Comments on: Planning Ahead for Next Year’s Garden

By: Georgia

Georgia — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:22:03 +0000

Another thing you could do is save your own seeds, but you should have heirloom plants. We did save some seeds from a cherry tom (non heirloom)& they turned out just fine. It’s really easy.

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:30:25 +0000

A few gardening comments – an EXCELLENT seed catalog is Vesey’s (www.veseys.com), which operates in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Their prices are reasonable, and for each variety of seed or plant (vegetable or flower seed, rose bush, tulip bulb,etc….) they provide an ample description about the characteristic of that item. This is great if you want a tomato with few seeds, or a pea that is an excellent freezer. Their catalogs often come with a code for $25 off when you spend $50 or more. I have never paid full price using this method!!

Secondly, there is a new planter product out now (you can see it at Vesey’s and many other places) that allow you to plant tomatoes and others (cucumbers, peppers, eggplant) UPSIDE DOWN. Sort of like a hanging basket. Claims to work extremely well, very user friendly, and excellent if you are short on space. Price is so-so – $50 for three.

Finally, the newspaper as weed cover, and compost contributions, are just two ways to be a frugal gardener. I am saving all 2L plastic pop bottles I can find to use as a make-do bell jar type of protector and insulator for new transplants, and then flip them over (cap side in earth) to store extra water and irrigate the plants. Scrapes of wood from home projects will be turned into stakes and pea/bean growing fences, and left over craft supplies can be turned into pretty plant markers and containers with a bit of creativity.

It is VERY, VERY easy to try to do too much in your first year or two, and it is important to realize that gardening is a life long learning process. Looking in gardening magazines demonstrates how you could easily spend thousands of dollars on a small dollar and you have to find a balance between quality products and tools that provide you with significant help, and spending so much on gardening toys, specialty tools, treats, etc… that you are actually loosing money by growing your own produce.

For a beginner, I would recommend picking up some inexpensive already-growing plants from the garden center and try to nurture a few tomatoes, a cucumber, a pepper, and basic herbs on a window sill, fire escape, front step, etc… Lettuce is a great thing to try from seed for the first time. Instant salad! For flowers, marigolds and pansys seem to be the most forgiving to garden klutzes and provide bright color, a very long blooming season, and easy planting.

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:23:39 +0000

Roma (Italian plum) tomatoes are traditional for sauce, but you can make sauce from any tomoatoes of which you have. The compost heap in an old metal trash can with a rusted bottom works great as the water percolates through it. If possible put it directly under the drip line of a garden shed or barn, so rain water flows into the barrel. In winter the water freezes, breaking up the plant tissue. We use three barrels, in a row, one current, one “working” and one ready for spreading on the garden. In the warm weather it’s easy to dig a small hole in the garden, among the tomoato plants, bury the day’s compostables which will rot directly into the earth, saves the work of composting. Vegetative compost won’t smell and it doesn’t have to be messy. Compost “starter” is not necessary, because organic stuff ROTS. This is a good time (dead of winter) to collect used horse bedding or straight manure (from the fields) to bed down your garden. We have covered the asparagus and rhubarb beds with a foot of woodchips laced with horse manure. You can also compost horse, or bunny manure along with your household compostables, talk about a “starter”! Happy gardening all!

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:39:52 +0000

What type of tomatoes do you suggest for spaghetti sauce?

By: Stephanie PTY

Stephanie PTY — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:06:58 +0000

Oh, I very much want to start a garden in 2009, but the year that I graduate college and move to who-knows-where is not the time for me. Next year!

By: John

John — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:24:07 +0000

I want to comment on one thing I tryed that worked before the first frost you have green tomatoes on vines, if you pull them up and hang them upside down in basemrnt or pump house you can have fresh tomatoes for several months after the season has ended. cherry tomatoes work good.

By: Gwen Jones

Gwen Jones — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:59:45 +0000

You can also dry seeds from tomatoes and other vegetables and grow them the next year. This saves money on the more expensive heritage seeds. Just keep them in a cool/dry place until you’re ready to start them.
– Gwen
http://frugal-bugle.com/

By: M

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:18:05 +0000

You can get the grow light bulbs at Home Depot/Lowes with the regular light bulbs. They are bluish (sp?) in color. Cost is approximately $3-4. We put the bulb in our closet and put the trays on the shelf last year – it worked great.

By: SS

SS — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Trent,
I had the idea of planning my first vegetable
garden. I plan of getting cups and soil and seeds
and planting them and growing and then replanting.
I will make a raised bed. I have have a lot of squirrels that I will have to keep out by using
chicken wire. They will try anything. Also birds.
I will use a scarecrow too. Those are inexpensive
at the dollar store. The growing light –I will have
to find one before January or February. This is my
plan. Thank you for this post. It helped me put it
into prospective. I am looking forward to doing something I want to do but have not. Please
write more articles on this subject too. I love
the idea to eat my own vegetables and being self sufficient and frugal and healthy. I will have to
find the garden club up to see the growing info. they have for my area of the mountains.
Have a great day. This was a highlight of my day posting. Happy Gardening!!!!

By: bjc

bjc — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:30:46 +0000

I agree with many comments, that I’d like more ‘meat’ to this topic. Living in the downtown core of a big city (Vancouver), we’re hoping to secure a small plot in a community garden project. Any suggestions for tiny gardens? We haven’t got room in our condo to do much in the way of composting or growing sprouts.

Also, would assume you meant to ‘thaw’ (rather than ‘unthaw’) your tomatoes? ;-)

By: marlene

marlene — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:28:01 +0000

Love reading your posts. A couple of posts you referred to “unthawing” something…when really you meant “thawing”.

By: Georgia

Georgia — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:40:57 +0000

cynthia – if you think dKelly’s idea was gross, mine might be a little worse. My daughter and son in law had mole problems. Also rabbits and deer eating their garden. They used the same idea for both – used cat litter. They poured it into holes into the mole trails and spread it around the outside of their garden. Of course, with the moles that just sends them to your meighbors.

Daughter said she had a funny instance with the garden. Rabbits, deer wouldn’t even come into the garden, but 2 squirrels sat outside looking at the garden. Then they would run in, grab something, run back out, and eat it there. Usually they would just sit in the garden and enjoy themselves.

By: Jillian

Jillian — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:40:08 +0000

I LOVE seed catalogues! My garden is all in containers at the moment since we will probably buy a house next year, but I can’t resist buying far too many seeds for the amount of space I have available. And even though I order my seeds through a website I still have to buy the catalogue – it’s so much fun to flick through.

Spaces, I’d love a house with an established organic vege garden, and I think a lot of people are getting more interested in growing their own food these days so I don’t imagine you’d have trouble selling it. Unfortunately where I live there’s not much chance of getting one – everything with a decent-sized yard gets snapped up by developers who want to subdivide and build another house, so the prices are crazy.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:39:40 +0000

We’ve had our garden completely enclosed by chicken wire for the past 2 years and haven’t had any rabbit problems. Now if only that worked for the squash bugs too.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:53:10 +0000

to “spaces”: We are currently selling our house, with 2 composts heaps. We, however, keep them in large plastic containers designed for holding compost, and they are in the side of the yard, out of the way. I think you can still sell the house just fine as long as your compost pile is fully enclosed (my opinion only of course). If you have lots of space even an uncovered compost pile can be fine. Maybe hide the pile behind a shed or garage? I agree it should be a selling point, but that’s up to you and your realtor!

to “cynthia”: your cheapest options to protect your plants from deer and rabbits: even if you don’t own a dog, ask your friends who own dogs or cats to collect some fur when they brush their animals (or volunteer to brush their animals for them and collect the fur), and spread the fur around your precious plants. It may sound gross, but you can also use human urine to deter your furry pests. Keep in mind, you’ll have to reapply either of those every so often to continue keeping pests away. (Have fun with that!) Less gross: is to use something like chicken wire, wire panels with very small openings that the animals can’t penetrate… but that costs more.

By: albina

albina — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:44:48 +0000

Before putting your house up for sale, plant your garden beds with annual flowers (seeds of course, not expensive plants)–new owners wont have to worry about harvesting vegetables but will have lots of fresh floral bouquets in their new home…
worked out well for me when i sold my last house.

By: M

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:37:43 +0000

Too funny that you posted this, as I was just being made fun of by a co-worker on Monday for planning my 2009 garden.

The red raspberry bushes that were planted Spring ’08 (2 year canes) should produce fruit this year. I am very excited for their arrival!

I decided to K-I-S-S this year. I need intant gratification and long producing items in the garden to keep my interest (and to help me keep up with weeding!). We will be planting: Roma Tomatoes, Big Boy tomatoes, Greenbeans, Soy Beans (edamame), Zuchs, Brussel Sprouts and Basil.

We are also planning on adding a few more fruits for future produce if the budget allows: Grape Vines (Niagara & Concord Grapes), Blueberry Bushes (Qty. 3) and a Blackberry Bush or two.

We have a couple of tins of used coffee grounds we have accumulated from people (we dont drink coffee), we dry out our eggshells and crush them and mix with the coffee for fertilizer. This is the first year for this, so we’ll see how it works out!

I’m so glad I’m not the ONLY “crazy” one planning my garden 6 months in advance! :-)

By: cynthia

cynthia — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:17:26 +0000

This year my garden plans were hosed a bit by the deer and bunnies that freely come in to my yard. Do you have any wildlife? What do you do to prevent the fruits of your labor going to the animals? I don’t have a dog and I live in the city (and am a vegetarian) so, turning them into food won’t work for me. . . thanks!

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:31:05 +0000

All this talk about gardening, sent me to my favorite source of heirloom seeds. Diane’s seeds! I have no connection to them, just want to pass on a link to great heirloom seeds.

http://www.dianeseeds.com

By: susan

susan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:42:00 +0000

I want to go play in my garden! There is nothing like going out back and picking your salad for dinner, the herbs to season the meat and some fresh lavender to make the house smell nice.

C’mon Spring! :)