width=”549″ height=”412″ /> This nice people at Global Garden Friends were nice enough to send me a few of their product to try out with my garden this year and given today I was bringing out my cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, and pumpkins from the grow box it seemed like a great time to put them to the test. The first product I tried out was their Ultimate Plant Cage…
width=”549″ height=”412″ /> I wanted to create a fun project with my daughter and a proof of concept for an aquaponics setup to have running in my grow box. For those of you new to this concept this is growing plants in a soilless environment (much like hydroponics) but instead of paying for expensive nutrients you use naturally occurring bacteria and fish poop to grow plants. Now there are…
Today’s post was written by Ricky, who works for www.SwallowAquatics.co.uk. Ricky is a garden lover and enjoys nothing more than spending time in his own, diminutive but beautiful garden. So the size of your yard leaves a little – okay, a lot – to be desired, but that doesn’t mean you should permanently hang up your secateurs. You’ll be surprised at what you can squeeze into your space with…
width=”550″ height=”367″ /> There was a toad that lived in my mother’s garden, and I always considered myself lucky to happen to catch a glimpse of him by a rock before he hopped back into the dense flowers and vegetables. When the summer rain was fresh on the plants, little toad would always be hanging out by the edge of the garden. I always wondered what his home looked…
width=”425″ height=”282″ /> Sorry, Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow so six more weeks of winter. Though for those of you with a blanket of snow on the ground and more coming this is probably not hard to believe. Just for the record Punxsutawney Phil is only right 39 percent of the time so probably best to not put too much of your seed planning on his prediction. Keeping fingers…
width=”549″ height=”412″ /> I have used egg cartons to plant seedlings before but here is a slight twist, instead of taking the whole lid off I cut the top off the lid. This not only gives you a neat place to label your seeds but more importantly, it provides an extra inch of depth for your seedlings to get a running start before being transplanted to your garden.
width=”549″ height=”412″ /> Last summer I setup some cheap rain barrels which I describe in this post which worked great though had one major flaw. If you wanted to do some maintenance or add any new barrels you would have to literally have to saw them apart. This time around I came up with a design that is not only simple but can be done with almost no tools…
width=”549″ height=”412″ /> The last few years have bought a bag or two of potting soil for my spring planting though each year I am disappointed when I open the bag containing a bunch of bark , twigs, gravel, and even several pretty large rocks. This year I have decided to make my own potting soil with very little effort and much less cost. Given I just recently harvested…
width=”549″ height=”412″ /> When it comes to making compost I am pretty lazy approach to this process, no turning, no tumblers, just stack up material in the compost bin and let natural decomposition process and worms do their job. Given I use a portable SoilSaver Classic Composter with just a bit muscle I can lift this off my pile of compost. As you can see with the composter removed…
width=”549″ height=”412″ /> Here is a quick and easy way to add additional aeration and also provide a convenient way to deeply water your compost during dry months. Simply cut to length of corrugated irrigation pipe with a utility knife and run them through your compost bin. Fill with uncomposted material being careful to not add material in the exposed tube(s). This should allow better airflow to your compost…
width=”549″ height=”412″ /> Though it is still pretty cold inside right now is the time for me to begin start planting seeds for this spring. These include bok choy which are very cold tolerant, onions which do pretty good in the cold but could use a head start on these to get some good sized bulbs by the end of the season. I also started some daisies which I…
width=”550″ height=”367″ /> Hope you have a happy holiday and for those looking to get started with your garden don’t fret there are seeds you can start indoors soon. If you wondering what you can start planting in Dec/Jan in your area check out our seed starting calculator.