The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Successive Pea Planting

15.1 years ago outdoor seed starting, peas, spring

Last year by 5 year old learned she likes to pick and eat fresh pea pods and was very diligent on harvesting new peas as she found them.  Unfortunately this meant less peas for me.  This year I am using successive planting to ensure I get my fill this year but also do not get overwhelmed with one big harvest all at once.

I started the process about a month ago by soaking my sugar snap peas in water overnight…then forgetting about them and ended up planting them by flashlight in the rain the following day.  I couple weeks later I did the same for my snow peas in a separate part of my garden. 

If everything goes as planned I should get some early snap peas and followed by some snow peas 2-3 weeks later.  Even if my plants do not cooperate and I get overwhelmed with too many peas I can always leave a few on the plants and harvest the pea seeds for next year.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, outdoor plants, vegetables

Attack of the garlic

15.1 years ago garlic bulbs, spinach

I either forgot to harvest a couple bulbs of garlic, or the mild winter we had in the Northwest may have allowed the garlic I planted last fall to slowly develop some bulbs.  Thinking the first option is more likely, but did present me with a problem of some very tightly grouped garlic.

Fortunately the solution to this problem was very simple.  I pulled up the garlic bunches and gently separated the individual garlic plants.  Finally I carefully replanted at much better spacing and followed up with a little watering.  The unfortunate side effect is now I have 75% of my cold weather plot growing garlic.  On the positively side with proper preparation garlic stores well and I can definitely feel less guilty harvesting some of my garlic before they start developing bulbs.

Also provided that garlic does not require a lot of root space I should be able to plant some random veggies between them.

Tags: cheap, garlic bulbs, led, outdoor plants, vegetables

Cheap Homemade Cold Frame

15.1 years ago cheap, cold season crops, outdoor seed starting

When we bought our house we found a screen door in the garage.  Not wanting to have or install the screen door we tried many times to get rid of it without success. 

Finally  I decided to use the parts to create a cold frame.  I did consider using the whole door and hinges as a cold frame but decided I could make something that looked a little better by taking it apart.

The construction was very simple, by taking measurements of the windows I made the box out of cedar with similar dimensions.  Wanting to try out my new circular saw I decided to make the cuts at 45 degrees for a more finished look.  Last I simply screwed the sides into a length of 2” by 2” I placed at each corner

I have two squares of glass and a screen of the same size so I should be able to switch these in/out to make sure I am not frying the plants when it is time to harden them from the nice warm garage.

Later I plan on making a more secure (from the wind) hinged top but wanted to see what I could create with a small budget and I could not resist the 3 pack of seedling trays which took a decent chunk of my budget from this project which was sponsored by my Lowes Gift card winning from Rob’s World.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, outdoor plants, vegetables

Cheap Light Bar for Seedlings

15.1 years ago cheap, indoor seed starting

A couple months ago we replaced a couple of bathroom light fixtures and it didn’t take too long for me to find the old ones a new home.  An old extension code couple electrical connectors and I have a completely non-code light bar.  I used the smaller fixture and replaced my light bulbs hanging from sockets using zip ties.

When I have some more time I will plan on making a reflector to redirect more light on the plants but for now the little peppers/tomatoes look very happy.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, vegetables

Planning garden using GrowVeg (Year #2)

15.2 years ago garden planning, spring, sprouting

Though GrowVeg worked great for planning my garden last year, this year it became even more useful.  By creating a garden plan using my template from my previous year not only did it save time but also showed where I should not plant certain vegetables because I planted the same family of plants in that area last year.  Here is my plan for my larger plot:

I am growing much of the same as I have in past years with the addition of broccoli and Swiss chard.

For my longer fence plot here is what I am going with the following:

New in this area I am going to plan on growing some dry beans for storage as well as some green beans along with our regular cucumbers, tomatoes, and sunflowers.

I also have an area I am planning on growing herbs, though for that I am just going to wing it.

In the end it took me about 3-4 minutes to create this plan thanks to GrowVeg which I can print out and keep by the garden so I don’t have to wonder, “Now where did I plant that spinach again.”

They do have a free 30 day trial if you want to try it out this year.

Tags: cheap, herb garden, outdoor plants, tomato plants, vegetables

Homemade waterproof digital thermometer

15.3 years ago arduino, electronics, thermometer, Uncategorized, waterproof

Now I am playing with hydroponics in my grow box I want to monitor the temperature of my nutrient tank.  This is important too hot it can bread disease too cold it can shock your plants.  I also want to use the data to identify how ebb/flow cycles affect ambient and solution temperature (for my own nerd curiosity)

I have been thoroughly impressed with the Dallas DS18S20 temperature sensor so decided this would be a great component to use for this project and this is how you can make your own.

Materials:

• DS18S20 temperature sensor
• 1/2 inch plastic tubing (could go smaller but had some lying around)
• Aquarium/food grade silicone
• 18 gauge solid core wire (long enough to get from arduino to what you want to measure)
• Glue gun with glue
• Soldering iron with solder

Construction

Step 1: Solder the two wires to pins 1 and 2 of the DS18S20 and apply a little dab of hot glue to all of the exposed metal.  This is not entirely necessary but a small safety precaution so you don’t discover you shorted the connection during assembly.

Step 2: Cut approximately 1 inch length of plastic tubing using a utility knife

Step 3: Apply liberal amount of silicone to one end of the tubing cut in step 2.

Step 4: Allow silicone to set for 15 minutes and do a visual inspection for leaks. You may also try blowing very gently into the tube to check for leaks, though not too hard to create a hole in the process.

Step 5: Attach the DS18S20 to the tube using a drop of hot glue.  This is not entirely necessary but when trying to get a perfect watertight seal the less moving parts the better.

Step 6: Again apply a liberal amount of silicone to seal the top paying special attention to the area around the wires

Step 7: Give the silicone at least 24 hours to completely set.

Step 8: Testing.  First off the sensor may be buoyant, if this is the case carefully attach a 1/2 hose clamp or something else to help tether it down.  Next suspend in a glass of water (preferably clear) and watch for a few minutes for leaks and or bubbles. If you see bubbles try to get an much water as you can out and apply a more silicone and let set for another 24 hours

Hooking it up

This part is pretty straightforward.  Pin 1 is your ground and pin 2 is your DQ which for most people doesn’t make much sense but it is a combination power source and bus output.  To get this to work you hook up your ground (black wire) to your ground on your arduino and the red wire to digital in and 5v with 4.7K resistor between.  Sure that is very confusing so hopefully the breadboard visual below is much more helpful.

Writing the Code

Since I am planning on using this with my grow box controller, I will show how to use this with arduino to get some numbers.  You could look at my arduino code in the grow box controller post to get the values but in my case I need to get values from two DS18S20 temperature sensors so I found a great OneWire library which helps make your arduino code very simply.  Simple extract the two folders in the zip archive to [ArduinoPath]\hardware\libraries and enter the following code into the arduino UI:

#include <OneWire.h> #include <DallasTemperature.h> 
OneWire oneWire(8); // on pin 8 DallasTemperature sensors(&oneWire);

void setup()
{  
  Serial.begin(9600);
  // Initialize sensors
  sensors.begin();
}

void loop()
{
    sensors.requestTemperatures();
    Serial.print(“Sensor #0: “);    
    Serial.println(sensors.getTempCByIndex(0));

    Serial.print(“Sensor #1: “);
    Serial.println(sensors.getTempCByIndex(1))

    delay(100);  // wait a little time
}

If all goes well you should see output similar to the following (values in Celsius):

 Sensor #0: 20.3
 Sensor #1: 30.4
 Sensor #0: 20.3
 Sensor #1: 30.4
 Sensor #0: 20.3
 Sensor #1: 30.4

Tags: arduino, cheap, growbox, outdoor plants, vegetables