How Does Your Garden Grow? Seedling Planting

Start Seedlings Indoors

Posted by Gloria Vargo
There's nothing like a lush garden to improve your home's curb appeal. An established flower garden or vegetable garden can actually add value to your home and property. For many regions, now is the time to begin planning your garden strategy.
In cooler climates it's a good idea to start some vegetables and flowers indoors. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Don't start your plants indoors too soon. If you are new to the area, research the traditional date range for the last spring frost and plan accordingly.

2. Eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplants, leeks, head lettuce, and onions are just a few of the vegetables that will benefit from an early start indoors.

3. Flowers slow to mature can also be planted indoors in order to make the green thumb next door green with garden envy. Some of these include impatiens, petunias, snapdragons, and fibrous begonias.

4. Be careful not to start plants with sensitive roots indoors. Vegetables such as peas, beans, corn, and sweetpeas like to settle in to their summer homes and not be disturbed. You can stunt the growth of these by replanting them after they have already taken root.

5. Reuse containers each year, but keep your indoor planting containers clean. Commercial flats can be used over and over and they usually come with trays to catch runaway water.

6. Try a mixture of vermiculite, perlite, and peat moss for seed starting. It's easy to overwater indoor starts and rot their roots. Make sure your seedlings have plenty of air circulation, a warm (but not hot) environment (70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit is just about right), and plenty of strong light.

7. Don't overcrowd seeds. Encourage them to grow freely by giving them plenty of room.

8. Don't let containers and plant medium dry out completely, but don't over water them either.

9. Label and date containers. You could forget what you planted, and when you planted it!

10. Gradually toughen plants so they can survive drying winds and changing temperatures. Brush your hand gently across them daily. As they get older, consider using a fan do simulate wind for a few hours every day.

If you're looking for a home with a beautiful garden spot, contact me today!
We're your area real estate specialists.
214-789-1076 Your Community Realtor Gloria Vargo

Great News for First Time Home Buyers

Congress has passed the extension of the $8,000 First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit. Extention is until April 30 of 2010, with an additional two months, until June 30th to close. The new legislation increased the income limits for couples up to $225,000.

Current homeowners have been added to the credit. A$6,500 maximum credit will be available if they lived in their home for five of the prior eight years. Limited eligibility and a limit of $800,000.

Legislation will take effect December 1 and is not retroactive.

Go to www.realestateeconomywatch.com for more information.

Ballot 2009 Texas Constitutional Amendment

If you are confused about a couple of the amendments that are on next week's ballot - especially those regarding property taxes. A friend of mine found the information on this link below to be very informative.

State Representative Hochberg's Guide to the 2009 Texas Constitutional Amendments Source: scotthochberg.com

http://scotthochberg.com/amends.html

Still True Today

This Poem inspires me. When I just started working a co-worker had a large poster of this poem at her desk. I would read it every time I visited her department. Oh, how true this still is!

All I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten
from "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten : Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things" by Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand box at nursery school.

These are the things I learned. Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are food for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out in the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why. We are like that.

And then remember that book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK! Everything you need to know is there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology, and politics and the sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put thing back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

New Listing

New Listing

TEXAS... the Perfect Storm of Opportunity and Growth

Texas is the place to be. That is not just my opinion. Dallas / Fort Worth - Austin -Houston make up Texaplex the fastest growing area of our Country. Did you know that half of all new jobs created in the US were in Texas?

Take the time to watch the YouTube Video and visit their site at www.texaplex.com

Let me know what you think of the video. If you know of someone wanting to move to Texas please give them my name. We have relocation packages that will help them every step of the way!


Now spread the word: "TEXAS...the perfect storm of opportunity and Growth" (David Winans)


Gloria Vargo
Relocation Specialist