In my post about basic the basics of hydroponics I mentioned the potential high cost of entry but with a little creativity this can be avoided. I went through this exercise and here is a pretty inexpensive way to try out hydroponics without having to spend hundreds on a prebuilt system. The solution I came up with cost me $1.00 to setup though I did have many of the…
Other than the “Do you really just grow ‘strawberries’ in your grow box?” question. The most common question I have gotten is why exactly do I have a grow box. Hopefully I will be able to answer this question below, as for the first question the answer is yes (without the fingerquotes) Necessity: I am cheap and don’t want to buy all my plants from local nursery or garden…
Many vegetables can be expensive to purchase by growing the most expensive vegetables in your garden and buying the least inexpensive vegetables at your grocery store you can easily help drop your food budget. This especially important for people like me with very limited space to grow everything that I consume. It may be impossible to put a price on the satisfaction of bringing in a basket of produce…
As you can see from the picture, my peppermint and lemon verbena propagation has come a long quite well. I did have a little aphid infestation on the peppermint plant which I attempted to take care of with manual pinching, but eventually I gave up and chopped off the top off the plant. I then followed up with a hefty dose of insecticidal soap to the soil and the…
That was a statement my oldest daughter (6 years old) made which I must admit I am pretty sure I was much older before I had that thought. Seemed like a good opportunity for teaching the kids were pickles come from and a great excuse to make some sweet summer pickles. While heading out the door to get some spices we were lacking my wife told me, "these better…
Starting next week I will have an office at work with a window so of course I have to start thinking about what sort of vegetation I can put on that ledge. The first thing that came to mind was peppermint and lemon verbena seemed like a good choice since they provide an excellent fragrance and I can eat/drink them if I have to stay late and get tired…
Well I wrote a couple weeks about my surprise of the missing tomoatos, last week I went back to my favorite Mexican restaurant at work and noticed cilantro has also been removed as a choice of condiments. Going back to my desk I discovered that cilantro and peppers have been added to the list of produce that has been reported tainted with salmonella. With the whole law of supply…
Many people may look at the topic of this post and think how basic a topic this is. The reality is proper watering is the most difficult part of growing a garden. The challenge ensures in the fact that roots need to stay moist, but not too moist since roots do not grow in the soil but in the space (air) between it so with too much water your…
This is the first year I have grown garlic inspired by the Growing Challenge so now I want to find some good uses for this new addition. For Independence Day we are having a typical BBQ (teriyaki chicken burgers) and we ran out of teriyaki sauce seemed like a logical thing to attempt. Must say the improvised recipe was really easy and tasted much better than the stuff we…
If you happen to have a couple of brown thumbs and kill any plant you touch you may want to consider planting mint in your garden. These members of the mint family is so hardy that it can practically be planted anywhere and in many cases it can take over your garden without taking some precautions during your planting. Couple of low impact options is to grow it in…
There is more than one way to harvest seeds sure can grow your own but there is also another option. Use seeds someone else grew by buying them at a grocery store or farmers market. Have you ever have bought potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams and noticed sprouts coming out of them, dig a hole and plant them in the ground and in a few weeks you may have…
I always enjoy any seeds I required to start outdoors since they normally thrive with little effort from myself other than the occasional watering and given I live in the rainy Seattle area that does start until mid-June. Even if you have started many of your seeds indoors to extend your growing season some seeds should always start outdoors since they are sensitive to transplant shock. If you have…