Gardening Gadget Deal of the Day
15.5 years ago cheap, EasyBloom
Want a EasyBloom but $59.95 is a little out of your price range? Well good news, right now it is on sale for $20 off so you can have this little gardening gadget for the low price of only $39.95 with free shipping through Amazon.com. I have no idea how long it will stay at this price so if you were thinking about picking one of these up, now is the time.
If you have no idea what I am talking about, check out my full review of the EasyBloom Plant Sensor.
Tags: cheap, outdoor plants, vegetables
Make a greenhouse out of plastic bottles
15.5 years ago cheap, greenhouse, recycle
Not sure how long it would take to accumulate 1500 2-liter plastic bottles but if you happen to have that many piled up in your garage you have some makings for your own greenhouse.
Basic idea is you take the labels off the bottles, cut the tops off slide a pole through a hole in the bottom of the bottle, and repeat. After over a thousand iterations you have yourself a pretty cool looking greenhouse and saved most of over 1500 plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill.
This is not practical for construction for me though am considering a smaller version for a cold frame…I better start drinking up this summer.
If you want to see the full instructions check out the detailed plans.
via New World Geek
Caring for your pet caterpillar – UPDATE
15.5 years ago butterfly, butterfly garden, caterpillar, cheap
I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, named by the kids as “Emily”
Now normally these are some critters you want to keep out of your garden but with my kids asking for the “Live Butterfly Garden,” bringing in a caterpillar from inside and putting it into a jar seemed like a much more cost effective option.
Growing up I have caught caterpillars with the great hopes that I would be able to witness its metamorphosis into a butterfly. Unfortunately, the lack of the internet or a nearby library I never got the knowledge of the particular “butterfly” I caught wouldn’t eat just any leaves I threw in it . Caterpillars are very picky eaters and each specie only will consume particular types of leaves.
If you found your caterpillar munching on a plant you are in luck and you can just pick a couple leaves a day for your caterpillar. They will not eat old or dry leaves and must be replaced daily. In our case our caterpillar was found on a plastic play set, which sort of limited out options. My girls did pick some leaves of various plants in our yard, and if we are lucky we may find one our caterpillar enjoys.
To improve the odds I was able to identify this caterpillar as a Painted Lady, which enjoys nettles and thistle. Both of which grow great in my area, though none is growing in my yard (which normally would be a good thing)
This led to a nice walk in the woods to attempt to find some leaves for the caterpillars distinguished palate, unfortunately we did not find any nettles or thistles though came back with a good variety of leaves.
That Butterfly Garden is looking like a bargain at the moment.
UPDATE — May 31, 2008
We are happy to announce that “Emily” has started has started her transformation into becoming a beautiful butterfly (or moth if my amateur identification is incorrect). We were successful in finding their favorite food which happened to be the little clovers growing in our back yard. Definitely a case of good reason to not kill all weeds with pesticides in your yard, by the way the rabbits love the stuff more than my lettuce so added bonus.
As you can see in the background “Emily” has some friends with her (3 total) though currently unnamed, though I am sure by the time my daughter reads this post she will fix that.
Stay tuned in 7-10 days hopefully we will have a butterfly/moth release.
UPDATE — 06/26/2009
Well 7-10 days turned into more like 26 days, just when we were thinking the worse, Emily emerged as a beautiful brown moth.
For info on the flight lessons and release, check out this post.
Tags: butterfly garden, cheap, led, outdoor plants, vegetables
How to make a cheap pea trellis
15.5 years ago cheap, peas, trellis
This is really two trellises in one. I started by taking a couple bamboo stakes (reused from a couple of one season too long Halloween scarecrows) and bound them together at the top using some twine. I then put the ends in the corners of my garden leaning against the cinder blocks surrounding my raised garden. I following this by adding some twine up the trellis to allow the peas to climb up.
Thing started to get a little crowded so I browed a tip from Martha Stewart, now she recommends black birch branches, but I decided to go with the dead bush I had in my back yard. I was already chopping it up to compost so saved some of the larger branches, stabbed them in the ground and ala pea trellis.
Though the two part trellis was more of an accident, in many ways I really like the support of the bamboo along with the abstract reach of the branches.
Tags: cheap, compost, raised garden
Make your own upside down tomato planter
15.6 years ago cheap, peppers, tomato
Every time my daughter sees the upside down tomato planter (Topsy Turvy
Though this has been commercialized recently, the concept growing plants upside down is not a new one. Many people have been growing plants like tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets or hanging baskets for decades. Not having any spare bucket or hanging basket to sacrifice I went with my daughters suggestion and used a 2 liter bottle.
Materials required for you upside down tomato planter
- Empty 2-liter bottle
- Eye bolt with washer
- Duct tape, contact paper, or spray paint
- Drill or hot nail
Step 1 — Create access hole
Make a hole on the side of bottle, this has two purposes: it allows adding soil much easier and also provides an convenient way to water your plant. I used a 2-inch hole cutter, though you may also carefully cut a hole with a knife.
Step 2 — Add the hanger
By design 2-liter bottles are extra thick in on the bottom immediate center which will make a perfect place to hang it. I used a drill of the same diameter as the eye bolt. This allowed me to thread the bolt right into the bottle, which was pretty strong it itself. Though expecting a great harvest, I also added a bolt to prevent the discovery of my plant on the ground after having a hard fall.
Step 3 — Covering your planter
Roots can be damaged if exposed to light for long periods of time so you need to cover your planter. You should consider color depending on where you live. In colder regions a darker color will help keep the soil warm on cool mornings, though in hotter climates a dark color could fry the plant. I would recommend a medium to light green color for moderate heat absorption and little more aesthetically pleasing in the garden. Not having any paint I used good ole duct tape. Wrapping around the entire bottle (even covering the access hole.
I then cut an X through the access hole and bent the corners in to soften the rough edges caused by cutting the hole.
Step 4 — Decorate (optional unless you have kids)
We used permanent markers to personalize both of my daughters upside down tomato planters.
This completes the construction of your upside down tomato planter. I will admit the first design flaw of this planter is its size. It will be fine for root growth but it can dry out very quickly. In response to this water retention was my primary concern when deciding on medium to fill the planters with.
I chose 2 parts (peat moss or coconut coir okay substitutes) , 1 part perlite, and 1 part Groden granulates. WonderSoil
To give the plants a good head start I also mixed in a couple of tablespoons of bone meal and tablespoon of balanced organic fertilizer. Add some water until the mix has the consistency of a wrung out sponge .
Lastly I used my tomato plants from my hydroponic experiment and carefully fed the roots into the now bottom opening of the bottle. We then added our soil mix until it reached the bottom of the access hole. Given the plants had a well established root system just the friction and weight of the soil is enough to keep the plant from falling out
Even though the medium retains water well the plants should be watered every day to the point until some water comes out the bottom. Within 24 hours we can already see the leaves turning over to face the sun.
You can also try other heat loving plants such as peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini. So if you every wanted to try growing plants upside down with the directions above you can have your own for less than $0.50.
If you want something a little more aesthetically pleasing there is always the commercial option, this one from Gardener’s Supply seems much more sturdy than the ones I have seen on TV:
UPDATE: 05/24/09
It has finally started to get a little warmer at night in my garden so seems like a good time for a little update on the upside down tomato planter. I wish I could give a direct comparison of the growth of these plants with plants a planted at the same time in the ground though unfortunately we had a light freeze that killed them off. Interesting enough both plants in the upside down tomato planter survived and even are showing some small blossoms.
Now as part of my pepper planting experiment, I also put a pepper plant in an upside down tomato planter with much less exciting success. Just to test if my super paranoid water retention worries had any backing I simply filled this one with regular potting mix. And the plant dried out very quickly which shows in the following results.
Given these results I am going to stick with my 2 parts WonderSoil
Tags: cheap, led, organic vegetables, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, upside down tomato planter, vegetables
Cheap fogger hydroponics final results
15.7 years ago aeroponics, cheap, hydroponics, peppers, tomato
In case you missed them here is the original post on the creation of this fogger hydroponic system, and the latest update (before this one).
The plants still are still looking pretty healthy with the exception of a little phosphorus deficiency, but the blame goes on me for that one. Been a little busy at work and have been neglecting the plants.
I decided to end this experiment since their roots were starting to get tangled and I want to use these plants for another project.
These roots are healthier than they look, some soil leached in when I put some of my pepper plants on top of the hydroponic box.
This pepper plant look really good, haven’t decided what to do with it yet. Maybe the victim volunteer for the next hydroponic experiment.
Tags: cheap, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables
