Being busy with work and a new baby at home, I completely forgot to plant my cilantro. Though I got a little surprise when I pulled back the shredded leaves I used on my beds…I nice blanket of cilantro seedlings, almost like mother nature knew I was going to be lacking focus this season. I was pretty good about picking my cilantro (or coriander at this point) at the…
Previously I did an entire post on deterring slugs from your garden, but I was so excited to get these romaine lettuce plants out of my grow box and into the garden I put off the slug prevention a little too long. As you can see these guys are pretty little but they still can do some serious amount of damage in a short period of time. There are…
I made a little discovery last year and that is that peppers really don’t need a lot of room to grow, require soil a little warmer than it normally gets around here, and do not mind getting a little dry between watering. This seems like great characteristics to grow peppers in vertical containers. With this in mind at the end of last year I picked up a couple of…
When growing tomatoes from seed you are going to have to repot them. The basic idea is you never want to stress the plant out by restricting the roots from getting wider. Fortunately the process to do this between the various growth states is pretty simple and does not really change much between repotting. The first time you will need to repot them to a 4 inch put when…
The tomatoes are taking over the grow box under the LED lights and starting to create some blossoms. Hopefully the weather gets better soon so I can finally bring these guys outside. The peppers are also growing great though haven’t outgrown their pots yet.
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…