Right about now the temperatures outside should be increasing and I should be thinking about start hardening off my summer plants over the next few weeks. Unfortunately we seeing hail the past few days along with some pretty cold nights. Looks like even though I was fairly pessimistic about my last frost date I may have another battle of tomatoes/peppers over taking the growbox or bring them out into…
If you ever have spent a day hauling soil/gravel you know this can cause some serious pains in your back. Now with the Lawnbot 400 you can save some pain and let the evil robots do the hard labor for you. The project started as an arduino powered lawn mower with a custom PCB motor driver powered by a couple of wheel chair motors, which mike many projects he…
This is a very cool project, grab a few rain barrels, timer, water pump, and a solar panel and have automated the tedious task of watering. With all the rain we get (especially this week) in WA could fill up a dozen barrels in a short time. My only suggestion would be to add a moisture sensor to only water when it has not rained lately. Might be another…
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…
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…
Currently in the grow box I have some basil and more recently strawberries added as I was “weeding” my garden I found a bunch more starts. Though I have seen basil do well in hydroponic systems mine is turning pretty leggy and quickly loosing lower leaves. The strawberries on the other hand and thriving in the environment. Probably will let them stay in there a little longer until the…
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…
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…
While my existing system was working I decided to make an upgrade to the electronics on my old system for several reasons: I needed to add more automated external controls (heater, fans, water pump) with my existing design this was entirely possible though was starting to get a little clunky. The existing controller (PS2 Controller, parallel port with various wires to control relays) worked but was not exactly compact….
Melody D was the winner of the Hometown Seeds survival pack, though for the rest of you Hometown Seeds has provided me a code to allow 10% of any order with them by using the code “thanks”
Hometown Seeds has again graciously offered up a selection of their non-GMO non hybrid survival seeds. These are advertised to keep in storage for 5-10 years but also are open pollinated so you can grow them this year, collect the seeds and create your own stockpile in preparation of any future catastrophic food shortage. They include a selection of the following varieties: Lincoln Peas Detroit Dark Red Beets Kentucky…
In our family we are not just cheap in the garden we also keep our house pretty cool to save on heating costs. Unfortunately since the LEDs in my grow box do not put out very much heat the inside is only about 68 F degrees even placing it on top of my refrigerator. For most seeds 77 F degrees is a great ball bark number to shoot for…