2022 Spring Home and Garden

Page 24 2022 Spring Home and Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April / May 2022 2022 Spring Home and Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April / May 2022 Page 25 plants from seed is rewarding and economical T here are many people in Lincoln and Logan County who will recognize this flower garden instantly because they have made a habit of driving by this place every year to see the myriad of colorful plant life that suddenly appears around the first of June and flourishes until freezing weather each year. The gardener behind this array, Richard Smith, says that every year people drive buy and check out the flowers. Some stop and visit if he is out in the yard, which he is most of the time. They wander among the flowers and ask about different plants. What seems to surprise people the most he says is when he tells them that 90 percent of what they are seeing are annuals that die out when cold weather arrives, and about 90 percent of those annuals are grown from seed by Smith. Frankly, he says that if he was buying plants each year, there is no way he would be able to afford to have this many. But because he enjoys growing plants, and has space to do his own seeding and grow rooms, he saves a lot of money by starting with seeds in February and March and growing healthy plants to set out when the weather warms up. He also does this with vegetables such as his tomatoes and peppers. If readers are interested in giving this a try. Smith says it takes time, and when just starting out a little more cash, but as you accumulate some of the equipment needed,it gets to the point when all one needs to purchase isgood potting mix, a soluble fertilizer and garden seed. CONTINUED u