Just a friendly reminder to pick up some discounted LED or non-LED Christmas lights for some of my previous projects Christmas LED Grow Box Basically take a old Rubbermaid container and drill some holes and insert lights and you have your own Christmas light LED grow box. This worked great last year to hold my seedlings until they were ready to move into the bigger grow box in the…
Cilantro (at least that is what we call the plant in the United States) and the seed coriander as it is know to the rest of the world is the first plant I ever collected seeds from. What I like about cilantro/coriander is that its flowers actually grow great and the bees seem to like them. As an added bonus the collection of seeds really couldn’t be easier. Like…
Harvesting radish seeds is a little more labor intensive than some other seeds but still pretty easy to accumulate a decent number of seeds in a short period of time. If you let your radishes be they will grow little flowers and pods like you see below. I like to let mother nature take care of this process as long as possible pulling them only after temperatures start to…
Ok there is a little catch, you have to plant the seeds and grow the produce yourself and have perfect weather and unlimited space to do it. Over the past season I have intentionally harvested more seeds than I needed just for the purpose of sharing them so here is your first chance to get some of CVG’s seed stash. This should be a good addition to your current…
Using the “CVG’s Contest Winner Pickorama” it has determined that =*N*= is the winner of their choice of an earth friendly product from EcoSmart. Please contact my using the link in the header with the product you want and you contact information and I will pass the info to EcoSmart. Thanks for everyone that entered and for those who didn’t win check in the next couple hours for another…
I believe Plato was credited with the quote, “Necessity, who is the mother of invention.” As the Cheap Vegetable Gardener I prefer, “Laziness, who is the mother of invention.” With laziness and some boredom on the bus while riding to work with my laptop this motivated me to create “CVG’s Contest Winner Pickorama.” Basically I pass in the comment RSS feed and it extracts any duplicates (or my name…
One of the major disadvantages to growing plants indoors is the lack of beneficial insects. In a larger environment like a greenhouse you could release some ladybugs to initiate an aphid slaughter though the thought of 1500+ ladybugs investing my garage where my grow box resides does not seem like a good idea. I am always open to trying out new products so when EcoSmart contacted me if I…
Currently it is 16 degrees outside and given my grow box containing jalapeno peppers is in my unheated detached garage, which can bring some challenges. Like most plants, peppers will continue to grow in the range of 60 to 90 degrees, but thrive in 70 to 90 degrees. With the lights on the grow box gets to about 60 degrees but drips to the 50’s at night. This will…
Along with gardening, I also have a passion for cooking/baking. I have had many adventures I wanted to share but didn’t exactly fit under “The Cheap Vegetable Gardener” so I have started Going Homemade. Though I have been spending much of my life eating most of my meals from bags and boxes, I am making a commitment to bravely try homemade versions of my personal favorites as well as…
Recently I was approached by Hometown seeds if I would be interested in receiving a variety pack of their top selling seeds, my first instinct was “woohoo free stuff.” Though instead I decided it would offer the seeds to my awesome readers. Well that and with all the seed saving I have been doing this year I have more seeds than I know what to do with. Hometown Seeds…
I was lucky enough to win some Bhut Jolokia pepper seeds from Red Icculus. In case you haven’t heard of these they are the hottest peppers on earth having a heat rating of over 1 million scoville units. Just to put that into comparison jalapenos are around 5000 scoville units. One property of this pepper is the way the heat builds after consumption, on first bite it is spicy…
It shouldn’t be a surprise that kids these days are not as patient as previous generations. Personally I feel this is less on a change of parenting but a result of children’s expectations created because of the advance of technology. For example, When my daughter asks to watch a particular show “On Demand” and then 5 minutes later asks me to “pause it” so she can go potty. This…