The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Garden teriyaki sauce recipe

16.2 years ago garlic bulbs, growing challenge Leave a comment

This is the first year I have grown garlic inspired by the Growing Challenge so now I want to find some good uses for this new addition. For Independence Day we are having a typical BBQ (teriyaki chicken burgers) and we ran out of teriyaki sauce seemed like a logical thing to attempt. Must say the improvised recipe was really easy and tasted much better than the stuff we got from the store (much less salty) I have kids so I only used a small pinch of red pepper flakes but with those with a taste for extra spice recommend adding at least a half a teaspoon.

Garden teriyaki sauce recipe

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp of chopped or pressed garlic
• 1 tsp of fresh grated ginger (1/2 tsp powdered ginger)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 cup water
• red pepper flakes (to taste)

Directions: Warm oil is sauce pan at medium heat and add garlic and ginger to oil. Stir for 2 minutes and add remaining ingredients. Reduce heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Make 12 ounces of teriyaki sauce.

3rd Annual Ladybug release

15.4 years ago aphids, kids, ladybugs 17 Comments

In case you missed the first and second annual lady bug release, you can follow those posts.  We have never had a serious aphid or spider mite problem and I like to feel our annual release of lady bugs is the reason why.  Either way, great entertainment for the girls for a couple hours for a $6.00 bag of lady bugs.

Lady bugs sometimes naturally choose to wander from the location where you release them and may just take residence in your neighbors yard, so I have thought about releasing them in my neighbors yard so they will end up in mine.  Fortunately there are a few tricks to help entice your lady bugs from leaving your garden.

Give them a nap.  Before you release them put them in your refrigerator for at least a couple hours.  This will make them go asleep (dormant) until you are ready to release them.  This way when you bring them outside in their sleepy stupor they may be more inclined to check out your garden before heading over your neighbors.

Feed them.  After watering your garden before releasing them spray the ground with some sugar water.  This will entice them to feast on that while waiting for a the aphids and spider mites to show up.

Choose the right time.  Put your lady bugs out as the sun is falling and ensure that they are shaded from sun when releasing.  This will prevent them from hiding from the hot sun and possibly finding a new place to make home.

Encourage your neighbors to have their own lady bug releases.  One of our friends and neighbors had a great time with their girls releasing lady bugs last year and fortunately they are close enough that we may be sharing some bugs from both of our releases.

In the past I have had good results with the releases maybe seeing 30-40 lady bugs still crawling around on my plants the next day.  This year had great results with hundreds of lady bugs in my aphid killing army.

Make a greenhouse out of plastic bottles

15.3 years ago cheap, greenhouse, recycle 3 Comments

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

Lemon Verbena Lemonade Recipe

15.3 years ago lemon verbena, recipe 3 Comments

I am moving into a new office this week so I had to bring a couple of my lemon verbena plants home and given the great weather we were having I decided to move them right back into the garden. Fortunately they were a little leggy from lack of sunlight in my office so I cut off some of the dropping stems and was about to put them in the compost until I got the idea to make some Lemon Verbena Lemonade.

The basic idea is the same as regular lemonade though you add Lemon Verbena leafs and use fewer lemons.  It has been said that lemon verbena can have calming effects and can reduce stress; sounds like a great summer drink to me.

Lemon Verbena Lemonade

• 24 Lemon Verbena Leaves
• 2 lemons
• Sugar (or artificial sweetener)
• Water
• Peppermint sprig (optional)

Directions: Squeeze lemon juice lemons into a small pot.  Add Lemon remains, Lemon Verbena leaves, 2 cups of sugar, and approximately 4 cups of water to pot.  Bring to boil and let boil for 4 minutes.  Strain mixture into 1-2 gallon container and fill with water.  Add more sugar to taste (kids like the stuff tasting like Kool-Aid though I would recommend less sugar)  Add ice and enjoy on hot summer day.  Given Max and Ruby’s grandma “secret ingredient” to lemonade is peppermint we can’t make any lemonade without it so this part is completely optional.

How to fertilize/side dress tomatoes/peppers in your garden

15.2 years ago alfalfa pellets, compost, fertilizer, peppers, tomato 3 Comments

When your fruiting plants are flowering and bearing fruit this is a good time to give them a little extra boost.  Though you don’t want to throw any old fertilizer at them at this point.  You want them to get the nutrients they need to produce high yields of produce, though you don’t want to shock them with an abundance of nitrogen to stimulate new vegetative growth when you would rather the plant expend its energy making you food.

The solution to this problem is to provide your plants with a low dose of balanced fertilizer.  I couple of my favorites are compost and alfalfa pellets applied every couple weeks while the plants are blooming/fruiting.  This ensures the plants have all the nutrients they be lacking without throwing the plant into a growth spurt.

If you have a little extra time take the compost and add some water and let it sit in the sun for several hours and water or spray onto the foliage for a great dose of compost tea.

If you forgot to apply a little bone meal when you planted your peppers/tomatoes this is also a good time to sprinkle a handful under your plants and work into the couple inches of soil to provide your plants with a boost of phosphorous and also a little calcium to help prevent blossom end rot.

Hopefully with these tips you can help your green tomatoes turn into bright delicious red tomatoes.

If you want to learn more about the chemistry of organic fertilizers I have a whole post on that subject

Doing recon at the local farmers market

15.2 years ago corn, farmers market, garden planning, garlic bulbs 4 Comments

Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to infiltrate a local farmers market to gain intelligence to help aid your personal garden.

Sure, the farmers market is a great place to find some fresh food you can’t or didn’t have time/space to grow in your garden.  It is also a great place to get seeds/starts for your garden.  It is also a great resource to figure out how various fruits/vegetables grow in your area.

Even if you are growing everything you want/need in your own garden a quick stop at your farmers market can help you check out your competition and see for example in my case, “hey their garlic grew just as bad as mine this year.”

This is also a good time to try out new fruits and vegetables you are thinking of growing next year.  There is nothing worse than growing a bed full of arugula and figure out at that point you hate the stuff.  If you are lucky enough you might even get a meal and some seeds to plant with next year depending on you seed saving ability.

Now as always you don’t want to blow your cover while doing surveillance, so make sure you have a good cover store.  In my case I used a few people known as “my wife and daughters” to appear less conspicuous.  You can even use techniques of taking a picture of your “daughter” to get some recon picture of their products for further analysis.

In the end it looks like my little spy helpers had a good time and we even contributed a little to the local farmers economy and got the secret ingredient to CVG Black Bean and Corn Salsa Recipe (ok, it was corn).

This post will self destruct in 10 seconds (sorry had to say it)