The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Gardening Novice

11.4 years ago guest post, outdoor seed starting Leave a comment

My ancestors were German farmers, but somewhere along the way the green thumb gene got spliced out of me.  Despite enjoying an abundance of homegrown green peppers, squash, and tomatoes in my youth, I never seriously shadowed my grandparents nor my mother in the garden.

My youthful experience gardening involved one sad attempt at growing carrots from seedlings, an endeavor so fraught with impatience I harvested little orange worms (they do not deserve to be called carrots) no bigger than a pinky toe.  I hung up the trowel and spade after that attempt, and determined that all of my future vegetables would be store bought and enjoy endless refrigeration in a yard-free condominium.

However, each summer as the sun grows warm I miss the fresh taste of garden tomatoes.  I also, inexplicably, long to get dirt beneath my nails. I have recently become very aware of sourcing food locally, and it seems to me there is no better local source than my own backyard.

There have been many stumbling blocks to garden domination.

1. Soil. It turns out that soil is very important to the success of your garden.  Too dense (like the clay-like mud of our yard) and plants don’t have room to grow or absorb nutrients. Too loose (loamy) and the beds won’t retain sufficient amounts of water leaving your plants thirsty.  Talk to your local nursery about the local soil.  My guy was very helpful in setting me up with some soil to supplement and loosen up our existing dirt.  If you are looking for a cheaper, more green alternative to purchasing soil from a nursery composting is a good option.  We got a late start on it this year and therefore went the lazy route, but I am eager to use compost in our garden next year.

2. Space.  While I did not end up in the full-service penthouse condominium of my dreams, our yard still presents special challenges.  We’ve opted to use square foot gardening techniques to organize our garden.  Some plants will take up a single square foot of space, and other plants like the zucchini take up four or more spaces on the grid. Since most of our seedlings started out the same size, using this square foot method helped ensure we buffered each plant with enough room to grow.

Additionally we are experimenting with other space savers like vertical gardening and upside down planters.  So far we have had mixed success due in part to poor planning (Who knew the garage cast that large of a shadow in the afternoon while we are work?), but ultimately we look to have an interesting and robust crop coming.

3. Cost. Free vegetables aren’t free.  We thunked down a healthy amount of start-up cash to get our garden going.  Lumber for raised beds, soil, and even the seeds and plants themselves set us back a little more than we anticipated.  However we built the garden for longevity and hope to reduce our costs next year.  Additionally. we have taken the garden beyond just the edibles and taken tips from www.texaselectricityproviders.com to improve our landscaping to reduce home energy costs. Ultimately, knowing exactly where our food is coming from carries more value than the few extra dollars invested this year.

I am excited to see if I have reclaimed my heritage come harvest.  I hold out hope that if I squint at in the right light (and rub some freshly cut grass on it) my thumb will reflect a healthy green hue.

Money-Saving Tips for the Organic Gardener

14.2 years ago cheap, organic, recycle 5 Comments

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.

Building Your Greenhouse For Success

11.7 years ago cheap, DIY, greenhouse, guest post 4 Comments

Most of us think of building and maintaining greenhouses as a labor of love, a fulfilling hobby, or simply an aesthetic pursuit. We invest our time, effort, and money into greenhouses for the joy of gardening and the sake of surrounding ourselves with beauty. But efficient greenhouses can also give back in more explicit ways. From filling kitchens with fresh produce to supplementing incomes and increasing property values, greenhouse success can translate into personal success in countless ways and look like a thing of beauty surrounded by exotic flowers.

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Of course, the primary benefit of a greenhouse is the control it affords. A well-made greenhouse will overcome seasons, sudden temperature shifts, and blights of harmful insects. In the UK, where wintertime freezes it makes gardening impossible, with a greenhouse we can cultivate exotic species and delicate produce, while substantially extending the growing season. To optimize space, the best greenhouse plants are those with the largest flowerings and blooms relative to their size. The more dense and diverse a greenhouse, the more efficient it will be, and the fewer resources it will require to equalize temperature and humidity. Green onions, hanging patio tomatoes, peppers, and carrots are efficient growers with consistently high outputs. Narcissus and Snapdragon are large blooming flowers with relatively low space requirements

Designing Your Greenhouse

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Careful planning is the key to optimizing your greenhouse’s potential. This starts with construction and continues with each new plant addition. Most greenhouses will need to be oriented North-South, to extend the growing season and maximize sun exposure. In some cases, however, due to local wind threats or special crop requirements, an East-West orientation will be more efficient, as it best utilizes light during the earliest and latest growing seasons. But no single building plan is best for everyone. The decision depends entirely upon geography and local climate.

Thoughtful planning must go into how the greenhouse is constructed, thinking about how to minimize waste and prevent costly, avoidable problems. Plan by talking with your plumbers about this so you know what access to water pipes you have, what would be needed to be built in place for water access and the cost this may involve. All this will help maintain the greenhouse in the future so is worth planning well from day one.

The next important stage is to consider how best to utilize existing resources rather than buying unnecessary implements. Is there an abandoned outbuilding on your property? Old windows lying around? Perhaps an addition to a detached garage or boathouse can help circumvent the need to build a freestanding structure. Maybe a fragment of a low-lying wall can serve as a building platform. The beauty of greenhouses is that each is unique. No single design trumps the others. Lean-to structures, triangular houses, and arched-roofs have the potential to work equally well. In regions where the weather permits, plastic sheeting and PVC can replace glass and wood. Inexpensive aluminum piping is a sturdy and easily assembled option for those in harsher climates. Ultimately, the most successful greenhouses are designed for longevity. Keep in mind that greenhouses are wet environments, so wood structures will need to be sanded, primed, and painted to avoid rot.

Many minor additions can drastically improve greenhouse productivity, stability, and sustainability. Simple rainwater and dew collection systems can lead to substantial water savings. Ventilation fans (purchased at any local hardware store) make humidity regulation easy, moisture meters and thermostats allow for scientific precision and will facilitate year-to-year refinements, a portable potting bench will prevent countless head- and back-aches, and cheap solar lighting is an eco-friendly, wireless solution. Many simple solar lights can be purchased for around £60-£100. For those who need artificial heating, the best option is electric. It is emission-free and relatively efficient. But be sure to eliminate droughts wherever possible to prevent heat loss and reduce energy costs. Also clear away or trim back nearby trees to prevent potential damage and maximize light.

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Economic And Lifestyle Benefits

As the prices of organic produce continue to climb, greenhouse gardening is becoming more and more economically logical. Not only does home growing ensure your family eats the cleanest and healthiest produce, it can also be a fulfilling business venture. By selling to local farmers markets or organic co-ops, many gardeners can at least cover greenhouse expenses, and some larger greenhouses can even become quite lucrative. Growing and selling local is also an important environmental contribution: one that is more important than ever in our rapidly globalizing world economy. And with the holidays fast approaching, don’t forget that hand grown plants make wonderful gifts.

But even despite the many material benefits of gardening, at the end of the day the best aspect of a greenhouse is its function as a sanctum. Greenhouses are therapeutic places of beauty, serenity, and growth. They are a place to find balance and release stress. So take this into careful account when designing your greenhouse space. Add personal decorative touches. Consider installing a simple macadam walkway, a reading nook, wooden scrollwork, a stained-glass windowpane, or a swing seat. Plan your floral arrangements with soothing palettes in mind. It is true that successful greenhouses are a healthy economic investment. But, far more importantly, greenhouses are an investment in the health of body and mind.

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Author: Jenny Beswick loves home improvement ideas and making her garden the focus point in her home design. Consulting with a London Plumber, careful planning and creative designs are a few steps forward to a successful greenhouse. Keep us informed on how your development plans out!

Building of an indoor computerized grow box

13.4 years ago indoor growbox 31 Comments

Before going into my latest version of the grow box, I think it would be good to go through the brief history of my computerized grow boxes.

Version 1: PC Grow Box

It all started with my daughter’s question for her science project “Why don’t strawberries grow during the wintertime?”  After some discussion she decided because it was too dark and too cold (pretty smart for a kindergartener)  To prove her hypothesis we created the original computer grow box.

Now the only thing computerized about this one was the fact that it was made from an old PC case using a simple lamp timer hooked up to control the CFL lights and a incandescent to provide a little extra heat.  This system worked great the strawberry plant thrived and produced about a dozen berries and we had proven that yes you can grow strawberries during the wintertime.

As with any iterative development process I did look at some of the shortcomings of this design and made some improvements.  Though this was the perfect size for this experiment when I started consider using this for starting some of my seedlings the plants quickly overgrew this small space.  The other problem was the ability to maintain ideal temperatures for growing.  As the ambient temperature rose in my garage so did the grow box (by plus 15F normally) so this became a maintenance issue trying to keep this in check.  This led to the next version.

Version 2: The True Computerized Growbox

This is where things started to get a little technical, my primary concern was temperature control.  This would allow me to create the perfect growing environment for my seedlings and plants by using a pretty simple software program, an arduino prototyping board for the electronics, and a few solid state relays I was able to achieve pretty consistent temperature in the grow box.

This design led to a couple of issues; first it worked great for seedlings but as the plants matured I ran out of room fast.  Second was temperature control, the CFL/incandescent combo was good at adding 10-15 degrees to the ambient temperature but when weather got very cold or hot there was not much that could be done to get the box out of these extremes.  These we the inspirations for the most recent build.

Version #3: The deluxe computerized grow box

Space: First off the new box is over 3 times bigger than its predecessor.  This allows ample space for plants to grow up and out as needed.  Specially the dimensions are 4 feet wide and tall with a depth of 2 feet.  It is constructed underneath my workbench which is supported from studs in the wall and 2”X2” posts as legs supporting the actual workbench.  The walls of the grow box is made from a single sheet of quarter inch plywood…I probably should have spend a couple extra dollars for half inch for a little more insulation but hey this is the Cheap Vegetable Gardener.  Speaking of insulation…there is none, I might rethinking this while growing peppers over the summer to save a little on heating costs but for now I don’t need it.

Lighting and Heating: Here are a couple more major improvements in this build. I have installed a 120 watt LED system from Advanced LED Lights and picked up a pair of 150 watt ceramic reptile heaters for $17 each on Amazon. Now for me this was a pretty big purchase but they were a steal provided they normally sell for $40 each at my local pet store. Between the very cool LEDs putting almost no heat and the heaters pumping out as much as I can need, this grow box is ready for any adverse weather that comes my way no matter what season.

Ventilation: I went simple with this high performance CPU fan dangling from a couple of wires…this is on my list to create a better install of this but hey I have a newborn at home give me a break =)

Watering: I really liked the bottom feeding system that I had in the old grow box but provided that now I have four separate trays to fill this makes things a little more complicated.  For the watering system material I chose to go with PVC pipe because it is easy to work with and is fairly inexpensive.  Another benefit is because I am using a low pressure system to pump the water in (low end pond pump) just making them hand tight is good enough to prevent leaks and allows me to make quick and easy modifications as needed.

This was good when I made the misfortune of making the intake (see picture above) a little two low and accidentally created a syphon and if I wouldn’t happened to have been in the garage when it kicked on I would have had nearly my entire 5 gallon bucket of water on the floor of my garage.

The next problem was that water will simply flow out the first free flowing outlet, so to create a small amount of water pressure to ensure the trays were getting filled evenly I used a threaded 1/2” cap with an 1/8” hole in the middle to restrict the flow enough for even distribution.  The rest of the piping included a couple of elbows, 4 T-joints for each tray and an end cap to stop the flow of water at the end of the pipe.

Hardware: The PC I scraped together from spare parts and was showing an end in life was near, so I upgraded the 12 year old desktop with my 7 year old laptop.  Which added a little performance but also cleaned up the need for LCD display, keyboard, mouse.  As an added bonus this made the brains of grow box much more portable which allowed more evenings of troubleshooting in my living room versus cold garage.

Software: This is an area where I will be the first to admit I went overboard on, but when you find something you are passionate about it is very easy to do.  Building upon the previous version of my software for the old grow box I made some cosmetic changes to give the UI a design that is similar to a thermostat.  I also included some temperature trending (up/down arrows next to the temperature) along with some basic (Min/Max/Avg) information for quick analysis for the climate of the grow box on that day.

To have easy access to see how the plants have been doing while I have been away I have the ability to view the current conditions inside the box but also to check on images taken in the past.

Finally we have the “Settings” screen which allows the ability to change optimum temperature range, lighting conditions, and watering configurations.  I also added an hydroponics mode which works on timed on/off cycles versus being based on moisture content in the soil.

Lastly as I mentioned previously I have implemented Windows Phone 7 mobile support, which I am still limited to using on an emulator given Verizon taking their sweet time bring a model for to market for me to purchase…this provides a view into the grow box and also allows me to remotely turn on/off the controls watering, lighting, heating, and the fans within the grow box.

Overall I couldn’t be more pleased with my current configuration and the plants are thriving in their closely monitored and controlled climate…now I just have to hope that the temperatures outside will fall into some reasonable ranges to they can thrive outside of this box.

Free tomato seeds

14.9 years ago cheap, free, seeds, tomato 2 Comments

If you head over to Campbell’s Help Grow Your Soup site you can get some free tomato seeds and while you are at it vote for a barn which Campbell’s will give $250,000 to restore.  So free seeds for you and one dollar for a barn restoration.

How to water your garden

16.2 years ago water 7 Comments

Many people may look at the topic of this post and think how basic a topic this is. The reality is proper watering is the most difficult part of growing a garden. The challenge ensures in the fact that roots need to stay moist, but not too moist since roots do not grow in the soil but in the space (air) between it so with too much water your can actually drown your plants. What makes this even more complicated is the visual signs of overwatering are the exact same as under watering with wilted leaves and yellowish color. Your immediate reaction is, “I am not watering enough” so you water more drowning the plants even more and eventually leading to their demise. Even if your plants look ok you still could be affecting your harvest. For example, if you overwater your tomatoes they will be green enjoying the perfect environment and never get around to creating some blossoms which will result delicious fruit. At the same time under watering your leafy plants can result in bitter tasting lettuce or even worse make them go right to seed and get very little or no harvest in plants like cilantro and spinach.

How do I know how much I need to water? Unfortunately the answer to this questions is “It depends” first you need to determine the structure of your soil (sandy, loam, or clay) If you do not know the structure of your soil you can to a simple glass jar soil test Sandy soils allow water to drain very quickly so you will need to water about three times as often as clay soil and about twice as much as loamy soil. If you live in a dry climate or just have a couple really hot weeks in your not so dry climate you will probably need to water at least every day to keep your plants healthy regardless of your soil structure.

The next factor is how deep do you want the water? It is important to make sure water actually gets to where the roots are, which has been the demise of my first years of tomato plants. Where I watered the surface but the soil was bone dry a several inches below the surface which I realized once I pulled out the dead plants. So first know your plants root system if you are growing deep root plants such as tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, peppers, beans, squash, eggplant, or melons you will need to water longer to ensure that the water makes it down to their deep root system but you can water less often since you will not lose as much to evaporation. If you are growing lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, peas, garlic, onions, cabbage, cilantro, or broccoli you need to water less but more frequent to ensure the soil stays most.

Now hopefully you have a better idea when and how much to water, here are some tips from Mel Bartholomew from “Square Foot Gardening” books/videos/PBS series. His first tip is “Don’t water from overhead” since first you waste water due to evaporation but you also get you leaves wet which can lead to disease and frying your plants. If you must water from above if you have a very large garden or if you are away from your garden and need to automate the process, he insists this is done first thing in the morning. If you are like me and enjoy sleeping at dawn you may want to look into his cup and bucket watering method where you fill up a couple of 5 gallon buckets and let them sit out in a sunny spot. You get the benefit of the sun warming the water to prevent shocking the plants with cold tap water especially on a streak of hot summer days. Another benefit is gives time for the tap water to purify itself a little before applying to plants. Once you have your bucket of water the concept is pretty simply just find a nice container (I normally raid my recycling bin) and scoop water out of the bucket and pour it directly under the leaves of the plant with little water waste and the delicate leaves remaining completely dry. This is also helps you measure exactly how much water you are giving to each plant which you can adjust as needed. You can also get some of the same benefits by using a trickler hose of a bubbler attachment if your back can not take the weight of packing around 5 gallon buckets full of water.

Now if after all of this explanation I haven’t scared you too much in fear of not watering too little or too much here are a couple more tips to make your watering more successful.

• Order on a consistent schedule: It is easy to forget the last time you water and watering a few days late or early can have significant effects on your harvest.
• Have a test hole: Normally there is somewhere in your garden where something is not currently growing after doing you normal watering dig into that hole and see how deep your watering is actually getting.
• Finger test: By sticking your finger into your soil if it comes back dry you probably need to water
• Get a water meter: If you want something a little more scientific you can always pick up a cheap water meter for less than $10 which can give you a measurement several inches underground