Garden Update - May 13th.

Time to down tools and have a walk around, as is my custom once a week (when I can). The farm is calling and I'll be short on time for the next week for playing around, but things are progressing well as the temps rise.  A few casualties from the heat, and at this point it's very much 'it is what it is' for the early Spring planting. As temps start creeping into the 90's - any early spring plants will probably fry in the heat before they get a chance to take hold.

Still, the beans are up and flowering, already the nubs of a few beans can be seen.  I'll have to be devoting time and care to these for the next little while. If last year is anything to go by - I'll have to double down on the watering and really make sure I stick to my fertilizing and picking schedule.  After a great run last year I learned that if I keep them fed, watered, and keep up on picking them - you can get a fairly good season. This year I've doubled down in hopes to close in on how much I need to grow to seriously make a dent in our yearly veg bill.

Water is somewhat of a concern at the moment. When I started I prided myself on not needing town water - and my 50 gallon tub refilled enough that I rarely needed to hit the spigot.  Well the garden has more than doubled it's square footage since then, and I find myself reaching for the hose more an more.  This is a good time to start rethinking my water strategy and expanding.  I have a few ideas I'd like to put into it - but this is going to be a rather expensive and time consuming upgrade.  I hope to have enough available 'pocket money' to get a 255 gallon food grade IBC container in after the harvest - I'll have to pretty it up some though in order to swing it past the better half; HMV.

His Masters Voice

Peppers have sprouted and filling out next to the Eggplant. A couple of the Eggplant aren't looking so hot - but we'll see how they do.  It's too late to think about sprouting more. I do have extra peppers to make up the difference if anything fails - at this point every available square has something in it - it might not be maxed on each, but every space holds at least something.

Meanwhile in Chardsville - things are cruising along nicely, and I'll be looking forward to having some of this after work this week.  Cucumbers seem to enjoy it here, so hopefully I'll learn something from this planting and be able to do something serious with them next season - my stepdaughter loves dill pickles, so I'll try my hand at that and hopefully convert her somewhat to the virtues of home-grown.  Up front something is nomming on the cauliflower. I'm thinking slugs or snails - it's too much to be just sunspotting, and I always water after the sun crosses the house.  I have a couple of reserve plants that I could swap out if they go south - but I'd prefer to at least try and grow them this year, and try and apply what I learned from broccoli.

 

If things fail at this point I have plenty of reserve plants from my thinning. I put them into these pots and what lives, lives - as space comes available I swap them into the garden - a lot is taken up by the next wave of lettuce. Last year was a lettuce famine, so I'm hoping to change that this year. There's a little of everything here just waiting to be given a shot. I'm not so concerned about a few plants dropping out - I have plenty to spare.

Plenty of Tomato plants - I gave 4 away, though a couple seem to have stunted and Im at a loss to figure out why. Same soil, same seeds, same sun, same pots. *shrug* some things always remain a mystery.  This year I've also doubled down on the tomatoes.  I'll be keeping them within pots to limit growth, taking suckers away, and seeing what size tomatoes I get. I'm looking for an easy slicing sized to make my lettuce and tomato sandwiches through the summer.

On the Potato front - you can see everything is breaking the surface - the tater pot and the crate are neck and neck, but we've also got some sproutage happening in the garden bed itself. This is going to be a really interesting thing to watch, as we have 12 dollars in the balance and no real losers - I would have shown that the pot can be used for multiple seasons, and thus, is able to pay for itself. For the more frugal, the crate could potentially do the same job for $2.50.

No sign of life in the 5 dollar crate yet.  I'm not giving up, but it's not looking good.  There are just too many variables in there to troubleshoot accurately.  Old non-seed potatoes that probably were a bit TOO old to use. Pine straw mulch, and unlike my other crates, there is no real 'soil bottom' to grab into... I would put this as my #1 concern at the moment.. Stilll we have to try - I'm going to reevaluate it very soon.

The undisputed champ at the moment though is 'Granny Deals ditch and pinestraw'. Every seed potatoe has come up from multiple eyes, and growing faster and bigger than all other takers. It's still in its infancy so far, but I'm pretty amazed at the speed it came up. Amazed but not surprised. When someone in their 90's that's been doing this all their lives shares their 'secret method', you best listen up and listen good.  Our elders in gardening and agriculture are an amazing resource that are overlooked all too often. These folks have forgotten more than many of us will ever know on the subject of growing food.  Rather than dismiss it as 'the old way' - try what they say. When (not if - WHEN) it works, look to your resources, literature, and research to try and find out why... Folks laughed at the crazy natives chewing bark for aches and pains too - nowadays we call it 'asprin'.... just sayin'.

 

Finally a peek up 'squash alley' - all plants accounted for, healthy and growing - in between radishes have popped up, and I plan on planting more.  I'm not too concerned about the actual radishes at the moment - these are companion planted for pest control more than anything... That being said some nice spicy radishes for my salads would go down really nice.. Hmmm maybe I could swing a few more planters for the 5 dollar garden project.

Well, things are up and growing - I'm looking forward to some harvesting, and trust me, not a week of these updates goes by when I don't kick myself in the arse over missing out on late Autumn/Winter. Last year at this time I had fresh veg on the plate with every meal... Still, a lesson learned from a mistake is one you don't soon forget, and I won't be forgetting this one anytime soon.

Hope things are going well for the more northern folks, who are just now getting ready for their Spring planting.

Cheers! and good luck!

 

Understanding Composting - The Basics (aka everything you never wanted to know).

I was thinking about doing up post on basic composting about a week ago, and kept putting it off because "hey, who's interested in that?".  But lately I've seen a couple of people both directly (to me) and indirectly (to a group) ask a lot of questions - so I guess I'll get a cup of coffee and try and put fingers to keyboard for an hour or so.  This will be twice in as many weeks that I've been wrong about 'what people want to read about'.

I'm hoping to just cover the basics for people starting out in this, but I'm also a firm believer is trying to 'know a thing'.  If I know a thing, how and why it works, then I can be free to 'create a thing' with what I have, to do what I need it to. So I'll try and cover the things I've researched so we can, hopefully, understand composting - what it is and how it works, so we can all leverage it to work for our own situation.  I don't want to write a novel, so this will be all about the theory.  Later I'll get into practical.

What is it? What can it do? Why do it?

In a nutshell, composting is just the decomposition of organic matter. Happens all around us all the time.  In a forest you see that floor of leaves, peel it back and you'll see fresh humus. Technically this could be said to be be 'mulching', we just take those same processes and make them optimal, and we have 'composting' - organic matter breaking down to make (strangely enough) compost.

It's a soil amendment, we can add it sandy soil to make it hold moisture. To clay soil it makes it retain water and increases porosity. It helps resist erosion and surface crusting. Attracts earthworms. Adds Nitrogen and Phosphorus. I could fill the pages - but in general 'it's good stuff'.

Why compost? If you're interested in taking your garden or yard to the next level, you're going to want to do it - Pretty much every question you can ask on 'how do I fix this?' in the top 3 answers someone will say 'add compost'.  I personally have another reason : reduces my household waste stream.

Sure it's nice to do things 'for the planet', and if you want to think of me as some kindly man doing his part, please do - but alas, my motivations aren't very altruistic. It costs about 30 bucks a month to add a second garbage can that I would only half fill - and I'm too lazy to want to travel to the dump.. I also like getting my fertilizer and soil conditioners for free.
I compost all my yard trimmings, nearly 100% of my paper goods, and my kitchen scraps - by the handy dandy 'waste stream graph' over half of my garbage waste never sees a landfill...

The point is, no matter what side of the fence you sit on - it's a good thing, and even if you're just thinking of your beer-money at the end of the month,  the end result is the same as if you're environmentally aware.

I'm not even going to do a subheader for usage: You make it, you put it in your soil, mulch your plants, sprinkle it on the yard. It's not rocket science.

That being said - the science behind composting I find amazing.... and if you know how it works, you can make it work for you.

The Nitty Gritty

My first attempt at composting I read up on a couple of forums and looked at many 'it's simple!' type articles (btw it IS simple... when you see the whole picture), and managed to produce a really nice pile of wet, stinky, sludge... meanwhile I saw people making great stuff and when I asked how they did it would say 'LOL! DUNNO MAN! DUNNO WHAT I'M DOING! JUST THROW CRAP IN!' - and ignorance truly is bliss - yet in their approach they did everything right,  and in the tradition of 'knowing just enough to be dangerous' - I did everything wrong.

Composting needs only 3 things:  Suitable material, oxygen, and water.  Like beer only needs Water, Barley, Hops, and Yeast.  But as anyone who has failed at home brew knows, it might only need that - but that alone isn't a guarantee for a blue ribbon at the 'fest.

Composting Material.

I've covered a lot of this on my vermicomposting posts - It's amazing that these 2 processes are so similar and yet so different. The base guidelines of 'what to use' are practically identical:

It's easier to say what you CAN'T compost than it is to make a comprehensive list of what you can:

• No Meat. No Bones.  Ok, technically you probably could, but you don't want to. This won't break down well and you're going to have flies, some god awful smells, and pests like rats and racoons.. It's just not worth even thinking about.
• No Oily Stuff. Same as worms, no grease, oils, butter, margarine, all that stuff.
• No Pet Waste. Won't break down promptly. Amonia. And to be honest, I do my best to keep the cat from crapping in my garden, do I REALLY want to pre-add cat turds?
• No Dairy. Ever smelt 4 day old milk left out of the refigerator? I have. It's not pretty.

 That about covers what you should just leave out.  Putting in? Lots of things.

• Yard Clippings
• Green Kitchen Scraps
• Pine Needles
• Coffee Grounds
• Egg Shells
• Fruit
• Paper Goods 
• Bread
• Sawdust
• Wood chips

 Pretty much anything that isn't a 'don't' - even sod.  There is just too much to make a decisive list.

So with all this good stuff, how could I have made such an epic fail?  Well the devil is in the details, or in this case 'how much of what'.

The Composting Process

My fail came from reading other people saying 'how much of what' and not understanding what was going on, how to tell if it was working, or how to fix it if I wasn't - so before I can give you some kind of 'recipe', I have to cover what's going on and why....

Composting is just 'stuff breaking down'. That's it.  We're manipulating how to make it efficient and faster.  It's a combination of inveterates (bugs, insects, worms, etc.) chomping stuff up, microorganisms (protozoa , fungi, bacteria) breaking stuff down creating heat which will kill pathogens and destroy seeds, till finally you end up with compost.

It's important to note that composting is an aerobic process. Which is simply 'with air' - as opposed to anaerobic. The microorganisms that love one environment are different from the ones that don't. A good example of anaerobic decomposition is fermentation.
When your compost doesn't have oxygen, instead of of carbon dioxide being a bi-product, we get hydrogen sulphide... which is known in chemistry circles as 'stinky egg fart smell'.

So.. Oxygen.. it's a big one. The microorganisms we want to attract like a minimum of 5% oxygen.. this is no big deal as fresh air contains about 20%.

Also, there isn't any one type of bug or one type of microbug that will do the process, but rather large ranges of them that like different substances and different heats.  The prime movers are  Psychrophilic bacteria that start the process at around 55 degrees, their very existence generates heat, giving way to Mesophilic at 70 to 100 degrees, and finally Thermophilic at 113 to 155 degrees.
Anyone who's made cheese will recognize the last two bacteria families, which is a nice way to think of them as 'good' rather than 'yucky' when we say 'bacteria'.
Of these, the second type, Mesophilic, is the most active. It's this surge of activity that generates the heat for Thermophilic - who at that point generates so much heat a lot of decomposers are killed and go dormant - it's responsible for raising your compost to around 160 degrees - killing pathogens, destroying seeds, and ultimately itself..
So you have this surge of activity that goes up the scale, peaks, then decends - and you can monitor it just with a thermometer - who needs Lord of The Rings huh? It's all pretty epic when you think about it.  When you see fungi in your composter (I see it on the sides of mine sometimes) you're watching this process.

Just like the microorganisms, the invertebrates also follow this surge.  Early springtails and nematodes eat fungi, which are in turn eaten by mites, those by millipedes, as they in turn process and shift materials, they follow their own complex web adjusting to different temperatures and environments. Earthworms burrow and eat....larva hatch.. it goes on all the way up, and all the way down till there's nothing for them to eat... and they they move on...

 Leaving behind compost.

 So it's all very cool and sounds very natural and easy... and really it is.. once you know how to kickstart the process... which again, is where I failed, and my 'devil may care' friend succeeded.  There are a few factors that determine how well the process runs, they are:

• The Carbon To Nitrogen Ration (IMPORTANT).
• Surface Area Exposed
• Moisture
• Aeration
• Temperature Reached

CARBON TO NITROGEN RATIO

If you've read the vermicomposting articles you'll see me talk about 'greens and browns' .  That's just a simplification of Carbon to Nitrogen - if you think of green scraps and clippings as being high in nitrogen, and brown paper and dry leaves as being high in carbon.
In your compost heap, when thinking in terms of 'green and brown' you want good 50/50 mix - and that will put you in the ballpark you want.

In terms of actual carbon to nitrogen, you want close to a 30:1 ratio. 


Why? A picture is worth a thousand words.  The ratio is going to determine how hot your compost will get, which in turn will have a direct impact on how long it will take.
Not to mention (as we covered above) how well the process will destroy any unwanted greeblies and things like seed from weeds.








"But you said 50/50!" I hear you cry... indeed, but oils aint oils and and nitrogen/carbon content doesn't equal a straight volume across the board... everything contains it's own ratio of carbon and nitrogen.

 So, that 1lb of paper isn't the same as that 1lb of leaves, but against that 1lb of veg scraps, some grass clippings and few cups of coffee grounds... and we're closer to 30:1 than you'd think!

It's important... but not enough to micromanage your input. The more important thing is understanding why it's relevant, so if things aren't quite right we can identify and fix them.

In a nutshell - those microorganisms we talked about earlier digest (oxidize) carbon as an energy source, and they ingest nitrogen for protein synthesis... the bi-product of this is (ta da) carbon dioxide and heat.  When too little nitrogen is present, they can't process that carbon, and decomposition slows down.  They slow down, your heat decreases, we never get to that magic third stage of thermophilic bacteria...
 What's more, if this unfinished product is in your garden it will take available nitrogen to complete this task - and that nitrogen is what you want IN your soil for your plants...

Problem : things slow down - Solution:  Mo nitrogen.

So, why don't we just put in HEAPS of nitrogen!  (and again - MY FAIL, even without knowing the process... just reading 'LOTS OF CLIPPINGS!').  With too MUCH nitrogen there is lots to use, but nothing to digest - no energy.. no energy means no breakdown and that nitrogen converts to ammonia gas and.... POOF.. there goes the nitrogen in a vent of horrible cat-piss-smell.

Problem: Things slow down AND stanky!  Solution: Mo Carbon.

SURFACE AREA

Bacteria propagate on the surface of material in the compost - more area = more bacteria. Now the immediate thought is that something like a big sheet of cardboard has lots of surface area - well it does, but if you shred it into little bits, all those bits have edges, greatly increasing the total surface area present.  So shredding papergoods, cutting down plants, crushing leaves - it all increases that all important surface area, which gives you a greater population of little critters... But.....
There's always a but.  Too MUCH surface area, where things are shredded down so tiny and crushed - all those things pack tightly together, and that decreases our oxygen flow.  No oxygen = anaerobic fermentation = funky smell.

Do you see a theme here? Just about anything wrong ends up with some funk.. so if you smell the funk, something is amiss.

Looking back at my case in fail. I had a big pile of finely shredded grass, along with a too much water - everything compacted down... whereas my buddy just threw in 'any old crap' with it's any old size, creating space for things to move, for moisture to flow, and oxygen to breathe.

Solution: Add some bigger, chunkier stuff and mix it into your compost.

MOISTURE

Microbial decomposition occurs best on a liquid film covering surfaces - those surfaces we just covered.  Around 40 - 60% moisture is ideal, providing enough moisture without sacrificing air flow.  Too little and the bacteria will slow down, or even go dormant.  Too much and we lose airflow, the compost goes anaerobic.. and... yeah.. funk factor five.
The easiest way to test for a good moisture level is to squeeze it. It should feel like a damp sponge - you should be able to get a few drops out of it, but not a stream... if you have too much water there is an easy fix.. you can add some more brown material (remember, your 'green' material has a high percentage of water!) and turn the compost with a fork - let some water out, let some air in.

Problem: Bad Smells and very wet.  Solution: Add some dry brown material and mix.

AERATION

It's simply the replacing of oxygen deficient air to the center of your compost pile.  Fast composting only happens when there's enough going through it. Thanks to the wonder of physics (and in particular convection) - if we've followed through on the things above, this will be taken care of for us 'as if by magic!' - Hot gasses will rise from that 160 degree center and new air will be pulled in from below.  Of course for that to happen we need some porosity. This is the space between particles.  So long as we have a good mix of materials of different sizes, and we haven't waterlogged our pile, and air can actually get in, this is all taken care of for us... we can also turn our pile with  a fork, or even set up our composter (like a rotating drum composter) so we can aerate it further, speeding up the process... aeration is just 'putting air in'. If no air is in... guess what happens?  Uh huh - smells.. how to fix it? Uh huh, turn it and add air.

SUMMARY

So in summary... going back to my example. I failed because my C:N was totally outta whack, My particle size was so fine it compacted, then I added too much water - blocking the air, which made my pile anaerobic and it fermented into a smelly pile of sludge.. probably better used to kill plants than feed them.  I was overthinking a process that I had didn't understand.

My friend succeeded because, unknown to him, he had a great C:N ratio with particles of many sizes, allowing air and moisture to flow freely. He didn't overwater it or micromanage it, in fact a lot of his water came from his green materials.
He was underthinking a process he didn't need to understand.


It takes a lot of words to describe a process so beautifully simple and elegant.


Cheers!


SOURCES:

Composting to reduce waste stream
Composting Fundamentals
CSWEC

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!

Potatoes 3 Ways.

Last year I did a longish post about spuds, promising this year to return to the scene of the crime and (hopefully) do better and have a more objective look at ways to grow them.

It's a good thing I keep a blog to remind me of things I was going to do, and when I did them - that being said, I should actually spend more time READING what I said I would do and when I would do it. I'd been looking at the date on that post and saying 'ohhhh yeah I did that in May.. so I'll put them out in April and actually be EARLY' - but if you read the link, you'll see that I actually planted those in February *facepalm* but it's all good. Win lose or draw we're going ahead with it!

The general methods you see surrounding potatoes all seem to follow the same principle: you plant your seed potato, then pile up the medium around them as the plant grows. The plant below ground then puts out roots and forms your spuds.  So I'm going to go about this 3 different ways, as well continue on the promised 'head to head' of commercially bought vs DIY methods, and finally, close out by combining different aspects of these methods into a 5 dollar garden experiment.. so - lots to cover.

Method 1. Containers

Last years tater pot

 Growing spuds in containers is pretty straight forward, and we covered it last year. Your growing medium (peat moss or something like it such as coconut coir) is put down in the bottom of the pot (a couple of inches) and you put down your seeder spuds, then cover them over with a couple more inches.  When they sprout you add more medium as they shoot up till the pot is full.  There are pots you can buy such as the 'tater pot' I used last year.

DIY tater box

Or you can make your own - I used a storage crate with some landscaping fabric in it. Last year I had good luck with this, so I spent the year making sure that when they went on sale I had a few dollars in my pocket to pick some up. Problem is, they're just too damn useful.  I have probably 20 of these now, but they're all in my workshop storing stuff.  Probably a good thing I guess as jumping in at the deep end with with such a massive amount would probably be a bit much to handle.  I have set up 3 this year.

The medium I'll be using is pretty much the same as last year.  4 big handfuls of coconut coir to one big handful of worm castings.  I'll be using this across the board on my containers - so they all have the same soil, sun, and seeds. This year I'm using Kennebec potatoes.  I hope to let them all grow out and do an objective comparison at the end between the 12 dollar tater pot and my 2.50 storage crate.

 I've put similar sized seeds in both the tater pot and one crate, both have 3  - the last one I put 4 in because that one is 'mine' to grow as I please.  Next they are covered up with a couple of inches of coir and will be kept well watered. Not too wet or they'll rot.
One good thing about growing in containers is that if you get rot in one container, you can try and save what you can, but it's not going to spread to another container. So there is a chance to contain your problems easily.


My last post on potatoes covers pretty much all the info on this, so follow the link at the top. No need for me to type everything out again.

Method 2. The Tower

  I've done this method before, before I moved to this house. Unfortunately we had to move (happily to this house) before the potatoes had a chance to grow out entirely.

The idea here is that you build a box (a few feet square) and you add dirt as the plants grow (nothing unusual) - as the plants reach the top you add boards, increasing the height of the structure - up to around 3 - 4 feet hight. When grown out you remove the boards and sort your potatoes.

 When I did it, I got a few spuds out of it, and the roots looked like they would have put out quite a few more had I been able to let it run to completion. So, why aren't I doing it here?
Well there are a couple of things about this method - number 1 being you have to come up with a LOT of soil, and given that you really shouldn't grow potatoes in the same soil for more than 2 years running, you have to not only find a use for all the soil used, but also replace it all.  For me it didn't seem that economic.

Still the idea is sound, so It got me thinking on how I could use this method, only on a smaller scale.

With all the offcuts I have from various garden beds, the sandbox, and other things - I have plenty of small lumber laying around. A lot of it longer than a foot.
Grabbing some and heading to the workshop I made up a small foot square box that I'll be using over a square in my garden bed - think of it like an 'extender' to let me take that small part of the bed higher than 6 inches.
I have a template made so every square I build will have the same dimensions - making them easy to stack up.

We put the seeds down (we'll go with 2) and cover them over. Our 6 inch bed means they can have around 3 inches below them and a couple of inches above them - pretty much the same as if we put them in a container - or used the bigger tower method.

We put the frame over top, and we can fill it with our grow medium when the plants poke out - as they grow up, another can be added - as high as I feel it's worth going (probably not terribly high).
The soil in this when the potatoes are done can be used in the rest of the bed, so it's not going to waste.  I can also take advantage of companion planting, as they are sharing the same soil to some extent.  We'll see how this goes.

Method 3. Grannies Ditch and Straw Method.

This final method comes from the Matriarch of my Wife's family.  Between her and her husband they share a near 2 centuries of gardening and agriculture knowledge and history.  There's nothing new to this , it's just 'the ditch method', but with a couple of things that I personally wouldn't have thought of.

This is as basic as it gets - no boxes, frames, landscaping fabric, string.. not even any mixing of coconut coir or other things.

You dig a ditch, as long as you want.  You put down your seeds 'with about a hands distance between them' - now there are hands and there are hands, and I'm pretty sure that at some point folks doing this would have said 'cubits' or something.  So I'm laying down 4 seeds and testing the water. Next is the incredibly simple, part:

Pine straw (or pine needles if you like). Cover them in pine straw.
Everything else is exactly the same - plants sprout, pile up pine straw around them.
I have a bunch of breaking down pine straw that was left over from some landscaping and won't be used for much else - people like fresh nice brown pine straw for mulch - so it's a perfect use.  It's so simple, and free, and fills all the requirements for spuds - loose, well drained, and as it breaks down (and it does break down really well) will add that slightly acidic soil that spuds need to grow well... it's also loose enough that you can put your hand in it to check for new spuds without disturbing the others... and did I mention, it's free if you have a rake and some pine trees growing near you?

When the spuds are done and the needles break down - I don't need to do anything with it. I could just plant something else.. done deal.

5 dollar Garden Spuds

 Now all this is well and good if you have space to dig a ditch, or money to throw on moss or coir, and compost/worm castings available, have some spare landscaping cloth. But how to do it on the cheap?
Well I figured that the crate cost me 2.50, which makes it a great start point for a 5 dollar garden project.
Assuming we have a 'have nothing' start point, we need to keep the medium in the crate in a way that allows drainage... so.. a few sheets of newspaper should do the trick. I wet them down to make them sit easier.

Last year I got some seeds for 2 dollars. This year I wasn't so lucky.. BUT I had been planning to use some spuds I sprouted myself and had kept in the fridge... not all of them survived the wait, but I did have 4 pretty good candidates - these are just plain old potatoes I had bought and and a couple that were left had sprouted. I put them away to see if we could grow them... so cost for me: nothing. I would have thrown them out.  We've put them down on a bed of broken down pine straw.. I had this piled off on one side of the driveway doing nothing, but if I didn't have it on hand, it was just a 20ft walk for me to get some from the park across the road. I realize there are SOME climates that may not have pine trees, but for most people it's very accessible.  If you don't have it, you could try and use crushed leaves, I dunno - might work.

we top it up with pine straw, this will flatten down with watering and break down - and we will pile it up to the top as the plants grow and see how it turns out - now this is something I would REALLY suggest doing outdoors. I've not tried growing spuds inside, and to be honest it's not likely something I'm going to try. It might be all well and good and work out great - but if one of those spuds starts to rot, you'll soon know about it.

 So there we have it, spuds all out and ready, done 3 different ways and ready to see which method gives me the best results!


Cheers!

5 Dollar Garden - Starting Out.

I'm starting a new tag on the blog, 5 Dollar Garden.  It's something I ran by some people on a few social networking sites, and people seem to like the idea.  Anything tagged with this will either be a stand alone post, or have some relevant information on the 5 Dollar Garden project.

So.. what is it?

It's about something that's been bugging me lately - a prevailing 'can't do' attitude I see popping up in comments and discussions around the internet, and not even by people who want to try any of this - I don't think they have any intention. It's just naysaying for the sake of naysaying:

'It's easy for you - you have land' 'you have a yard' 'you have money to thow into it' 'you live in the country'- the list goes on and on. Basically anything you can say or suggestion will be met with 'can't do - it's easy for you'.

I guess it bugs more nowadays because I've steered my life in a direction to do this. It's had a direct impact on many of my decisions and so now I'm one of the 'easy for you's'.  Doesn't matter that I started in an apartment in the middle of the desert. Only where I am now.  Doesn't matter that when I started $10 was a HUGE budget to spend on 'dirt', only what I spend now.
 The other thing that bugs me is that people that genuinely want to try this, but have doubts, will be put off taking that first step thinking that it's just not possible for them... and that's bullshit.

So rather than discussing it with a brick wall of negativity for the audiences benefit, I'm just going to return to my roots and DO.

You can do this. It doesn't matter where you live or how much money you have to spend. You can start, and you can probably start today.

You don't need a lot of money, you don't need a lot of space, you don't even need a lot of knowledge.  Every project for this mini garden will be done on a hard budget of 5 dollars.  I'm going to use what I can lay my hands on - and further limit myself in that regard to things that a majority of people CAN lay their hands on.   It's ambitious, and I think some things will work, and others will fail.  But I think everyone who genuinely wants to grow at least some of their own food will be able to get something from this.  Maybe not every project will be one you can do - but hopefully it will get you thinking on ways to get around the limitations set by your individual circumstance.

So... how the heck am I going to start with just $5?

Well... if those folks with Aquaponic Greenhouses are the 'ferrari of gardening' - we're gonna be the Yugo.  It aint fast, it aint pretty, but it's gonna get us from point A to point B.   And lets be honest - any car beats walking.

We're going to start out on the assumption that you have nothing - this is your start point, that your space is probably limited. You might be in a town house or apartment.   So what do you buy?

The $5 Budget

$4.86 - tax included

The basics.  We can get by with many things, but the 2 things we need most are soil and seeds.  Now you can even get these for nothing, and if you can - go for it. But they are the top priority items.  I'd even suggest that folks buy potting soil first time around - what brand? Whatever you find that's cheapest.  Dollar stores will have it on special all the time for $2.50 a bag - My usual was sold out, but the supermarket I go to had a '3 for 10 dollars' special going, and only one bag left on the palette - so I asked how much.
You don't need special pre-fertilized Miracle-Gro potting soil.  In fact you'll probably be happier without it as you'll learn more about plant nutrition and how to keep your soil rather than in a few months say 'this doesn't work no more' and buy another 10 dollar bag.  The soil we bought here we're gonna keep. We're gonna work it and improve it over time and it will probably never need to be replaced.  My $3.34 bought me a cubic foot of soil - and we're not even gonna use all of it today.
We need seeds.  Looking around you'll see special hybrid seeds, organic seeds, starter pack seeds, what seeds did I buy? Same as when I first started:  cheap seeds.  Go to your dollar store, or to the back aisles in the gardening sections of big stores like WalMart, Lowes, and you'll find seeds by companies like 'American Seeds' and others - they'll have 20c to 50c prices on them. Some brands I call 'mystery seeds' - they don't even have proper art on them - but a drawing of the plant , and no labeling of the variety... just 'TOMATOES' - I wouldn't be one bit surprised if you planted some and got Lettuce.. but they're cheap and they'll grow. I bought tomatoes, beans, and I had 20c so I bought carrots as well... for reasons I'll explain.

No - it's not much.. but then again I didn't really have that much money did I?

Where Are The Pots?

Well I'm not about to turn around and say 'now go to the pots you have..' or 'borrow some from a friend'.. I don't have pots (well I do.. but),  But I do have milk.. Lots of milk. I have twins that turn 4 tomorrow. I go through a gallon and a bit of milk a day... at least.
If  you have a family, you probably buy milk - and if you don't have kids you probably do but drink it slower. If you're a vegan or lactose intolerant you probably buy juice - same jug. Don't buy juice? Water, Vinegar, lots of things come in these jugs. And every gallon you buy, it comes with a free pot.
First - WASH THEM or they'll smell like hell itself when you get around to using them.  I fill mine with hot water, put the lid on and shake them as soon as they're empty - now the hot water can deform them, so I let it cool then repeat the process.

I'm gonna make 6 - three for Toms and three for Beans.  To grow in pots I prefer to grow Bush beans - it will be marked on the pack, they won't vine up and climb like a pole bean, they produce a goodly amount, and you can plant them real close to each other (I do 9 per square foot) - also for a bonus they will add nitrogen to your new soil so by the time we're done, these pots will probably have better dirt in them than when we started - ideal to use again.
The making is simple - halfway down the jug draw a line, then cut along it with whatever you have. Personally I use a knife to start the cut, and regular old scissors to cut around.

  Now because the manufacturers have made them barely thick enough to do the job - when you put pressure on them they will bend - so I leave the lid on and only start with the stanley knife.  Save the top and put it aside, this could come in handy depending on your own setup and what space you have available to grow in.

 If you plant to grow indoors, that top can be fit inside the bottom - now you have a resevoir to hold water, as well as eliminating the need to put something under the pot to catch water that drains out the bottom. You could take it a step further and fill that bottom with sand and the top with soil, and make a 'wicking pot' that will self water.

 Is it cold where you are? loosely taping the top back on makes for a quick n dirty cold frame - or when I lived in Nevada - on those blistering hot dry days - keep the humidity and moisture inside with the plant.. didn't stop the heat but it helped.

I'm going to be going outside, so I need some drainage holes in the bottom - I put in about 12 spaced around the bottom using a screw - you could use a drill, a dremmel, a nail, even a knife.  But you want water to drain through and out. Plants need oxygen and believe it or not can drown.

I made 3 of these pots for beans - that seems a good number to start with.

Tomatoes will grow a bit taller and need support both above and below ground, so I made 3 more planters a bit taller.  This will give them more room to grow down into, but also that handy nub where the handle was is going to come in real handy to push a stake into when the plant starts growing taller.  These are cherry tomatoes and I'd though not labled it's a pretty sure bet that they are vines and not bush.  Also we'll be putting 2 carrots down with our tomatoes... so we want a little depth (but more on that later).

These are more for giggles than anything else, but I bet someone would say 'Easy for YOU - YOU have gardening tools!' So I decided to shut them up maybe get your brain ticking on what other things you could do.......

The handle off one of the offcut jugs

and a couple of dabs of hot glue........WATERING CAN

Quick line with a sharpee.. a few snips with scissors...

GARDEN SPADE.. Ok, now I'm good to go!

 In the end we have 3 Bean planters, 3 Tomato Planters, a watering can and a spade!
Ok, I don't seriously expect anyone to use those last two...But it was fun after boring a ton of little holes with a deck screw... 

LETS PLANT!

 All set out and ready to go at a small area at the back of the driveway (off to the side of the BMG).  It's a slab in my backyard, but it could be your balcony, the front step, in bigger cities the fire escape - could even be the roof of the building, or the roof of a trailer.. a well lit countertop, a planter box, that weird bit of jutting out area that messes up the view out of a window (we've all lived in THAT place).  Wherever you are all you need is a bit of the sun and you're good to go.  If it's hard to find that bit of sun, ask around - ask the building manager or neighbours - the worst they can say is no.. and you never know, you might end up with some help or encourage someone else to start - that's how you begin co-ops.
Naturally step 1 is filling the pots, these 6 I used a bit over half the bag - this is why getting the biggest bag you can for your money is a good idea. Smaller bags may seem cheaper, but when you do the math they're costing you more money. You should be able to get a good sized bag for under 3.50 - so go for it.

 On the back of the pack it tells you all the info on planting depths.. Toms and Carrots are 1/4 inch. so I make 3 little holes - a Carrot on each side and a Tom up the front... Ok.. why the Carrots?  Something I've been researching and getting into ; Companion planting. Some plants are very compatible with others and actually benefit from each other be it in growing or keeping away insects.  In this case Carrots grow well with Tomatoes, so we can get 3 things from this pot rather than just one.
Beans have a depth of 1 inch, so holes are poked for those two. Seeds are sprinkled into the holes and covered up. I take a pinch and TRY and sprinkle in 3.  Out of those 3-4 you're pretty sure of getting one to sprout.  Excess will be thinned once they start to grow.  Beans I put 2 to a pot, and put 2 seeds in each hole.  Again, extras will be thinnned.

 As you can see, even in a 50c packet of seeds we still have LOTS left over.  We'll put these aside and use them when we have more planters ready.

SEE IT WORKS!

Next we water them, just till they put water out the bottom and the soil is good and damp. As you can see, my watering can actually works.











Next all we have to do is wait and see what pops up. That can be the hard part, and you'll find yourself looking at them every couple of days... No, it's not big. But even as I type this the kids have polished off yet another jug of milk. Right now I could add 2 planters to this and it wouldn't cost me a dime.  I have the dirt, I have the seeds.  You might be surprised by how much this little thing will put out if you treat it right.
  The best part is that if you do this, you're going to find yourself drinking that glass of milk, or juice in the morning - because now you're not just creating trash when it's empty - but making another space to grow.. Gardening is already improving your health before you even saw your first seedling sprout!  You could dedicate a container just for carrots and plant 4 in there - or next time your shopping see a 20c bag of lettuce seeds... Yes, it's small - but it can grow to your space, your needs, and your tastes.

And that's it!

And of course someone is going to say, here at the end, "It's Ugly". Well, it's not pretty - but it's in my back yard on a slab of concrete, next to a pile of wood offcuts and an unfinished yard tool project. In my case 'I don't care'.  But I'm not all of you.  There's no reason to keep it plain - decorate it if you like. If you have kids get them in on it with paints and stickers.  Make it a family project and get everyone involved.  My fondest memories are watching my Mother in her tiny veg garden in Canberra.  It's what drew me back to all this in the first place.

We'll be looking at different ways to expand this base in future posts - how to look after your soil, grow different veg, even how to compost anywhere. Also in other parts of the blog if I have info that can be passed to the 5 dollar garden concept, it will share the tag.


Cheers!