The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

How to make the most of a small garden

10.4 years ago small garden 1 Comment

Today’s post was written by Ricky, who works for www.SwallowAquatics.co.uk. Ricky is a garden lover and enjoys nothing more than spending time in his own, diminutive but beautiful garden.

So the size of your yard leaves a little – okay, a lot – to be desired, but that doesn’t mean you should permanently hang up your secateurs. You’ll be surprised at what you can squeeze into your space with a little ingenuity. Check out our tips below, and let us know your ideas!

Wall to wall

Image credit: The Blue Girl

When floor space is limited, it’s time to get creative with other surfaces. One trend that is particularly popular in small gardens is the living wall, or wall garden idea. There are various ways to create an interesting, structured display such as in the image above, but climbers such as ivy, honeysuckle and roses will work just as well and create a more unruly feel.

Hanging baskets are another great option for your vertical garden – as long as you hang them appropriately to avoid injuries! Check out some more ideas on how to structure your walled garden here.

Color pop

Sticking with the vertical surfaces idea, it’s important to make the most of any patches of wall or fence that peek through in between your plants and pots. You could paint walls or fences in a bright color to add interest even on the drabbest of days, or even use the space as a canvas and create a mural. Check out these tips on how to paint your fence well.

Man in the mirror

Image credit: jimwolffman

Mirrors are a small room’s best friend – and that applies to your outdoor room, too. Just like they do indoors, mirrors will make your garden seem bigger than it is by creating the illusion of extra space. Make sure you treat or the frame of your mirror so that it is protected from the elements.

Twinkle, twinkle

 
Image credit: Wonderlane

Garden lights don’t have to be restricted to tacky Christmas novelties, and there’s no need for your garden to end up looking like Blackpool Illuminations. As well as offering a little extra security during the darker hours, a few lawn lights will allow you to enjoy your garden for much longer and, when placed cleverly, can make use of the space to show off the best aspects of your garden.

Whether you want something subtle, or a more grotto-like feel as in the photo above, go for solar options for a low cost, environmentally friendly option. Here are a few tips on how to go about installing solar lighting in your yard.

Featured in The New York Times

14.3 years ago cheap, upside down planter 15 Comments

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”

5 Easy Money-saving Gardening Tips

11.4 years ago cheap, compost, guest post Leave a comment

Starting and keeping a garden is a great way to spend your time for those of you with a green thumb. I just recently took up the hobby, and was shocked at just how expensive it was to start a relatively large garden in my back yard. Undeterred by the cost, I opened my wallet, pulled out the no fee credit cards and began buying seeds, mulch, and the tools I needed to keep my garden looking great.

Make you own compost. There are two big benefits to composting.  First, those scraps from the vegetables and other foods you spent your hard-earned money on don’t go to waste, allowing you to make the most of your purchases. More importantly, however, compost is free nutrient rich soil for your garden.  It’s easy, too.

A very simple way to create a compost area is to choose an area of your yard that’s away from everything else and section it off with chicken wire.  Once you’ve built your bin, simply toss your scraps, veggie peelings, egg shells, and more into the bin and let it decompose. Compost soil takes about a year to be ready for gardening, but once it’s ready, you’ll have some of the freshest free soil around.

Cut back on mulch. Have you laid mulch and then had pesky weeds pop up anyway? If you answered “yes,” there’s a good chance that you also purchased more mulch to lay over the invading weeds. There’s a simpler solution, however.

Next time you go to lay mulch, take some of those old newspapers out of your recycling bin and lay them flat over the area where you’re going to lay the mulch.  With this biodegradable layer between the weeds and the mulch, you’ll see fewer of their little heads popping through the wood chips, and you’ll save money since you’ll have to reapply your mulch less often.

Buy self-seeding plants. Another really great way to save money on your garden going forwards is by not having to by new plants every year. Many plants – like Foxgloves, Oriental Poppies, etc. – are self-seeders.  This means that as they deteriorate in the colder months, they will release seeds that will germinate when the weather gets warm again.

This is a great way to save money on your garden because it removes some of the monetary burden of purchasing all-new flowers at the start of each warm season.

Start small. One way to facilitate the lushness of your garden is to buy larger, adult plants instead of growing from seeds. Many gardening stores sell larger plants because they are more expensive to the buyer, however.  To save some money this year, but smaller, starter plants or grow your garden from seeds. Seeds and smaller plants cost less because they’ve cost the growers and distributors less to grow and maintain.

For some, growing a garden can be challenging, but if you’re willing to try, going this route will save you money upfront and could very well produce just as beautiful a garden as larger plants.

Become a plant food chef. Another expense that can be very important to your garden (and its health) is purchasing plant food.  Plants, like all other organisms, need certain things to thrive—water, light, nutrients, and more. And one of the ways we give plants nutrients is with expensive plant foods.

You can, however, save money on plant food by making your own. Here’s how: take compost and place it into a large container of water for a week.  When the week’s up, the water should be murky and brown. That means it’s ready. Now, use this mixture to water your plants—it will work as well as store-bought foods, but will lack the chemicals found in them.

The biggest tip I can give you is to keep it small and simple until you get the hang of it. Gardening is supposed to be relaxing, not complicated. If you want complicated, try understanding section 529 college savings plans.  That’s complicated.  Gardening should be the opposite of that, and once you get the hang of it, it is.

Sometimes it is cheaper to not make something yourself

14.4 years ago dehydrator 16 Comments

Though I will be the first to agree it is much more fun to make something homemade, but in my case this weekend I was better off just making a purchase. 

I am growing plenty of herbs this season and want to dry some for convenient use during the cold season.  I got the idea to make my own herb dryer.  The basic design was to make several one foot squares out of cheap 1” by 2” lumber and attach some window screen stapled to each.  Then simply stack as many as needed on a base which consisted of a couple CPU fans and heat source (actual heater coil or light bulb)

In the end my projects was going to cost about $15, which was a great improvement over the $200 price tag on a non Ronco infomercial food dehydrator which requires rotation of trays due to uneven heating.

In an attempt to kill a little time with my two daughters while I know my wife was taking a nap at home I was drawn in by a Garage Sale sign in the distance and found this beauty for the low price of $10.

For those in the food dehydrator circuits this is an original Equi-Flow 7010 and after plugging it in appears to still work great given dark wood construction, I am guessing it just a few years younger than I am.

Time to play with my new toy…

Cheap grow box with LED Christmas lights

15.7 years ago indoor growbox, LEDs, seed saving 81 Comments

I have one major problem last year with growing seedlings, running out of space.  I grow many different types of plants with various germination/growth rates and varied start dates.  This forces me to make sacrifices for placement of my movable light and eventually forced to move some plants outside earlier than I should.  The light needs to be close to the newly emerging seedlings, but can’t be burning the more mature plants growing into it.  My solution to this problem is a LED storage container grow box.  With this I will have a portable seeding area and since LEDs practically emit no heat the plants can literally touch the lights without problems.  At that time I move them to a larger grow box where it can continue to grow and start more seedlings.  I thought about creating my own LED matrix and buy individual LEDs and solder them together, but that sounded like a lot of tedious work and soldering, which I most likely would mess up.  Given it was after Christmas and LED lights were really cheap, this seemed like a good possible solution.

Materials cheap grow box with LED lights:

1. 3 gallon Rubbermaid tub
2. 1 string white or blue LED Christmas lights (50% off after Christmas)
3. Drill with (1/4 in drill bit)
4. Hot glue gun (may be optional)

Take a look at the number of lights on your string (mine had 60) then by measuring your tub figure out how you want to create your matrix.  Best to double check your measurements as you can see below I miscounted and only planned out 55 holes which I improvised and added 5 more after the fact.  You can also combine multiple strings if you want, given the low wattage you can string dozens of these together if you really wanted.

Drill holes that will provide tight friction fit to the tub, for my lights this was 1/4 inch drill bit but for yours this may be more or less, I would recommend starting smaller and increase until you find just the right fit.  Once you have all your holes drilled fit each of the LEDs into the holes you drilled some of the connections between the bulbs will have a solid section in between (resistor) so depending on the spacing might be best to make this one diagonal of the previous light to make it not as tight a fit.  If you have some lights that just won’t stay in, apply a small dab of hot glue between the bulb and the lid.  This may diffuse the light a little  but very little intensity at the base so light loss should be minimal.

Last plug it in and check out your cheap LED light.  You may want to shake it upside a couple times and find any loose lights while your glue gun is still hot.

Now some of your might be thinking (including myself) are these lights intense enough to allow adequate vegetative growth?  I did take a look at the LED matrix with my homemade spectrograph and it did show a high intensity of blue wavelength with minimal on red and orange/yellow/green so for this small space it may just work.  I am going to test it out on some guinea pig plants now and if I start seeing tall spindly growth I can easily switch out the current while LEDs with some ultra bright blue LEDs by simply pulling out the socket, swap out old LED (save some other project), replace with new LED, trim excess terminal wire, and push back into the socket.  Below is my proof of concept for this as long as the voltage/amperage is the same the circuit will continue to work, below is my proof of concept.

I also purchased a couple of red LED Christmas lights for plant flowering stage but have a couple months before I need to pull those out.

For build cost, this small storage container costs less then $2.00 and with the 50% off sale on Christmas lights at $3.00 I have a cheap grow box with full LED grow lighting for just $5.00 and about 15 minutes of assembly.

UPDATES:

Christmas light LED grow box – Update #1
Christmas light LED grow box – Update #2

Make your own upside down tomato planter

15.4 years ago cheap, peppers, tomato 92 Comments

Every time my daughter sees the upside down tomato planter (Topsy Turvy) commercial on TV she asks when we can grow tomatoes upside down.  I am definitely not one to pay $15 to $20 to buy one of these things in the store when I could have the fun of making my own for much less money.

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 it contains coconut coir which retains water well but also contains water retaining polymers.  The perlite and Groden granulates both provide water retaining properties an allow for proper aeration for easy unrestricted root growth.

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 (peat moss or coconut coir okay substitutes) , 1 part perlite, and 1 part Groden granulates recipe in the future.