Growing Tomatoes From Seed

So what is the best way to eat great organic veges all year long and slash the zeros on your grocery bill? Well growing your own food from seed is what I say. Have I ever tried it before? Well no. Do I know what I am doing? Certainly not! lol Here in lies the fabulous crux of the adventure. And here is where I begin.

It is week one and I have started off on my journey to grow these delicious antioxidant rich treats. I am using Burpee's Eco-friendly Seed Starting Kit. http://www.burpee.com Thanks Mom for the early Easter gift. I wasn't suppose to open it but I did, whoops. So whats great about this mini green house/seed starting kit is that the bamboo tray is 100% biodegradable after 6 months, the planting cells are compostable, the germination sheet (plastic doodad that you place on top until seeds germinate) is biodegradable and the fertilizer that comes with it is organic. Can you say rapture? Ok I will, rapture and pure bliss are all I can think of after opening this delightful Easter treasure. To boot she sent along the organic tomato seeds and marigolds so I can plant them next to the tomatoes and do a little companion planting.

Here is a link that gives examples of companion planting if you are interested in learning more. Just one small simple page of info put you will get the idea: http://www.ext.nodak.edu/county/cass/horticulture/vegetables/companion.htm

So enough about how excited I am. How is my progress and what have I learned?

Tip of the day:
So the little plastic doodad that I placed over top of my little precious almost germinating tomato seedlings to simulate a greenhouse effect as seen in the picture to the right.... Well, once you sow your seeds and thoroughly water them you are suppose to place this sheet over top and not remove it until you see the first signs of life. That means no watering.

So I watered once a day, did not leave the germination sheet on and I have quite a collection of a mold like substance all outside of the cells. I quickly removed the dangerous mold :) that is threatening to cause havoc on my yearly salsa supply, consulted my "Green Thumb Goddess" aka Mom, stopped my daily watering regimen and problem solved.

Aren't these little guys just adorable. More progress to follow but the steps to start your tomato plants from seeds using a seed starting kit are as follows:

1) Purchase your seed starting kit.

2) Add warm water to your "dirt balls".

3) Sow your seed into the dirt and water.

4) Cover with your germination sheet if one comes in your kit.

5) I placed mine in the window and under a desk lamp for about 16 hrs per day.

6) Once seeds have germinated water keep soil moist.

This is what has worked for me so far so we will see how it goes.

Ode to Roadside Assistance

Thank goodness for roadside assistance! One of the items on my list for 2009 is to keep better track of the families financial affairs and thereby save the family some mulla. We could definitely benefit from a better organizational system when it comes to the "papers" we have lying around in every nook and cranny in the house. So in January of this year I reevaluated our level of coverage for our auto insurance as my first act of thrifty financial responsibility. We were quoted $150 to have our poor little Saturn towed to our good friend Ray's place of business for repairs. With a quick check to our auto insurance policy we discovered that we pay $15 per year to have roadside assistance on our policy. This covers running out of gas, $100 per incident if you need to be towed and $30 a day for transportation if our vehicle is in an accident and is unfortunately unable to be among the living. So now that we saved ourselves the $150 we must decide if the $15 a year is worth it. Hmmm. For now we think it is great and are very thankful for the wise decision. Go mama!

As a side note... Thanks to taking our business to a friend we trust we saved a boat load of money by not making costly and unnecessary repairs and he also made sure we didn't pay three times extra to get a part quicker.

Here are some tips I learned from this experience:

1) Ask for a list of repairs that need to be made but ask for your mechanic to prioritize them in the following manner. Required Repairs (the ones you have to have to get good old Martha home), Strongly Recommended and Related to the Issue Repairs, Strongly Recommended but not Related to the Issue Repairs and Recommended as Preventative Maintenance.

2) Also ask if there will be a discount on labor if any of the repairs are paired together. For us we combined replacing our cooling system and replacing the timing belt and saved $300 on labor as opposed to if we would have waited to come back and have it replaced. We are at 120,000 miles so the timing belt was sure to go soon. Glad we took care of that one.

3) If you can afford to wait a day or two you may save money on parts. Let your mechanic know that you don't mind waiting for the least expensive way to get your part. Some mechanics will pay up to 3 or 4 times the amount a part would normally cost just to get your car fixed earlier. You may initially be pleased with the quick turn around but not so pleased with the bottom line.

4) Take advantage of public transportation instead of renting a vehicle. This can save you $30-$40 dollars a day.

5) Ask them for the bottom line and then tell them what you can afford. Bargain with the mechanic? Why yes, you heard me bargain with them. We do it almost everywhere else, why not at Firestone? You will be surprised how much money you will save yourself by just being honest. They will come up with all sorts of ways to cut the costs..just try it.