How to Grow a Tomato Plant From Seed!

Imagine if every time you wanted fresh tomatoes for your salad or taco, or wanted a healthy tomato snack, they were one walk to your backyard away! Last year, my family planted a couple tomato plants along our back fence and they turned out great! And if you have extra tomatoes, give then away to your neighbors- because who doesn't appreciate garden-grown food! Alright, let's get to it!

 

Step 1: Get your seeds!

Almost every gardening store sells tomato seeds, and you can get them on Amazon as well. Choose your favorite type of tomato- or plant a variety! Or, if you are looking for a cheaper alternative, dig some seeds out of those cherry tomatoes sitting in the fridge. 

Step 2: Plant them!

The next step is to plant your seeds. The best way to do that is to plant the seeds in a pot, then transfer them outside once they are bigger. Fill the pot with soil, and place your seeds 1/4 inch below the soil. The more seeds you plant, the better of a chance you have to get a tomato plant, but don't crowd the pot. You can also use an egg carton to put the seeds in, which I posted about last spring. Then, water the seed lightly. 

Step 3: Wait.

Your seeds will start sprouting after about one week. Remember to always keep the soil moist to the touch. Once your little green shoots spring up, wait until one is bigger and stronger than the rest, and remove all others from the pot. Continue watering.

Step 4: Transfer the plant.

Once your plant is 4-5 inches tall, and the average temperature outside at night is 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit, it is safe to move your plants outside! This will allow them better access to sun. Find a spot in direct sunlight, and dig a hole. Carefully remove your tomato plant from the pot. It is fine if all the dirt comes with it, as long as your hole is big enough! Place the plant in the hole and fill it back in with soil. Pat down the dirt and give your plant a little water.

Step 5: Wait- again.

Continue checking on your plant. If there has been no rain in a while, or you think your plant is drooping, water it. Pretty soon you'll start to see yellow flowers start to appear! These are the tomato blossoms. If you look close enough, you might even start to see tiny green balls! Those are the baby tomatoes!

Step 6: Harvest!

When the green tomatoes turn soft and red, or yellow based on what kind you planted, it's time to eat them! Make sure the whole tomato is red, then gently pull it off the stem. If you took care of your plant correctly, you should have plenty of ripe tomatoes in no time! Yum!

Natural Wonders

 Hello! Today I have four amazing pictures of nature for you... as well as a bit about each location!

1) Lake Tahoe-- Lake Tahoe is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and is the largest alpine lake in North America. It is also the second deepest lake at a depth of 1,645 ft.

2) Havasu Falls-- Havasu Falls is a waterfall in Arizona, located in the Grand Canyon! It is the most visited waterfall along Havasu Creek.

3) Hallerbos Forest-- Hallerbos Forest is a forest in Belgium covering 1,360 acres of land. Every spring for a couple of weeks, bluebell flowers form a carpet on the forest ground.

4) Vinicunca Mountain-- Vinicunca Mountain, also called Rainbow Mountain, is a spectacular mountain in Peru. It's vibrant stripes are caused by mineral composition and weathering.

I hope those four photos brought a smile to your day, because they certainly brought one to mine! Nature is full of natural wonders like these, and it was so fun to choose which ones to post!

Silk Art!!

I have been exploring some fun websites... and found this one!! 

http://weavesilk.com/ 

Using your mouse, you can make art using "silk"!

You can change the color and number of lines of symmetry, and it is so mesmerizing! 

Here is one that I made...

Cleave

Hello! Sorry I have not posted in a while, I have been very busy with homework this year! Anyway, today I have a very weird word to share with you. Cleave. Cleave is one of my favorite words, and you will soon find out why. So, like I said, Cleave is a unusual word. Cleave can mean to bind or stick together, but also to split apart. Words like cleave are called contranyms, because they are their own opposites. Cleave is an interesting word to add to your vocabulary! 

Naomi's Five Favorite Books

My cousin Naomi sent me her top 5 books for my blog, so here they are!

1. Harry Potter (the whole series) - J.K. Rowling 

2. The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins

3. The Key to Extraordinary - Natalie Lloyd

4. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

5. The Watsons Go to Birmingham - Christopher Paul Curtis

If you would be interested in having your 5 favorite books listed on one of my posts, like Willa and Naomi, just email me or leave a comment saying you'd be interested. I hope you found a new book to read!

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

Here is a quick recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies that's fun and easy to make for a dessert or snack.

Ingredients:

2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Milk
1 stick (8 tbs) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 cups Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
1 Tbsp pure Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Kosher Salt

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

2. Bring the sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa powder to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, then let the mixture boil for a minute. Then, turn off the heat and add the oats, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt, stirring to combine.

3. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheet, letting it sit at room remperature until cool and hardened. You can refrigerate them in a air-tight container. Best within three days.

Enjoy these homeade treats!

SpaceX Launch

Today at 4:33, SpaceX is launching astronauts into space! Check out this link to learn more!

Quarantine Photo

Okay... Quarantine has been hard on us all. We all want to see our friends and family. This fun quarantine photo can make it seem like you are together again. First, go to Zoom. (I think you could also do it on any other video call app that you can have a virtual background) Then invite one of your friends to the call. Have one of you take a screenshot of the other person on one half of their screen while they are in active speaker view, like this. We used our stuffed animals.

Now, have the other person (the owl, in this example) go in front of a solid colored background and set your virtual background to the photo of the other person. Arrange yourself in front of the camera so you take up the other half of the screen, making sure you are the same size (change this by backing up or getting closer) and that you look like you are next to each other. Have one of you double tap on the person with the virtual background so they are fullscreened, it can be either of you, and take a screenshot. You can then crop the screenshot until it doesn't look like it was taken in zoom. Make sure you send it to the other person! In the end, it should look something like this:

Have fun with it! You can try as many different poses and faces as you want, and you could maybe even try more than two people in it! Hopefully this was a fun thing to try, and made you less bored and lonely.