Five Dollar Garden - Day 7 Update.

 Got 5 dollars? Lets see what we can do!!

So a week ago we cut up some milk crates and filled them with dirt. Put some seeds in them and said 'Wow! We have a garden'.
I'm sure the days went on and you checked on them in the morn and the evening and probably watered them a few times. I'm sure several people by now are skeptical and thinking 'Man, he's taking the piss.... '. Some folks may have thrown their planters out in disgust.

It won't happen overnight, but it will happen....

Well if you did, as the bard would have said 'I bite my thumb at thee - oh ye of little faith!'.
All bean planters up and popping.  I knew the beans would be the first up - but if you enarge the pic and look at the planter on the left - that's a mater coming up early too!

No surprise for me, I've done this before with these exact materials - If something is dubious, trust me, I'll let you know.

New planters, new crops!

You probably noticed a few new planters in there. Well milk here is always being consumed - so I cleaned out a few more jugs and decided to plant out some more with the soil I have left over. 3 more planters full and I still have some left in the bag!

Now last week I also did a blog post on potatoes  and in that I spent $2.50 (technically) to add spuds to the 5 dollar garden. So I figure this week I have another $2.50 I could throw down to expand.  I found a 20c pack of lettuce seeds while shopping and thought it would be nice to try and purpose this little thing.  We will have tomatoes, carrots and beans, so why not add lettuce and make this a garden I can pull a salad from?  Nice simple place to start. 2 planters have a lettuce each, and one has 4 more carrots, just to show people that you CAN grow them in a container.
The lettuce is the black seeded simpson variety, which is a leaf lettuce. You can pluck leaves off it as it grows - every time I've grown this variety it tends to grow UP rather than out - which makes it good for planters.

Now in the spirit of full disclosure and honesty, those with really good eyes will note the seed packet in the corner there is NOT 20c.  This is because in order to keep this honest and real I'm keeping the 5 dollar garden supplies (seeds/soil/fertilizer) totally separate  from my regular garden.
But because I am a man, fallible and boneheaded, on the way to garden I grabbed the wrong packet.
They are, however, the same variety.

 So here we are, 7 days in. Beans are going ahead, tomatoes look like they should start coming up soon. Carrots will be a little ways off.
Potatoes hmmm.. well I've not tried them in a container using pine straw from store bought sprouted spuds... there's a lot of uncovered ground in there - so fingers crossed.

Now it could be that some of our seeds won't sprout - maybe they were washed out or rotted in the rain I had - maybe they DID come up but were vanquished by the scorching South Georgia sun or by bugs... what then? Well we wait, and if nothing shows a week after other similar plants have sprung, we can replant.
But that's an awful lot of waiting time, and Spring is marching on...  Or what if you're in a more northern state, and you aren't ready to plant outside yet?  Or...........any number of things.

Well you could germinate your seeds inside - many people do. I don't usually but that's just a personal choice. I have a germination station set up outside with self watering pots that does a fine job of sprouting seeds outdoors or letting me transplant extra plants out of the garden when they come up - I also have a cat that is the bane of all things green living inside.
But you might need/want to - coz you're not me. What I do might not work for you, and there is no 'ONE TRUE WAY!'.

JUST $9.99 ON AMAZON!

So, I guess you could do what a lot of folks do and fork out on one of these little Jiffy Greenhouses... They must be popular with some folks, as every second image I tried to look at was on a cannabis forum :P

Hey, I ain't judging! And if there is anyone out there that knows how to make a plant grow - it's those guys... It's literally their job.

So only $9.99 on Amazon (plus shipping and handling) - ok to be fair they are probably around 6 bucks at WalMart or Lowes... but even so that's a buck more than my project budget, and $3.50 over my current budget for this weeks update/upgrade.

Can you believe some people are watermarking pictures of red cups???

Many folks use the old trusted 'red cup'.
The party ain't started till you're holding one of these, filled with a beverage of dubious merit!.
Easy to get, you can grab some for a couple of bucks at just about any store. Poke some holes in the bottom and you're good to go.
They work, many many people use these to sprout stuff in - if you've just had a party you probably have these lying around afterwards... a good choice. But I can do one better I think....

VERY CHEAP SEED STARTER!

For this project you'll need the following items.. a container of any size - I have a tupperware type container that came free with my sliced ham. Buy the lunchmeat, get a free container.. I'm happy.
6 toilet rolls. Now.. if you don't have these - you got some problems. Even if you steal the paper from work you still have the rolls!
And some newspaper. can be substituted with junk mail, note paper.. even toilet paper.  Whatever you have... Cost so far $0.





Lets go through this complex, involved, and time consuming build....

Get a wad of newspaper - about 1/2 page.

Stuff it down into the roll and press down while the roll is on a flat surface.

Fill almost to the top with dirt. Put your seed in, then put more dirt over them.

DONE!

The container is simply to hold excess water. Give them a light sprinkle with water and put on a window ledge somewhere.  Extra water in the bottom will 'wick up' through the paper and roll to the soil and keep them moist - so after your initial water you can just put some in the bottom if that suits you.
When they're sprouted and ready for the garden you can empty them into your open hand and plant... you can unwrap them, you can take the paper out the bottom and just shove the roll in your soil - it's up to you. They will biodegrade so that's no problem, and when you're done you throw them.. no point reusing them, and unlike the jiffy system where you need to buy new pucks - all you need for more of these planters is have a crap.  It don't get easier and cheaper than that.

So.. for $2.70 this week we got some new planters, we planted some spuds, put in some more carrots and lettuce, and we hedged our bets with 6 tomato plants in a nifty new indoor germination station.

I'll take the change and buy a soda - I deserve it.

Next week, another 5 bucks and hopefully some new ways to spend it! I have a few ideas already, but you'll have to wait and see.

Cheers!