Our “little bit average” Ozzie presenter, the same guy who took us through the basics of tomato growing in a previous video — without telling us a whole lot — now takes us to the suburban garden of a friend to show us — a distant tomato plant in a pot. This is a cunning way of showing us that we can grow tomato plants in a pot at home. Just in case we didn’t get it, he told the audience: “You can grow a tomato plant in a pot at home.” An interesting little bit of wisdom did come out of the video though. You don’t do anything to plants except water them until they start flowering. Just stake it as it grows. That’s it.

This video is a punt for an electronic product called Rapitest. Although it’s an advert it is well worth the 1 min, 26 seconds it take to watch it. It is interesting to learn that a small electronic device can tell you this much about the environment in which you have planted or are planning to plant lawns, shrubs, flowers trees and even plants in containers.

As the spokesperson rightly says, “Healthy soil and the correct soil for the plant in question are key to successful gardening and lawn care.” This little device tests a whole range of factors, including the soil quality. First it measures light so you can be sure you are planting the plant in the right spot. Then it tests fertility so you can see whether composting is required. It also tests the pH so you can ascertain if the soil is acid or alkaline. Some plants are sensitive to pH. Finally it tests moisture. Is the soil too wet, too dry, just right? I like this last feature for house plants, or any plants in containers, which are notoriously susceptible to dying of thirst. This Rapitest electronic soil tester is a neat device for keen gardeners who like accuracy and dislike failure.

Oprah’s younger, lovelier sister, Pattie Moreno, a.k.a. The Garden Girl for Farmer’s Almanac TV, tells us that you can have a lovely indoor garden in just 6′ x 14′ of “linear space.”

I don’t know what linear space is compared to, say, other types of space, but it sure was miraculous seeing her restore those tables and chairs with shellac, put up shelves and install fluorescent lights, all of this in just 3 mins and 16 seconds and for under $200 “half what you spend on an instant indoor garden kit,” said Patti. This was only Part 1 so I guess Patti gets to the plants themselves in Part 2.

2-year gardening veteran Peggy Robertson believes that gardening is great relaxation and a wonderful way to give something back tot he planet. Here in an Expert Village video (1 min, 45 secs) she talks about selecting the right size pot for a plant. It is something you can really only appreciate with visual assistance, so make sure and look at the video.

Essentially the plant should be happy and thriving and filling the space at the top of the pot. It should also show off the pot to its best advantage. So a plant that is too big for its pot will look miserable and the leaves will be yellowing. The plant will overwhelm the pot and no soil will be visible when you try to move the leaves to see it. A plant that is too small for its pot will be lost in the large space above the pot, inviting the question: “Gosh, what else are you planning to plant in there?” There will be lots of soil still showing. So a happy compromise is what you are after. Plants in pots should be visually pleasing, that’s the main thing.

Bonsai master Mike Hansen, owner of Midwest Bonsai, gives a potted lesson for total beginners in this 2 min, 11 sec video on Expert Village. Mike is a diffident man that has spent most of his life tending to these miniature trees. It is worth listening to his quiet, gentle expertise.

Mike puts the viewer right on three important points. The first is that “805 of bonsai trees that die, die from lack of watering.” It is not being small that kills these little trees, but sheer thirst. Mike points out that bonsai potting soil is quite coarse. It is not meant to retain water. At best, the soil in a bonsai pot will hold water for no more than a day and maybe less at the height of summer.

Another point Mike makes is that many beginner bonsai growers put their little potted trees on the window sill, TV or coffee table and then are disappointed when the tree dies. Mike says: “In fact, bonsai trees are outdoor plants. They would do better on the patio — which is not to say they couldn’t do with some protection.” Mike cautions against “loving your bonsai to death — literally.”

Mike reminds us that bonsai trees are small because they are pruned to be that way, and not because of hunger! “So make sure they have enough water, fertilizer, fresh and air sunshine.”

Wise words about bonsai from Mike Hansen, who is someone that knows.

Jose Zuriga doesn’t know a thyme plant from a basil plant (he confuses the two in this video – check it out) but he manages to convey some useful information anyway in 2 mins, 23 seconds. This video is part of a video series entitled “How to grow a herb garden indoor or outdoor.”

Essentially you plant an indoor herb garden in pots, one to several plants per pot. Fill each pot halfway with organic soil, then loosen the plant’s roots by squeezing the nursery bag. Take the plug of soil out gently and transplant it to the pot. Build up soil gently around it and then tamp it down firmly.

The big message here is that you should not over-water your potted herb plants. They don’t like being swamped. They want well-drained soil. And if you are keeping them in your kitchen, don’t put them anywhere near the stove or they will get burned to death.

This is a short, sweet introduction to planting bulbs with a superscript that says: “Bulbs are a great way to add colour to your garden all year round. Charlie Dimmock shows you how to spot a good bulb and how best to plant them.” Well, I though Charlie would be a knobbled-fingered man but it turned out to be a redheaded lady kneeling in an overgrown garden in England somewhere.

Charlie told me several things I never knew about bulbs. First, you get the hardy and non-hardy types, so ask you garden center about which is which. Second, “bulbs” is a misnomer. They are either corms or tubers. Third, you plant begonia corms with the hollow side facing up. Fourth, a healthy corm is fat, round and hard (like a good garlic bulb). Fifth, you plant bulbs at three times their depth. Sixth, if you have heavy clay soil put a layer of grit at the bottom of the hole to prevent the bulbs lying in moisture. And seventh, you plant summer-flowering bulbs in early spring and winter-flowering bulbs in early autumn.

It was well worth spending a couple of minutes seeing how it’s done.

Somewhere down in Texas one winter, a man looked at the camera to tell us about the two types of irrigation you can use for your raised garden bed. According to the man with the winter grass stretching out behind him, compliments of ExpertVillage and YouTube, you can have Precision Button Irrigation (for directing water to a specific area) and Laser Drip Irrigation (for soaking a wide area).

Button irrigation involves small pipes leading off a main hose with a button at the base to control the flow of dripping water. Laser irrigation is a long, thin pipe with laser holes drilled all over it allowing water to leak all over the required area. If you want a short visit down south for some contrasting visuals and some very basic information, spend 1 minute, 53 seconds checking out Mr. “Lone Star” Irrigation.

Here’s a video with a weird provenance. It features a lady in Trono Zoo, Canada telling us how to fling together a flower container in a basket that will last all spring and summer long. Thing is, the video was posted on LiveVideopedia by someone called Shaktee in Israel. The internet is truly a wonderful thing.

Optimism is the watchword of this 2:32 minute video. The botanical expert (Jennifer Reynolds, Landscape Designer and Editor-in-Chief of Canadian family magazine) grabs a basket, lines it with plastic, punches some holes in the bottom, fills it with potting soil containing a coconut primer and lots of additives, and then proceeds to put bulbs, shrubs, perennials and annuals, even roses, into the basket to create what can be politely described as a patchwork arrangement of colors and textures. Ms Reynolds says that all we need to do is add liquid fertilizer so that the basket lasts all season long like that — healthy, colorful and verdant. Maybe in Trono Zoo but not in my house or garden.

If your container plants have lost their lust for life and you want to do something about that, watch this video. Sloat Gardens is a 10-store California gardening chain operating in San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties. Here an expert from Sloat Gardens reveals two products that are key to successful container gardening. A business-like presenter takes 2 mins, 54 seconds to impart this knowledge.

Whether you are planting veggies, herbs or color plants, use good potting soil and transfer the seedlings in their plugs to the container. Then you take something called Zeba (a cornstarch polymer tagged as “super absorbant granules”) on the box and put a little of it around the root zone of the plants – not too much. This retains moisture in the soil and breaks down in about a year. (You can also use Zeba when sowing seeds.)

After that you take a product called Sure Start (a kind of ancient fungal material with a scientific name I couldn’t quite catch) and put about a cup of it in the container. The Sloat Gardens representative swears by this product. She says that if you put two containers next to each other and treat one with Sure Start and the other one not, the difference is “like night and day”, with the Sure Start container doing much better, of course. “There is a symbiotic relationship between the Sure Start and the plant,” she says. “Sure Start encourages the plant to take up nutrients and water while the Sure Start draws some starch from the plant’s roots.”