From an Expert

How to harden off your seedlings. Your indoor seedlings will suffer a major setback if placed directly into the garden. Scorched plants will turn white or brown. Any that are not directly killed, will definitely suffer and growth will be stunted. Cool nights and high winds can also affect your delicate shoots. A week to ten days before your planting...

Damping-Off Your baby plants come up and all is well. Then the stem gets a pinched appearance right at the soil line, the seedling flops over, and the whole thing soon withers and dies. Damping-off can be a problem for even the most experienced seed starters and is probably the single biggest problem for gardeners who start their seedlings indoors...

If you live in an apartment or it is freezing and bitter outside, you can still garden under lights. The extra light and the growing plants help to take away the winter blues. Even if you don’t have a store-bought stand one can be made with a cast-off fixture, some cedar or treated lumber, screws, nails and cords. The best...