Planting Seeds Indoors under Fluorescent Lights

After you've made your indoor plant light, another helpful publication from Utah State Extension Service is this: Starting Transplants at Home.

Plant Light Frame

Spring is the time of year that we who live in colder climates want to start tender plants indoors so they'll be ready to plant outdoors in our gardens in a month or two.
Here is a drawing of a good durable inexpensive plant light you can make at home. It takes a total of about 29 feet of PVC pipe. It cost me just a little over $14.00, including tax, for the supplies. I didn't buy PVC cement for the joints because I may want to take it apart and store it when I'm not using it. I used petroleum jelly on the connectors instead.

Indoor Light Garden Construction

I found these instructions at Utah State University Cooperative Extension. http://extension.usu.edu/htm/publications/ Just to the left of the word "publications" in the Google search bar, type "indoor light garden construction." Click on the first search result and you'll find the detailed instructions in a PDF file.

Cloth-covered Easter basket without Easter Grass

When my children were small, I put Easter grass in their Easter baskets, but it was messy. I decided to make cloth covers instead. I used leftover scraps of fabric I already had, or you can buy cute Easter patterns.

Easter Basket without Easter Grass, cloth cover

Cut fabric out leaving plenty of room to sew a 1/4 inch hem to finish raw edges. Use buttons, Velcro or snaps to close the holes around the handles. Slip a scrap of quilt batting between the fabric and the basket (optional) to give the fabric a little cushion.

The best thing about these cloth covers is that they can be washed after the kids have eaten all their candy. I usually washed them just before Easter the next year so the candy could be put into a clean cloth cover. No more Easter grass mess!

How to Hydrate Wilted Leaf Lettuce

Green Leaf Lettuce Before and After Soaking

I was at our local grocery store trying to buy leaf lettuce (romaine, green leaf, red leaf, etc.) but everything was wilted. I bought some green leaf lettuce, sliced off all the bottom stems one inch or so with a sharp knife, and put the freshly cut stems down into a couple of inches of water in a large bowl, as if they were cut flowers. I loosely covered them with plastic wrap, refrigerated for about 5 hours and, voila!, the lettuce was not wilted anymore. It was crispy as if just picked.

After it's crispy, take it out of the water, blot off the wet stems with a paper towel and put back in the fridge.