Growing up in the area I have had a lifetime of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, but now being the father of three little girls I have a feeling I will be seeing more of these millions of flowers blooming. With the not so spring like weather we have been having this month it seemed like a nice day to remember what spring is supposed to look like. My…
In the past I have had a few critters scale or crawl under my fence to snack on my tomatoes. Without knowing what is going after my crops it is difficult to figure out how to attempt to prevent these attacks. When Swann approached me to review their OutbackCam I decided this would be the perfect tool to answer this question. The OutbackCam is a small device that holds…
Witch hazel is a small tree or deciduous shrub that usually stands between 3 and 8 meters high and can sometimes reach 12 meters. The witch hazel’s oval leaves are arranged alternately and have a wavy or smooth margin. The leaves are 3 to 11 cm wide and 4 to 16 cm long. The scientific name for witch hazel translates to “together with fruit,” due to the fact that…
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…
This time of year you probably have a larger number of egg shells heading to your trash. Between dying Easter eggs and our new tradition of making Ukrainian Easter bread (uses over a dozen eggs) I end up with quite a pile of egg shells. The good news is there are many uses for these to use in your planting and in your garden. Use #1 Soil amendment: Egg…
The winner of the WetCircuits powerstrip giveaway is Journey11. For the rest of you stay tuned this growing season since I am always on the lookup for products to giveaway.
I previously reviewed the WetCircuits water resistant power strip and risked death by electrocution to prove the products worth. In acknowledgement of my valiant bravery they have agreed to provide another power strip for me to giveaway to the great readers of CheapVegetableGardener.com If you haven’t heard of the WetCircuits power strip it built to be shock resistant so pouring water on it, pushing tweezers into the outlets will…
Every time I buy vanilla I always have to stare at the bottles for a few minute contemplating if I should pay the extra cost for “Pure Vanilla” versus the imitation stuff. Provided the real stuff costs 15 times more than the fake stuff when I walk away with my little eye dropper worth of pure vanilla extract for the small fee of $7.99. Just for the record that…
I have almost everything planted at least germinating in my grow box. As you may be able to see from the labels I am growing a variety of peppers this year as well as a few different onions and tomatoes. I also have garlic and some onions I overwintered already outside and peas already in the ground. I did successfully grow some peppers in the grow box over the…
Every time I have a discussion with a beginner gardener, this is the most common question. Typically the answer involves figuring out your last frost date then doing some backwards math when to start your seeds or purchase your plants from your local nursery. The problem with this is there is an assumption of the rate at which temperatures will increase after this no frost date. It doesn’t really…
I previously did some analysis on the profitability of vegetables in your garden and there have been requests as well as my own curiosity of how fruits would stack up against fruit trees/bushes. To keep things simple I made the assumption of fruit trees/bushes are fully mature with maximum yields. So please take into account that you will see some variance throughout the years. I have also used the…
We are happy to announce that I will soon have a new helper in the garden shortly with the birth of our 3rd daughter Mia. Just thought I would warn you in case my posts begin to get a little extra incoherent, I am not losing it, just sleep deprived.