The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Money-Saving Tips for the Organic Gardener

14.3 years ago cheap, organic, recycle

Organic gardening is a hobby many find relaxing and rewarding, and you can take a bite out of your produce bills by eating the delicious fruits and vegetables your efforts yield. However, between the many different planting and gardening tools and supplies you’ll need, the costs can really add up, and anything you can do to save a buck or two here and there will help. Fortunately, there are all kinds of simple money-saving gardening tips for the organic gardener looking to keep expenses under control.

Save Money on Seeds and Planting

If you’re looking for plant trays, hold off before buying brand-new ones. Many garden centers and nurseries will be more than happy to give you their used ones, so be sure to ask if you’re heading out there to pick up seeds or supplies. You can use them as starting pots; they work especially well for kicking off a hardy plant’s growth cycle.

Reusing household items for your gardening whenever possible is one of the best ways to save a few bucks. For example, rather than purchasing seed storage containers, you can use empty film canisters, which you can label to ensure you know which seeds are which. Separating individually started seeds in yogurt containers, plastic bakery trays or ice cube trays is another strategy you can use.

More Money-Saving Organic Gardening Tips

If you’re new to the world of organic gardening, it’s a good idea to get secondhand tools and supplies; you may also find it worth your while to choose plants that are easy to grow and care for so you’re not wasting time and money on finicky, fragile and difficult plants. Mint, lemon balm, thyme, sage and rosemary are excellent beginner herbs. Garlic, radishes, kale and potatoes are recommended vegetable crops for new organic gardeners.

You can cut down on your water usage by harvesting rainwater and creating tiny irrigation moats around your garden that allow you to store water and direct it to where it’s needed. Plants thrive when they’re given rainwater to drink; it’s naturally softened, free of chemicals and additives, and it’s pH-neutral, which in turn helps you maintain the proper pH level in your soil.

Get creative to save even more. If you have old tree stumps, make them part of your garden plan instead of paying several hundred dollars for professional removal. Simply hollow out the center of the stump and grow plants in it!

About the Author

Dontel Montelbaun is a lead writer for www.livetogarden.com, and is an advocate for organic gardening. On LiveToGarden.com you can find articles from Dontel focusing on flowers, outdoor living and landscape design.

Create your own hydroponic window farm

14.4 years ago cheap, hydroponics, recycle

If I didn’t have a big house blocking my southern exposed window, otherwise I would have completely tried this myself.  The basic idea is to take come recycled plastic bottles, use an air pump and some tubing to create an air water pump to push the nutrients to the top and gravity takes care of the rest.

The great part of this is that it is an open design community making and sharing new innovations as they are discovered.  Here are the complete instructions of the most recent (version 3) of their system.  They also offer a complete kit if you want to save some time with assembly.

Via LifeHacker [via Window Farms]

Garden Safe gift pack giveaway

14.5 years ago cheap, free, free gardening tool, giveaway

Last week I was contacted by Garden Safe asking if I would like some samples and given I used the last of my insecticidal soap protecting my peas from aphids I graciously agreed.  Expecting to get a couple bottles to try out I was definitely surprised to get the lifetime supply (at least fro my little garden above)

Not wanting to share the love with my readers they also agreed to offer a gift pack to giveaway.  Not only does it include the products pictured below but also a garden tote bag with a weeding fork, sprayer, hand rake, trowel, transplanter, and clipper AND $20 gift card to Lowe’s.  I don’t know the exact retail value of this gift package but my back of the envelope estimate is at least $100.

 
Rules:

1. Enter one comment to enter

2. Mention this contest on your blog, enter another comment for another chance to win

3. Entries in by 06/25/2010 12:00PM Pacific Time

4. Become a fan on Facebook , enter another comment for another chance to win

5. Winner will be randomly chosen from comments on Saturday, 06/25/2010 

Tags: contest

Build a ladybug house

14.5 years ago aphids, cheap, kids, ladybugs

With a piece of cedar fence board and a few nails you can make your own ladybug house to give your army of aphid eaters I nice comfortable place to take shelter between battles

This project started with my youngest daughter (5 years old) has been asking every weekend, “Can we build something with wood?”  Finally I came up with this project which we had a great time building.

Materials

• 1 — Cedar fence board
• about 12 finishing nails
• small hinge
• 1/2-3/4 drill bit
• paint for decorating (optional)

Build instructions

Step #1 – Cut the boards:  Given the cedar board should be 5-1/2 inches so the cuts should be pretty straightforward.  Cut the following pieces:

• Front Panel — 5.5” by 5”
• Back Panel — 5.5” by 5”
• Bottom Panel — 5.5” by 5”
• Top Panel — 5.5” by 4”
• 2 X Side Panel — 5.5” by 2.5”
• Room Separator — 5.5” by 1”

I used a circular saw for my cuts…yes I really should invest in a chop saw or table saw so hopefully your cuts will be a little straighter but I am sure the ladybugs will not mind.

Step #2 — Nail two sides to back panel

Step #3 — Nail front to sides and back panel

Step #4 — Nail bottom panel to ladybug house.

Step #5 — Drop room separator inside house.

Ladybugs are social and like to group together but sometimes thy like to live in smaller groups, this divider will give an additional area for the ladybugs to hang out.

Step #5 — Attach top using screws and hinge

Step #6 — Drill 3-4 holes into front and sides and decorate (optional)

Step #7 — Hang close to your garden

Now of course the decoration part is optional unless you are a 5 year old then it is required.  Here she is carefully deciding what to paint with her marker next…

Tags: aphids, little green bugs

Building a Pea Garden Trellis

14.5 years ago cheap, fall crops, peas

When building a pea trellis it is actually pretty hard to do it wrong.  All that is needed is a little stability and once the plants grab hold they will make the structure even more stable.  My typical strategy when making a pea trellis is to use whatever I happen to find closest to me.  Here are a few examples from past and current years of building

	Bamboo Pole Structure Pea Trellis Here is a classic structure made from a couple pieces of bamboo poles scavenged from a couple of rotting scarecrows purchased a few years back at a craft store.  I used a stick I am pretty sure one of my daughters picked up on a nature hike across the top bound with a few inches of twine.  Lastly I attached a line of twine at 1 foot and 2 feet above the ground which gives the plant plenty of leverage to climb up the structure. Click on the picture to the left or below for a larger view.
	Branches Pea Trellis Here is probably the simplest technique out there.  If you have some old branches left over from pruning?  Just stick them in the ground and let the peas grow up the branch.  This gives a nice natural look but also a variety of paths for the peas to naturally sprawl while given each plant plenty of personal space.
	Vertical Stick or Pole Pea Trellis Another simple option is just by simply driving a few straight sticks or bamboo or metal poles in the ground with a little assistance the peas will climb their way up the trellis
	Hybrid A-Frame Pole Structure and Branch Pea Trellis Do you like more than one technique?  Feel free to combine them like this where I used bamboo poles as additional support for branch pea trellis (though in the end the branches proved to do just fine by themselves, I sometimes over engineer things…)

As you can see when it comes to making your own pea trellis it is very difficult to do it wrong.  So do a quick scan around your yard and you should find exactly the materials you need.  Though if you want something a little more professional looking there is always the commercial options (click images below for more info) which I would definitely recommend as well.

Tags: cheap, garden trellis

Featured in The New York Times

14.5 years ago cheap, upside down planter

We were very excited to be featured in The New York Times last Thursday.  Welcome to the many new visitors that visiting us this week.  If you want to check out the entire article it is available online. 

I have been considering creating a press page and figured this was a good opportunity to start a “CVG featured in the press page”

Tags: cheap, tomato plants, vegetables