"Dang." I thought and was about to go on with my chores when this huge, praising citation printed in orange on the letters page caught my eye. There was a reference, with url, to Parkettodlaren (the swedish version of Indoor Gardener)!

Now I'll lean back and enjoy my fifteen minutes of fame before I go back to my plants. For you I'll sample my tips for the season, enjoy!

• Extra light
  
• Selfwatering containers
  
• Chopped garlic on the soil to scare away the sciriadae
  
• Common purslane survives most mishaps and you can harvest it for a long period of time.
  
• Sprouts (if you are not oversensitive to them - I am, but the sprouts are in general a great indoor crop)
  

(You can buy the picture as a poster or on a mug in my Cafe Press shop btw.)