The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Add some color to your vegetable garden

12 years ago Uncategorized Leave a comment

Vegetable gardening is a great activity to engage in, it is fun, nurturing and provides tangible results. Year after year many people take great satisfaction in producing their own fruit and vegetables at home. However sometime gardeners look to “spice” things up and create some variety in their routine. Planting less well known and visually interesting strains of vegetables is a great way to do this.

Thanks to the internet a real niche market has been carved out for adventurous vegetable gardeners. You can purchase luminous carrot or striped tomato seeds online through specialist vendors. This opens up a whole new interesting world at the click of a button.

Some vegetable gardens are now verging on art. Gardeners are pushing for the most aesthetically appealing vegetable patch possible. Some even carefully place their seeds so that the vegetables grow in set patterns. Imagine it like landscape design with vegetables!

Below are some of the cool and unique vegetables we’ve found for cheap just from browsing around amazon. All of these seeds can be picked up for under $5 and some are even under $1, so it’s by no means an expensive purchase.

Colorful Carrots

Solar Yellow	Lunar White
Purple Dragon	Blood red

Beautiful Brocolli

Romanesco

Purple

Crazy cauliflower

Orange Cheddar

Purple

Tuneful Tomatoes

Black sea

Zebra

Rainbow

So you can see that there is a whole world of fun veg out there just waiting to be grown. Why not get online and start searching around to see what you can find. Alternatively you can go to your local garden center and see if they have any interesting seeds in stock.

This post was written by Peter McAllister from SGM. They sell a range of garden equipment such as scarifiers and second hand lawn mowers.

Things to know before making home garden greenhouse

11.8 years ago greenhouse, indoor growbox, indoor seed starting Leave a comment

 

There are so many options these days when you decide to own a greenhouse. You can buy a lot of greenhouse structures and modify them or just do-it-yourself. Also there are guides for you to build your own greenhouse. These guides are available on the net, and also on print.

But before you start, you first need to decide on what you need. It is also important to know or understand what you can build and what you want to grow.

Other important aspect that needs to be considered is the expenditure and the climate of your region. Space that you have at your disposal is also one of the key factors. Mentioned below are some of the things you must know before you start your dream project.

1. Location:

Always try to place your greenhouse in such a spot that enjoys a lot of sunshine. It is better that there are no shady trees around. This will have two benefits, during storms the chances of branches falling on your greenhouse is nullified, and shade from the trees will not affect the heating up of your greenhouse. More importantly shedding of the leaves from these plants can prove to be a problem to the greenhouse too.

In case the greenhouse tends to overheat, using a cover or painting it can be good options.

2. Cleaning:

If you are planning to reuse your old greenhouse or even set up your new one, make sure to clean and scrub all windows and glass parts. Also clean the outer surface. Using brown soap for cleaning seems to be the best option. In case you are cleaning the old one make sure to remove insect protections if any before the cleaning jobs starts.

3. Temperature:

The temperature in the greenhouse should range between 77 degrees F (25 degrees C) and 59 degrees F (15 degree Celsius) on the positive side. There can be lots of options to heat your greenhouse, which is very essential for the success of a greenhouse. Electrical heaters, oil or wood fuelled ones are also available with the gas powered ones; but all these heating systems particularly the last three must be ventilated to the outside properly.

These days passive solar green heating options are also available which are very much environment friendly as well. They also have a heat sink which stores the heat and uses it to heat the structure during the dark phase.

The heat needed in the greenhouse is proportional to the size of the greenhouse and also varies with the crops. Consult a professional to help you calculate the proper temperature to be maintained.

4. Ventilation:

Proper ventilation of the greenhouse is extremely important.

Ventilation will circulate air inside the greenhouse and fresh air is necessary for proper plant growth. Stale air is not conducive for proper plant growth.

5. Insulation:

Insulating the greenhouse is very important for it to function properly. The structure need to be airtight in order to bring in the best result.

6. Moisture:

The moisture inside the greenhouse needs to be maintained along with a good drainage. Overwatering and under-watering can both be harmful to the plants. So make sure to have the right amount of water, and a good drainage to ensure that its does not remain water-logged. Automated water sprinklers can be very useful. Rainwater harvesting and recycling can be environment friendly options.

7. Protection:

Protecting the plants from pests and other elements need to be one of the priorities. Make sure to use good quality soil, and treating them before use, and also use pesticides and fungicides regularly. Bio-pesticides and bio-fungicides will help for greener environment.

8. Fertilizers:

Depending on the soil quality and nutrient choose fertilizers. But do not use excessive fertilizers, as they harm the plants much more. Use bio-fertilizers like compost for best results.

Conclusion:

Take into account the climate you live in and choose the crops accordingly. That will save you a lot of pain. Non-heated greenhouse can be fine, but that will only reduce your choice of crops, and the growing season possibly. Try not to make the green house too low, or the roof flat as that may cause unforeseen trouble, as the roof might cave in at some point of time.

About The Author: Alia is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, travelling and blogging. She contributes in Morris Gad

How to grow brussel sprouts

11.7 years ago brussel sprouts Leave a comment

This past year I started something new in my garden, I attempted to grow brussel sprouts.  In my area these plants are very hearty throughout winter.  What I discovered is growing brussel sprouts is truly and exercise of patience.

I started by starting my seeds around September of last year and let them grow all winter in the grow box until springtime came and I moved the strongest plant out into the main garden.  I then did pretty much nothing, just ignored it, maybe gave it some water when I was watering other plants but just let it be.

Sometime in later August I did see some sort of insects bothering the plant but a quick high pressure spray of the hose seemed to take care of that problem.

Finally by this last Thanksgiving (over a year later) I had a full crop of brussel sprouts to enjoy with my Thanksgiving feast.  In case you were curious I did a paleoish brussel sprout recipe for these and they were delicious.

So in the end if you have some extra patience and space in your garden you might want to give brussel sprouts a try, though for me I seem to be lacking both of these and next year will just buy mine on the stalk at Trader Joes or my local farmers market…

Site unpacking after our move

11.7 years ago Uncategorized Leave a comment

Well finally my level of frustration for poor performance, support, and site availability overcame my laziness for moving my site I finally pulled the trigger and made the move to a new hosting provider.  Hopefully you will find things running a little smoother and while I was add it doing some work to make performance even better and cleaning up some broken images/links while I am at it.

Though it is still pretty cold outside the grow box is running warm and am excited to start filling it up, so stay tuned for more content…

How to make a pea trellis tower

11.5 years ago cheap, peas, planter, tomato, trellis 4 Comments

Long time readers know this is not the my first attempt at making a sturdy pea trellis I have had posts and posts about this in the past.  Though those creations were a bit cheaper than my current version this one will not be falling down no matter how big those plants get.

First I started with a 4 foot by 8 foot cattle panel which ran me about $6 at Home Depot.

Given the panel had sharp edges and my largest vehicle is a pretty new minivan with leather seats I planned ahead and started the construction in the Home Depot parking lot.  Taking a piece of scrap lumber I placed it on the 5th cross section on one side and bent it up until it was perpendicular to the ground then repeated with the other side.

The I carefully placed the bent panel into my minivan and brought it home for the remaining construction which pretty much was adding a zip tie in the middle to make a isosceles triangle and then tucked both ends to interweave with the other open side of the tower.

Next I used some pliers to not have as many sharp pointy parts for my kids…probably more likely me to poke myself with and also filed down any ends that seemed overly sharp.

So I had a bit of a strategy for planting the peas, to know where to plant I placed my tower in the desired spot and wiggles it around to make and outline to plant my peas.  I removed it as you can see below and planted two rows of peas inside the perimeter.  Then in a few weeks I will plant peas on the outside of the tower.  The idea is the peas will grow and climb up the tower and have sunlight and adequate airflow to thrive.  Then the second crop will start to grow but by the time it starts to disturb the inside crop they will already be harvested.

I also planted peas on the outside of the tower now on the northern facing side of the tower since it wouldn’t get much sunlight after the interior had a head start.

I know a few of you are probably thinking, “Wow this is awesome for peas, but I bet this would make an real sturdy tomato tower and way better than the ones I can buy in the garden center.”  Which I would have to agree with you on that one large enough to provide good airflow and sturdy enough to support and fairly large tomato plant.

Romantic Garden Date

11.4 years ago guest post Leave a comment

If you’re looking for something romantic to do with your sweetheart and have run out of ideas, try gardening together.  Gardening has become one of the most popular ways couples spend time together because it brings you together while giving you something to show for it with lasting effects.

There are a few ways you can do it to make it work best for you.  If you want to work on a single patch of yard together, it can really give you a lot of time together as you regularly make trips out into the garden.  Likewise, if you’d rather you both have your own separate plots, it could turn into a fun game.

Before you start, take a look at an online floral site to see what awesome finds you can grab.  If you’re careful, you can re-plot pretty much anything you buy and barring that, you might be able to take the seeds or stems and try to grow something completely new.  Having a ton of great flowers and plants around will also give you guys the motivation you need to keep up with your garden in the long term.

The fun part about gardening with your significant other is that it’s a great way to get your creativity going and spend time together while you’re doing it.  As you go through your options to figure out what compost you’re going to use or what different types of plants you’re going to grow, you’ll be able to bring together your personalities and get closer to one another in the process.

The best part about this romantic endeavor is that if you’re planting flowers, you’ll never be on short supply for those spur of the moments when you want to do something sweet for your partner.  Not only are these flowers available at all hours of the day just by walking outside your backdoor, but they’re quite more meaningful when they’re something that you’ve both cultivated together.  And of course they make great décor.

If you decide you guys would rather grow vegetables, it can still be just as romantic as growing roses or tulips.  When the spring time rolls around, you’ll be able to harvest what you’ve grown and put them into meals pretty regularly.  Not only will this be healthier, make you feel great for having achieved something, and give you a ton of bragging rights with the neighbors, but it will also give your dinners a little extra something they may not have had before.

Romantic Idea: Try planting both flowers and vegetables.  Then every once in a while, have a romantic night in where you use the flowers from the garden as a beautiful centerpiece while you eat dinner with the vegetables you’ve grown.  You’d be amazed at how much of an impact this will make with you two knowing that you’re enjoying something you guys worked hard on together.

Gardening is one of the best ways to spend time with your significant other without needing to leave the house and you’ll be able to have a fun project with it that will have lasting benefits.  No matter what you decide to grow, it will be something that both of you made together and when you’re able to enjoy it, it will bring you guys closer than you were before.