The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Seedlings thriving in the grow box

13.7 years ago indoor growbox, indoor seed starting, onions, peppers, tomato 5 Comments

I have almost everything planted at least germinating in my grow box.  As you may be able to see from the labels I am growing a variety of peppers this year as well as a few different onions and tomatoes.  I also have garlic and some onions I overwintered already outside and peas already in the ground.

I did successfully grow some peppers in the grow box over the winter, though as you can see below their size was lacking and the plant has been perking up a bit with some new growth once I added some better controlled heating and the LED lights.

When to bring your vegetables outside?

13.7 years ago garlic bulbs, onions, peppers, seeds, spinach, summer, tomato 11 Comments

Every time I have a discussion with a beginner gardener, this is the most common question.  Typically the answer involves figuring out your last frost date then doing some backwards math when to start your seeds or purchase your plants from your local nursery.  The problem with this is there is an assumption of the rate at which temperatures will increase after this no frost date.  It doesn’t really matter how many weeks after the last frost when you bring out your tomatoes but the fact that it is over 65° F

This is good for estimation but ultimately it comes down to what temperatures various vegetables can survive and thrive at.  This is ultimately when you should decide to start bringing those fragile plants outside.  For reference the table below shows these temperatures for various vegetables.

Now that you know what temperatures your veggies grow best in, unless you can find a news station with a 2-3 month forecast this doesn’t help you too much.  Fortunately we have been saving weather data for some time now and with some simple statistics you can make a more logical prediction of when this may occur (compared to last freeze date)

One site that makes this very easy is WeatherSpark, it uses historical data with great visuals to easily determine when the best probability of picking the right date to plan on your veggies going out into the great unknown.

As you can see in my area we rarely stay in the thriving temperature zone during a 24 hour period which is the reason why I personally keep my tomatoes and peppers in my automated grow box as long as I can.

Hopefully WeatherSpark can give you some incites about predicting the best times to bring those veggies out for a successful crop this year.

Most profitable fruits to grow in your home garden

13.7 years ago blackberries, peach, raspberries, strawberries, summer 6 Comments

I previously did some analysis on the profitability of vegetables in your garden and there have been requests as well as my own curiosity of how fruits would stack up against fruit trees/bushes.

To keep things simple I made the assumption of fruit trees/bushes are fully mature with maximum yields.  So please take into account that you will see some variance throughout the years.  I have also used the fair market retail value of fruit when purchased by the pound, obviously all of these could be purchased cheaper by the bushel…but many of us you live in urban areas it can be difficult to make these discounted large purchases nor consume 48 lbs. of apples before they go bad.

After a crunched the numbers I was a bit surprised and happy to see blueberries at the top of the list.  I have four blueberry plants already in the ground and two more waiting to be planted.  Though one asterisk for this plant is that is take 3-4 years to really start producing but you get several years of good production and by buying a variety of plants with different harvest times, so unlike many other fruits you do not get a huge supply of fruit all at the same time.

Overall fruit compared to vegetables provides a similar range of harvest value depending on the variety.   There are a couple of differences that should be taken in to consideration:

1. Space: Fruit trees/plants range from a little over a square foot to over 60 square feet per planting
2. Time to Maturity: It can take several years for some trees to become mature and start producing high yields.
3. Size of Harvest: You could see hundreds of lbs. of produce within a couple weeks.  You will need to determine a means to actually use this (canning, pies, forcing on neighbors)
4. Commitment: Unlike annual vegetables if you decide you really don’t care for the produce it can be time intensive and expensive to switch out an apple tree for a difference variety.

As always the common sense principles apply:

• Grow what you like to eat
• Cost is only one factor to consider, you can’t beat real fresh produce

Something new sprouting in the garden

13.8 years ago Uncategorized 12 Comments

We are happy to announce that I will soon have a new helper in the garden shortly with the birth of our 3rd daughter Mia.  Just thought I would warn you in case my posts begin to get a little extra incoherent, I am not losing it, just sleep deprived.

Winner of the John & Bob’s Grow Green Giveaway

13.8 years ago free, giveaway 2 Comments

I am a little late on this one…but I have a good excuse which I will explain later.  The winner that was randomly selected to win this awesome selection of soil conditioning products from John & Bob’s is Julie Jester.

The Plant Whisperer

13.8 years ago electronics, planter, water 4 Comments

The author had a problems keeping his plants alive and provided the plants could not call out for help, he fixed this with a little bit of electronics.  It will call out when it is dry and needs watering by saying phrases such as, “I’M THIRSTY!  WATER ME!”

It is also detects the ambient light level and makes comments on that as well.  This was put together with a little knowhow and about $30 worth of parts.

Instructables Via Hack-A-Day