Small Space Gardening Tips in Chicagoland

What happens when you endure an unusually long, cold winter and finally the weather starts to turn the corner toward spring? Right! Pull out the short sleeves, seeds and plant — of course.

I was fortunate enough to find myself in Chicago to kick-off the growing season and celebrate Earth Day. What an adventure — giving live TV a first go and working with amazing people. Expanding the GROW WHAT YOU LOVE community and sharing a few simple tips to get our gardens started was invigorating, to say the least, and a huge honor.

The clips themselves will be active for a few weeks at best, so watch them while you can. If you’re reading this months after the fact, here are the basics.

Small Space Gardening Tips

I started writing my blog in part because people often come to me and say, “I’d like to grow a garden, I just don’t know where to begin.” My typical response is with 3 tips: start small, keep it simple and GROW WHAT YOU LOVE.

Starting your garden from seed using homemade seedling pots is one idea for getting your garden started. And growing a garden from seed means you have more choices. You’re not limited to the varieties at your nursery, you can select the flowers you love for your cutting garden or those amazing, hard-to-find tomatoes you can’t live without.

And newspaper seedling pots are like the ultimate recycling project. You can make them from things you already have at home and when your seedlings are ready to go out to the garden they can transplanted, newspaper pots and all, because the newspaper is biodegradable. Plus they’re great for starting seeds indoors, allowing you to optimize your growing season. It’s a win-win all around.

Watch the following clips and my short, DIY video to see how it’s done. It’s easy and fun.

Fox 32 Chicago & WCIU You & Me This Morning TV Clips

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/clip/11419869/homemade-seedling-pots

http://www.wciu.com/videos/youandme/diy-gardening-at-home

How to Make Paper Pots for Starting Seeds

http://passthepistil.wpengine.com/making-paper-pots-for-starting-seeds/

In the end, the biggest take away is as always, GROW WHAT YOU LOVE. If we all start here just think what we can do.

Thank you Chicago, WCIU and Fox 32!