I will admit, I have a weakness for electronic gadgets, when I got wind of the EasyBloom I just had to try it out. The EasyBloom plant sensor is a device with built-in sensors to measure light intensity, humidity, temperature, and moisture content in your soil. It has three basic modes: Recommend, Monitor, and Water. With the Recommend setting you place the EasyBloom into a location you want to…
Well I have been talking about the financial benefits of vegetable gardening for quite some time now and looks like US News and World Report agrees with me. They have given “Home Gardening” the number one winner of the recession. They tout statistics such as Park Seeds and Burpee showing 20-25% sales growths and the Burpee research that found $50 worth of seeds and fertilizer can yield $1,250 worth…
There was a discussion in comments on my previous average last frost post on how to determine an accurate last frost. A great point was made by Daphne where every garden can have its own microclimate so the date you find online or in a book could be many weeks off for your microclimate in neighborhood. To be able to predict your last frost date accurately it takes some…
There has been some major changes since I started the plants above in my cheap DIY hydroponic setup about a month ago. Since then I have added a couple of pepper plants I saved from thinning. I must say the plants are doing better than I expected. I am still using the same homemade nutrient solution, 2 pumps of liquid plant fertilizer and half a teaspoon of Epsom Salts. …
I never got a round to making a hydroponic system out of my Cafe Steamer, but I did use part of it to create a supplemental red LED light. The construction of this was very easy and you can do the same thing with an old string of LED Christmas lights and some soft plastic (margarine or frozen dinner container) from your recycling bin. Take the plastic and drill…
It came to my attention it seemed every time I see my average last frost date it comes up as a different date. Average Frost Date (Seattle, WA) Location 3/10 The Old Farmer’s Almanac 4/20 Victory Seed Company 3/22 Ed Hume’s Seeds 4/15 USDA Zones 5/14 USA Gardener 3/25 Clyde’s Garden Planner 3/24 Garden Web Now the humorous part of this is…
If you want to get some free tomato seeds head over to Campbell’s Help Grow Your Soup site. After simply entering some numbers on the bottom of a can of soup they will send you a free packet of tomato seeds. Seems like a pretty good deal to me, as an added bonus they donate 100 seeds to the National FFA Organization just for making your request. Be sure…
Last year over at The Genteel Recessionista their trellis made of twine rotted away. This year they chose to use wire salvaged from some old CAT-5 Ethernet cables to create a new one. They were able to create two trellises for about a dollar each which in my opinion look great.
This is only a concept, but I am surprised SuperSoaker has not already released something similar. Now a gun shaped water nozzle is definitely not necessary or possibly even safe in some neighborhoods but sure to make you more manly while watering your pansies. design reactor Via Gizmodo
I like to push the envelope my luck when I decide to start seeds outdoors and this year is not an exception. Just yesterday I posted about planting the rest of my outdoor seeds where karma responded with a freak snow storm and freezing temperatures. I am not too worried about about the new seeds I planted since many have been sitting dormant in the refrigerator for almost 12…
It has been a blessing that the competition for free coffee grounds at the Starbucks at my work has increased now the weather warmed up and I have freed from the temptation to grab yet another free shiny silver bag of grounds. The reason is, I have put four bags in my compost, worked generous amounts into my vegetable garden and I still have six bags left. Now I…
My wife saw this wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer on clearance at Eddie Bauer and knew this was something I could use. I simply put the wireless sensor in the computerized grow box and instant temperature monitoring where at a quick glance I can be sure my summer vegetables are toasty warm in the garage. Sure, I could connect to the machine remotely, or look at the backup digital thermometer inside…