It’s a real trick to get your tomato seeds to turn into seedlings ready for the garden. Once you notice that your seeds have germinated you need to get them to a reliable source of light. Most intent tomato farmers use fluorescent lights or grow lights 12 to 16 hours a day. But if you’re cheap like me, you don’t fancy cranking up your electric bill or spending money on fancy light bulbs, then you have to learn how to get natural light onto your seedling.

So it’s time for a walk around your house. Take note of the windows that get the most sunlight. It may be tempting to cut down a tree or two, but I don’t recommend that as a good environmental practice either. Once you’ve sussed out which window gets the best light, check it for any drafts. I’ve actually put some clear plastic barrier on my favorite garden window to let in the light but keep out the draft. You see, if a cold draft hits your delicate seedlings after you’ve watered them, then it’s a surefire recipe for a fungal infection.

After you’ve set your tomato seedlings in your best sun window, you’ll have to turn them at least once a day. Plants turn toward the sun and you want all parts to get their nutrients and you want the plant to grow straight.

I’m a very emotional gardener and I get very excited when I see the first “leaves” on my seedling. But deep down I know they’re not true leaves but something called cotyledons. You have to wait for the second set of leaves to transplant your seedlings into the garden – or in my case a cold frame. Your seedlings will be about two inches high. It’s best not to rush this phase. You want your tomato seedlings to be strong before you send them out into the world.

It’s always a warm sunny and optimistic day when I put the tomato seedlings from the cold frame into the garden proper. I know that in a few short weeks I’ll have ripe and sweet tomatoes, ready to be turned into spaghetti sauce in the pressure cooker pot. That wonderful smell of perfectly ripe tomatoes simmering with the also fresh garden herbs of basil and oregano is well worth the effort. Make your own whole grain pasta and you’ll know why you take the time to be so involved with your own food. It just tastes better!

When looking for the best organic vegetarian Pre-Natal Vitamins to contribute to your healthy pregnancy, it can be difficult to wade through the increasingly more complex options provided by vegetarian vitamin providers.

Your pre-natal vitamin selection is likely to be the most important nutrition choice you make during your pregnancy.

As it will be taken daily for as long as a year, making a well informed decision is crucial.

What is Organic

Important Facts about organic labeling

The first thing to keep in mind when reading the labels on your vitamins is that many labeling terms have no backing, they are pointless marketing blather.

If your food or vitamins say “natural,” that means nothing, Zero, nadda, zilch. Anyone can call anything natural. 

Organic is a certified label, in order or to use the organic term, an item must be USDA certified as coming from a farm that uses 100% NOP procedures.

What does raw mean?

In relation to vitamin labeling, raw is used to describe elements that are unprocessed and free of preservatives. Studies how that preservative free vitamins are broken down easier by the body and that many have mild allergies to traditional preservatives that can decrease the absorbability of their pre-natal vitamin selection.

What makes the vitamin, vegetarian? 

Traditionally, Vitamins are encased in gelatin. Vegetarian vitamins are free of gelatin and do not use minerals derived from animal processing plants.

To many people, the axe may seem a rather outdated tool, or even medieval. Visions of marauding vikings with horns spring to mind. Of course there will be collectors with a historical bent who long to possess a reproduction viking axe so they can look like Harald Hardrada at the battle of Stamford Bridge. But some of us just need an axe to get a simple job done – chopping firewood for the stove.

Although the chainsaw has taken over from the axe in the field of commercial logging, an axe has become more popular amongst people who want a quieter alternative and are quite happy to expend some good old fashioned energy to get those logs chopped. The problem is that many of us are a bit mystified when it comes to choosing the right type of axe. But doing a little research can pay huge dividends as there are plenty of resources on the net to help you and reduce the risk of handing over your dollars, yen or pounds and buying a dud product. Tips on buying the best axe abound.

There is a fascinating history to axe manufacture, whatever country you live in. Some companies, particularly in the United States and in Scandinavia, have been around for a very long time. With the advent of power tools, they have had their ups and downs and, in some cases, near bankruptcy. There seem to have been two routes these companies followed to stay in business. One is to return to high end axe manufacture using very traditional methods.

This has proved to be an excellent marketing method, with buyers looking for a high quality axe with a tradition behind it. The Swedish company Gransfors Bruks has successfully followed this route and their axes are highly praised by knowledgeable users. Some American manufacturers have followed in their footsteps and are making high quality hatchets and axes along historical lines alongside the cheaper mass produced product.

Another route is to redesign the axe and produce a highly effective modern tool using the latest methods and materials. An example is the highly popular Fiskars Super Splitting Axe. A well designed teflon coated head is fixed immovably to a practically unbreakable handle made of composite material. Although light in weight, it is more effective at wood splitting than many heavier traditional models.