The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Environmentally Friendly Tips for Your Lawn

11.4 years ago environment, recycle 1 Comment

Who doesn’t appreciate a nice green lawn? Caring for a lawn doesn’t have to be a nightmare. In fact, with a little creativity it can be fun—even if you live in a neighborhood with an overly strict and nosy homeowner’s association and makes seemingly unreasonable demands and is always looking over your shoulder. Here are some of the things to make the task of yard and lawn care easier for you and for the environment.

1. Hire a Professional

Seriously! The easiest way, though not the cheapest, to care for your yard and lawn is to hire someone else to take care of it for you. It’s easy enough to find a professional in your area by using sites like search sites like lawnservice.net or hitting up Craigslist. Professionals do this for a living, know all the tricks of the trade, and bring professional grade equipment that can do the job in half the time.

2. Use a push mower

Mowers that use engines require gasoline. This is terrible for the environment, your lungs, and your wallet. They are also louder than push mowers and while it might be fun to irritate an annoying neighbor, that whole turnabout is fair play thing should keep you in check. Plus, do you really want to spend money to bother your neighbor?

Bonus: engineless/push mowers are more difficult to move, which means you get a better workout when you mow the lawn (which could mean that you no longer need that expensive gym membership!)

3. Compost is Your Friend

Start a compost pile at a far corner of your yard (they’re smelly and aren’t fun when kept under windows). Compost piles are great because they reduce the amount of land-fill bound waste produced by your home. You can compost almost all organic foodstuffs (not meat—compost piles are Vegan) as well as grass clippings and other yard debris. Compost is better for your lawn and plants than fertilizer, it saves you money and it is much better on the environment.

4. Use Rain and Gray Water

Set up a rain collection barrel near your house (they’re easy to set up and use). Stop up your tub and sink when you bathe and wash dishes. Run this water through a simple filter and then use it and the rainwater you’ve collected to water your lawn and your plants. This reduces your water and electric bill by quite a lot. It’s also better for your plants. Just don’t use the gray water or roof runoff to water vegetable or fruit producing plants, they may contain toxins that you don’t want in your food.

5. Rake, Don’t Blow

Leaf blowers are loud, they are obnoxious and they require gasoline to run. They put lots of carbon into the air, which is terrible for the environment. Also, blowing the leaves from your lawn into the street (or someone else’s yard) doesn’t actually solve the problem. It just creates a bigger one for someone else to take care of.

Raking your yard helps you gather up leaves and debris so that your yard looks great. It provides you with a pretty decent workout and can be a fun way to spend an afternoon if you get the whole family involved. Leaves and organic debris are compostable so you can simply add them to your compost pile when you’re done gathering them up (and jumping in them).

These are just five ways that you can care for your yard and be as eco-friendly as possible.  They should even pass a strict Homeowner’s Association’s standards (especially if you keep your compost pile covered so the smell doesn’t spread or attract critters)!

Cream of the Crop: 5 Ways to Work with Winter Vegetables

12.9 years ago winter garden 1 Comment

As we find ourselves in the throes of the fall and winter holiday season, food becomes a popular conversation starter. For some reason, though, winter vegetables are often treated with less creativity than their spring and summer counterparts. To spice up your diet while keeping it cheap and healthy, take a gander at the five winter veggies below and use them to wow your family and friends.

Kale

I’ve tried kale a few different ways now, and I think the trick with eating these greens is in their pairing and preparation. I, for example, love using kale in omelets, but I don’t add them in with the rest of the ingredients (onions, mushrooms, cheese, etc.). Instead, I wait until everything is nearly cooked, and then I throw in some cold and crisp kale. After a couple of minutes, the meal will be done, but the kale will retain its fresh properties, offsetting the rest of the ingredients and making for a more interesting and wide-ranging experience for your taste buds.

Another creative way to use kale is to make your own miso soup, chock full of these greens. Grab some brown rice paste from the supermarket and add it to your own custom-made lineup of vegetables and tofu–just don’t forget that kale! Even for the soup, I’ll hold off on putting the kale in the water too soon. Most restaurants will serve their greens fully-cooked and withered, but the soup (like the omelet) has more textural complexity if the ingredients aren’t all softened and sapped of some crucial nutrients.

If you’re going to maintain your own winter garden, plant some Winter Red or Wintebor kale in July or August, and then wait for those cabbage-like goods to crest.

Beets

Beets just might be my favorite winter vegetable/root. It’s also the main ingredient in my favorite salad, which is a twist on the otherwise run-of-the-mill beet salad. My brother’s girlfriend makes a salad that combines red and golden beets (3 red, 2 golden) with ¼ cup minced shallot, and some lamb’s lettuce. For the true kicker, she adds a few crumbles of goat cheese and a handful of pistachios to the mix.

If you plant some delicious Winterkeeper or Albina Verduna beet seeds in July, you’ll have those roots ready to go for your fall and winter harvest. In addition, the beet will re-sprout in the spring, offering some full, healthy leaves. Being able to harvest multiple times for the same food means you can eat with an improved sense of health and frugality. But whether you’re planting beets at home, or are getting your winter’s share at a natural market, be sure to try your hand at a beet salad.

Squash

Squash is the simple one of the bunch. Go ahead and make soup with it, or attempt to make a world-class plate of spaghetti. Even a casserole will suffice as a sure-fire crowd pleaser. But in my mind, there’s no better remedy for a long day at the office than a whole butternut squash emerging from the oven. Your whole house will feel warm and smell of the harvest. The flesh should be nice and soft, and easy to scoop out with spoon or fork. I usually just put some butter on the warmed flesh, but you might want to try adding some brown sugar to the mix if you’re feeling especially daring. Butternut squash is filling but cheap and simple to prepare, and winter just wouldn’t be the same without it.

Mustard

Mustard leaves aren’t as commonly thought of as kale, spinach, collards or arugula. But the leaves of mustard are peppery in taste, and are great for making exotic dishes. I’m happy snacking on them as raw greens, when they still taste like spinach or radish roots, and if I cook them, I usually just sprinkle on some lemon juice and garlic. If you want to replace the lemon juice, try a bowl of mustard leaves with sesame oil and rice. Mixing and matching is the name of the game for mustard greens, and experimentation will allow them to be your most versatile winter food.

If you’re planting mustard at home, press those seeds anytime from August to the middle of October, when the brunt of summer heat has passed. After you’re done collecting the leaves, let the plant go to seed for a secondary harvest later on.

Chives

Chives are my wild card choice for this list. You won’t be able to harvest the chive stalks in winter, or even be to grow them easily in the colder seasons and climates. However, if you plant them under a cloche, or germinate them indoors before moving them outside as the weather breaks and warms, then you’ll have my absolute favorite green ready for a spring harvest. When I was a child, I used to eat chives straight from my uncle’s garden. They’re great for garnish on baked potatoes, and also make for an excellent addition to any soup stock or broth. Whereas most of the other foods on this list are featured as main ingredients, chives are sure to act as foils for other foods they mingle with, and will amplify a dish’s whole overall flavor. This might not be a food that’s in season during the winter months, but it will make for a great winter project, and will ensure that the next season kicks off the right way.

Whether you’re maintaining your own winter garden, or are just plucking the goods from local markets, the 5 foods above will make your winter cuisine more complex in flavor and your winter preparations more creative and enjoyable. Best of all, each item is relatively cheap and also healthy, which means that you can be frugal with the greens in your wallet, as well.

Adam J.’s appreciation for winter vegetables is surpassed only by his enjoyment of Heirloom Tomatoes. He writes for FrugalDad.com; check out his blurb or contact him at adam ATT frugaldad DOTT com.

Chemistry of Gardening: What nutrients do plants need?

15.6 years ago alfalfa pellets, fertilizer, outdoor seed starting 21 Comments

If I ask my four year old what it takes for a plant to grow she can quickly respond with response, “Sun, water, air, and soil”  This is a great answer for photosynthesis since plants need energy from the sun.  They leverage the carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air and water (H₂O) to create starches and sugar.  Now the soil part of this answer is where things get a little more complicated.  Soil gives plants the ability for roots to expand and grow but also provides many nutrients to help them as well.

Similar to humans, plants need various minerals to live healthy lives.  The primary macronutrients Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K) are required to sustain life.  These are the nutrients that plants consume significant amounts which is why these are advertised in big letters on the outside of packages of fertilizer.

MACRONUTRIENTS – PRIMARY

We could live off a simple food like gummy bears for quite a while, but our quality life will decrease once we picked up scurvy and exhibit significant bone and muscle loss.  The same idea goes for plants, they can live simply on the primary macronutrients but they will live poor and possibly fruitless (literally) lives.  This is where the secondary nutrients come in.  With the exception of Calcium, these are not consumed in nearly the volumes as the primary macronutrients though supplementation may be required.

MACRONUTRIENTS – SECONDARY

Finally are the macronutrients, these are the nutrients that most of the time, as long as you are not growing with hydroponics. should exist in your soil and rarely need to be supplemented due to the small amounts that are consumed by plants, nevertheless are still very important for plant growth.

MICRONUTRIENTS

Nutrient Deficiency Information from “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible”

Now you are armed with plenty of information, though unfortunately you can not act on any of this without knowing the chemical composition of your soil.  If you simply went by the signs of deficiency (for example yellow leaves) could be caused by one or many nutrient deficiencies.  Fortunately you can get this information to act on by running a soil test on your soil.  There are a couple options for this if you are simply concerned about primary macronutrients there are cheap DIY home tests, electronic testers, or you can send a sample to a soil lab to give primary/secondary macronutrient and micronutrient levels and recommendations to get your soil back on track.  You may also want to check with your local municipal office they may have a cheaper/free option available to you.

Just remember, your perceived lack of a green thumb my have nothing to do with your ability but the chemistry of soil you are working with.

First Tomato 2010

14.1 years ago tomato, upside down planter 10 Comments

This is an unfortunately record, being the latest I have gotten my first ripe tomato.  In case if anyone was wondering, this was on the 1 gallon milk carton upside down garden planter.

Cheap fogger hydroponics final results

15.5 years ago aeroponics, cheap, hydroponics, peppers, tomato 2 Comments

In case you missed them here is the original post on the creation of this fogger hydroponic system, and the latest update (before this one).

The plants still are still looking pretty healthy with the exception of a little phosphorus deficiency, but the blame goes on me for that one.  Been a little busy at work and have been neglecting the plants.

I decided to end this experiment since their roots were starting to get tangled and I want to use these plants for another project.

These roots are healthier than they look, some soil leached in when I put some of my pepper plants on top of the hydroponic box.

This pepper plant look really good, haven’t decided what to do with it yet.  Maybe the victim volunteer for the next hydroponic experiment.

How to use Vegetronix soil moisture sensor (VG400) on Arduino

15.1 years ago arduino, moisture sensor 36 Comments

With the summer starting to come to a close it has been time for me to start thinking back to the computerized grow box.  I have been doing some considerable work on the electronics and software over the summer.  Better to break stuff while the plants are outside and not while killing them inside.

Though I have been happy with my homemade gypsum soil sensors I decided to try out a commercial option hoping for better accuracy and longer life.  This is important with my current plans to include automatic watering to the latest version of my grow box.  Don’t want to wake up to a flood in the garage due to a broken sensor.  After some looking I came across the Vegetronix VG400 which measures the dielectric constant of the soil using transmission line techniques.  Which I have no idea what that means but sounds impressive.

The hookup couldn’t be simpler, red wire to 3V, bare wire to ground, and black wire to an analog input.  As you can see below in my completely not to scale diagram below.

From here it all comes down to some simple code to write on the Arduino to get some values.

Upload the code to the Arduino and now I can get a moisture value from the analog input between 0 and 614 (0-3 volts) depending on the degree of water saturation.

Though not as hacky as my PS2 controller moisture sensor solution definitely more elegant and reliable.  Stay tuned for more details of other improvements to the computer controlled grow box.