Owner: The Cheap Vegetable Gardener URL:http://www.cheapvegetablegardener.com/ Join Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:32:03 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Provides vegetable gardening tips to save your back, time, and your wallet Site statistics:Click here
Vermicomposting - How to take care of your worms 2008-03-08 14:30:00 Your worms need 6 things to stay healthy: temperature, food, moisture, airflow, bedding, and darkness.
Temperature: Your worms need to be stored between 55 and 77 degree. During the hot days of summer you should keep your worm bin in the shade and during winter you should keep it indoors or in your garage.
Food: Worms are vegetarians so any garden waste you normally would add to your compost (expired fruits and vegetables, bread, egg shells, cereal, etc) you can give to your worms. There are some tricks to make the fruits/vegetables easier for the worms to eat by putting the food in your freezer for a few days and/or putting it in a blender and make a worm food smoothie.
Moisture: Lack of moisture is the easiest way to kill off your worm population. Like us worms contain a high percent
Vermicomposting - How get your worm bin ready 2008-03-07 21:26:00
Now you have created your own worm bin now you need to get it ready
for your worms. The worms need some bedding, which you can buy some coir worm bedding online or you can make some yourself by taking confidential documents from your shredder and soaking in water until it has the consistency of a wrung out sponge. Now not only shredding your documents but having worms eat them and then spreading their castings in your garden, talk about organic security. Simply add this wet paper with a handful of compost for grit (worm fiber) to your worm bin and you are ready for the worms.
The best worms you can get for vermicomposting are red wriggler (Eisenia Fetida) because they digest nearly their weight per day, creating lots of precious castings. They also enjoy eating close to the surface
Vermicomposting - How to make a cheap worm bin 2008-03-07 18:21:00 Why would I want a worm bin? Well my initial reason was my daughter wanted a pet worm and I decided making a worm bin would be a much better option than having worms escaping in our house. After researching into the world of vermicomposting, harvesting worm poop or castings for the nicer which is basically the best thing you can add to your garden. It is also a great way to compost your garden/kitchen waste if you have limited outdoor space such as a condo or apartment. There are actually many books on the subject but the most well known is Worms Eat My Garbage most likely for the catchy title.
There are many options for creating a worm bin for Vermicomposting. You can take a 5 gallon bucket drill a few holes (1/2 inch) in the bottom and stack multiple or use a single one and put a l
Science Fair: Why don't strawberries grow during the wintertime? 2008-03-04 23:55:00
My 6 year old daughter was the inspiration for the PC grow box for her science fair project to figure out why strawberries don't grow during the wintertime. She started by picking a strawberry plant from our garden (snow still on the ground) and we potted it in a terra cotta pot which she carefully painted ahead of time. We put it in the grow box in our garage with the lights on for 14 hours a day. As she saw significant changes in her strawberry plant we took pictures. After about a month of growing we went through the pictures and she wrote her report explaining the changes.
She definitely had a good time standing by her display proudly telling people about her project and answering any questions that the various visitors had. She did take a break to take a look at some of the oth Read more:Science
Strawberries in the PC Grow box (UPDATE #2) 2008-03-04 10:16:00
The strawberry plant is doing better than I ever expected, should have some fresh strawberries in a week or two. Hopefully no one tells them it is not June... Read more:Strawberries
SHOWDOWN: PC Grow Box versus The Sun 2008-03-02 23:45:00
Versus
I am running out of space in my PC grow box now I have added lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers along with the original inhabitant, the strawberry plant. I noticed that the two cucumber plants were approximately the same size and taking up quite a bit of space, so decided to have a little competition and experiment and see which grows better given different environments. I will have one in the PC grow box and the other in its permanent spot in the garden under a miniature greenhouse (2-liter bottle with bottle cut off)
At two weeks after my last frost date (end of March in my area) I will plant the cucumber plant in the PC grow box next to the other plant and report my findings. Anyone have any predictions of the outcome? Read more:versus
Make a cheap soil sifter (sieve) 2008-03-01 17:33:00
Unfortunately I only have one compost bin which I continuously add materials to, so I never have a complete “batch” of compost at one given time. In order to be able to filter out the finished compost from the non-composted material I created a soil sifter (sieve)
I checked out soil sifters online but didn’t find anything that I liked so I decided to make one myself. I went to the home improvement store and picked up a roll of ½ inch wire mesh and a 2”X4”X8’ piece of lumber. I cut two pieces one inch shorter than the width of the wire mesh and cut the remaining piece of lumber in half. Screw all the pieces together and pull wire mesh over the rectangular frame. Staple the mess around on the side of the frame and you are all done.
To use, just lean it against a wall o
Fall bulb planting surprises 2008-02-29 08:55:00
Not sure if it is the long winter, or just me getting older but I have no clue what bulbs we planted last fall. Guess I will find out in a couple weeks. Read more:planting
Releasing ladybugs in your garden 2008-02-29 00:07:00
When we started my garden at my our current house my daughters and I noticed we didn't have any ladybugs roaming around the leaves. Now I would like to think that aphids and mites feared me so much to dare to step foot in my garden, but the reality is I live in a newer neighborhood with vegetation in its early stages and with the lush forest around me it is hard to compete.
If the ladybugs will not come to your garden your only choice is bring them there yourself. I did this by purchasing some ladybugs at our local home and garden store which ours starts carrying them a little after the local last frost date. Unfortunately, I took my daughters with me when I bought a bag of 1000 lady bugs for $5.00 so no every time we go to Home Depot they need to check to see if the ladybugs are ther
Growing potatoes with kids 2008-02-25 21:42:00 I was checking out our pantry I noticed some of our potatoes were starting to sprout. I took this as a great opportunity to have a little activity with the my daughters. We started by taking a look at the sprouts and had a little discussion about how potatoes grow underground and this one potato will grow into many more potatoes. We then cut an egg carton in half and set the sprouting potatoes by the window to sprout (chitting) a little more and printed out some activity pages from the Washington State Potato Commission.
After a few days of basking in the sun we planted our potatoes in our garden and hopefully in a couple weeks we will see some plants coming out of the ground. Read more:Growing
Hunting for spring at our local nurseries 2008-02-24 09:18:00
Since nothing is blooming in my yard and my wife convinced me that Northwest Flower & Garden Show would be a little too busy for our young girls (I know she was right, as usual) We decided instead to go on a nursery tour, I normally get my plants from our closest nursery or the local home and garden center but was curious what the other dozen or so nurseries in my area had to offer. We didn't bring anything home (little too early for vegetable seedlings) but did get some pictures that spring was not too far away.
How to be organic and cheap - fertilizer 2008-02-23 17:37:00 We all know if you walk into a grocery store the organic produce is always more expensive than produce grown using non-organic methods. Using deductive reasoning it seems easy to determine that this would mean growing vegetables organically will cost me more than if I used non-organic methods. What is a cheap vegetable gardener to do?
One disadvantage (and advantage) to organic fertilizer is that it is not as potent as chemical fertilizers. So my 2 lbs of organic will not nearly go as far (at least short term) as the same amount of chemical fertilizer. One trick to being cheap is to purchase products that are not being marketed for your planned purpose. So to solve my expensive fertilizer issue I used this same logic to solve the problem of finding a location to buy organic fertilize
Make your own homemade newspaper pots 2008-02-20 23:44:00 As you probably know we shouldn't be using peat pots due to environmental concerns, buying terra cotta pots is too expensive, what is a cheap gardener to do? Make your own homeade pots out of newspaper of course. Muddy Clogs describes how to exactly do this on her blog. My only complaint is that I didn't think of it first.
Growing Challenge: Planting the seeds 2008-02-19 22:22:00
I have decided to participate in The GrowingChallenge
hosted by the people at Elements in Time. The short version is to try growing at least one thing from seed that you have not tried before.
My daughters and I have decided to grow some tomatoes (Sweetie, San Marzano, Siletz) which I normally pick from the limited choice of seedlings that are available at my garden store. While picking seeds my 3 year old insisted on getting corn, don't think we have the space for it to be productive, guess in the end we might have some nice Halloween decorations. We also noticed that some of our potatoes had started to sprout so we have decided to add them to our list.
Stay tuned for updates on our growing challenge.
Harvesting seeds from the grocery store 2008-02-18 23:10:00 There is more than one way to harvest seeds sure can grow your own but there is also another option. Use seeds someone else grew by buying them at a grocery store or farmers market.
Have you ever have bought potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams and noticed sprouts coming out of them, dig a hole and plant them in the ground and in a few weeks you may have your own potato plant. Not a fan of those, why not try garlic, ginger, onions, peanuts, avocados, dried beans, apples, tomatoes, peppers, or anything else you can imagine.
This year I am going to attempt potatoes and garlic, how about yourself?
Harvesting your own seeds 2008-02-17 18:55:00
This past fall I made my first attempt to harvest my own seeds. If you can’t tell from the picture I chose cilantro (or coriander if you eat the seeds) and seem to be worth the minimal effort. Just as a warning, if the plant you are dealing with happens to be a hybrid (parents of different species) what you get the next year may not be the same as it was the previous year. In the end this could be disappointment or a pleasant surprise so the risk might be worth it. This next year I am planning letting some of my other vegetables finish going to save a couple bucks but also the flowers don’t look half bad.
Sow what your actually going to eat 2008-02-15 22:41:00 It is getting that time a year when we are all getting our seeds in order and start planning what we will be including in your garden. Every year I always tell myself "Take it easy, don't overdo it" but unfortunately I never listen to myself and look at the many seeds in the packet and end up composting at least half of my crop of spinach, carrots, and lettuce. I hope that writing this down will help me to remember to listen to that little voice when I plant my peas and spinach tomorrow.
My Lettuce seeds have sprouted 2008-02-14 20:58:00
My lettuce seeds sprouted faster than usual this year, I expected to have some problems since I have saved the seeds for 3 years now. I don't have a heating pad (yeah I'm cheap) so just put them on top of the refrigerator in a makeshift greenhouse out of an old strawberry container. They would have still germinated in my mid-60 degree house, but the extra heat gained from being on top of the refrigerator will allow my cucumbers to sprout about 10 days sooner.
I will have to give coconut coir my two green thumbs up, my only complaint is that it retains water a little too well. I would recommend 1 part perlite to 2 parts coconut coir to let the roots dry out a little more. For now I am just watering from the bottom so guess I am doing some cheap hydroponics. I have also added them to Read more:Lettuce
Strawberries in the PC grow box (UPDATE) 2008-02-12 23:22:00
Well the strawberry plant seems to be doing great in the $20 PC grow box. Can't wait to try it out on my recently planted seedlings. Read more:Strawberries
Gardening with kids 2008-02-11 11:34:00 The appeal of working in the garden has always been natural to my daughters. But then again what could be better than going outside playing with dirt and water. I do have a few tips I have picked up that might make it a little extra fun for the young ones:
Let them have their own garden, not only does this give them their own space to play but also protects your own garden from their desire to keep digging. I made a little 2 foot square garden with one 8 foot length of 4X4 and a few long screws. Was the perfect size where she could reach everything from any side.
Buy them their own gardening tools. Otherwise you might be fighting to get your claw and trowel away from them and also that little plastic watering can works great for gently watering those newly planted seedlings.
Pick see
Starting my first seeds of the season 2008-02-10 22:17:00 My two daughters and I could not take it anymore and had to get our hands dirty and start some seeds indoors. Cute to hear my 3 year old say in the dead of winter "Can we garden now?" when it is 20 degrees outside and 4 inches of snow.
Given that our last frost date is March 15th and I don't have a good southern facing window I might regret the early start but I always have my grow box if the steps start to get leggy. I was also thinking that my grow box would be a decent way to start hardening off young seedlings with wind and temperature a little more in my control.
I normally start my seeds with netted peat pellets, but this year for environment concerns and because I am cheap I went with coconut coir. I must say I love this stuff it retains water very well, which is great for thos
What is a lumen? 2008-02-09 21:32:00 Lumen is a measurement of the intensity of light; one lumen is equal to the brightness of a candle at 1 foot away. Just to get an idea on a clear summer day by the time the light from the sun hits reaches us on earth it has an intensity of up to 10,000 lumens. If you wanted to simulate sunlight in your house you just need to hook up 6 (100 watt incandescent or 29 watt CFL) light bulbs and stand one foot away.
Fortunately plants only need 100 to 4000 lumens to sustain vegetative growth depending on the variety, so indoor growing can be setup fairly inexpensively. For example, with our strawberry plant in a grow box experiment we can get away with just 2 CFL bulbs and provide enough light to provide the 1500 lumen required to allow vegetation and flowering. All of this for about $1.00 a
Going on a worm hunt 2008-02-09 15:59:00 We had a good rainstorm the night before and my wife was returning from a neighbors house and noticed a bunch of worms crossing the street. Since she knows me and our girls so well she grabbed a couple Ziploc bags and we proceeded to have a worm hunt. Our older daughter didn't want to touch them that morning but I was really proud of my wife who procedded to help collect some worms. Lets just say she normally is not a worm person.
Just for some history, last fall my oldest daughter wanted to have pet worms, I opted to suggest making a worm bin instead. Since I am a cheap vegetable gardener I wasn't about to spend $20 for a pound of red wrigglers (Eisenia fetida) we spent a few evening catching our own.
After the worm hunt ground has finally thawed so took my daughters out to help tak Read more:Going
Cheap PC case grow box for less than $20 2008-02-07 23:19:00 I enjoy when I can be rewarded by overcoming mother nature, so when my 6 year old mentioned she wanted to figure out why strawberries will not grow in the winter for her science project I couldn't have been prouder. Once she determined the reason was because it was colder and the sun wasn't up as much, she suggested using lights to help them get more light and warmth.
The next obvious step was to create a grow box, now if this wasn't cheap vegetable gardener I would just buy a commercial grow box, but by now you should know better than that :)
Looking through my garage I found my first victim, an old PC case. After a few screws and a few drilled out rivets I had a good structure for the grow box. Next I added some styrofoam insulation which I got at HD on all 4 sides. Also at HD I Read more:Cheap
Saving money by saving seeds 2008-01-31 09:11:00 Many people do not know that given the right care you can save a package of seeds for 3 years and depending on the variety possibly even longer. When you want seeds to germinate you provide heat, moisture, and light. To prevent them from germinating you want to do the opposite by storing them in a cool, dry, and dark environment.
I happen to live in the humid Pacific Northwest so finding a dry location can be difficult, but I happen to have the perfect environment in my kitchen in my refrigerator. Just thoroughly clean and dry a glass jar and drop in your seed packets and close the lid. If you happen to one or two of those silica packets lying around (those things you find in the toe when you put on new pair of sneakers) drop that in the bottom it will help soak up any moist
Strawberries in the PC Grow box (FINAL UPDATE) 2008-03-10 22:22:00
Okay, I promise this will be the last time I talk about our strawberry plant in the grow box. After a little more than a month in the grow box our plant went from a small lifeless plant to one that looks like will bear about 10 strawberries. We are planning on moving it to the garden with the rest our strawberry plants later this week to make room for the growing tomatoes.
How strawberry plant looked when we started 40 days ago.
Picture of my daughter showing off her strawberry before she ate the first one.
I sampled on the strawberries and must say I do miss "local" strawberries, looking forward to the rest of them in the next couple months. Read more:Strawberries
Vermicomposting - How to harvest your worm poop (castings) 2008-03-09 10:20:00 Now your worms have been working hard eating, pooping, and reproducing so now it is time to harvest the fruits of their labor (worm castings) There are a few methods to harvest worm castings so I will briefly describe a few:
Dump and Sort Much like it sounds you simply dump out your worms and castings onto a plastic sheet. Sort through and catch as many worms as you can and set them aside.
Divide and Harvest Move you compost and worms to one side of your worm bin and fill the other half with new bedding. For the next couple weeks only bury food on the side with the fresh bedding. During these two weeks a majority of the worms will move over to the other side where you can harvest the castings minus the worms.
Moving on Up Create a second bin which you place on top of your existing o
Tomato seedlings in the PC Grow Box 2008-03-14 22:13:00 The strawberry plant got too big for the PC grow box so I planted it back outside where it is doing great. Now my tomato plants have more room to grow and have to compete less for the limited light. I have been impressed with my tomato plants in the grow box. I think this is the first year I have grown tomatoes that were not all white and leggy. One the cherry tomato (Sweetie) plants already grew enough my daughter and I had to transplant it to a large pot we will sit on our front porch that has good southern exposure.
The rest of the tomato plants are growing a little slower but should be perfect to move outside after our last frost which in my area is March 22nd.
Read more:Tomato
Planning a butterfly garden 2008-03-16 23:34:00 I got the word this weekend we had enough vegetables and not enough flowers in our garden beds so got the idea to start a butterfly garden. Upon telling my 6 year old daughter she got very excited and started talking how we can charge admission for people to see our butterfly garden.
There are two ways to get butterflies in your gardens, provide nectar to eat and/or give them a great environment to lay their eggs. If you remember your grade school science classes those eggs turn into caterpillars which depending on what else you have in your vegetable garden this might not be exactly the pest you want to encourage to inhabit your garden. If that is your situation I would recommend only planting the nectar attracters. After carefully investigating what caterpillars eat by reading The
Spring Rainbow 2008-03-20 21:36:00
Happy first day of spring, well this picture was not taken this spring but still a good reminder of days to come. Read more:Spring
, Rainbow
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