Comments on: Spring and the Awakening Garden

By: Heather K.

Heather K. — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:49:57 +0000

I’m very much a novice when it comes to growing anything at all, but after reading about growing vegetables in straw bales, I was intrigued and decided to give it a try. Have you ever heard of or tried this method of gardening? I’ve started a blog just to keep up with my progress. I’m very excited about it and can’t wait for all the fresh produce (assuming it works)!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:18:45 +0000

@Ellen – I got the peat pots at the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

@DDFD – We like it but I worry about it tipping over onto curious kids. I need to secure it to something.

@George (et. al.) – I hoed the garden by hand last year, and may this year as well. Or my father-in-law may loan us his if they come visit around the right time.

- Sarah (Trent’s wife)

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:59:10 +0000

How do you like that barrel composter?

I have been thinking of buying or making one . . .

By: Thrifty Momma

Thrifty Momma — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:42:49 +0000

I agree you can turn that small plot yourself with a shovel. We mostly use a shovel, hoe, and metal rake that is great for breaking up clumps. I like using the rake to get out old leaves and just smoothing out the plot before making rows. We’ve owned these tools for several years. It’s great exercise.

By: Bavaria

Bavaria — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:38:05 +0000

A friend has had good results vacuum sealing her excess garden seeds and using them the next year. It seems to keep the germination % higher than unsealed packets.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:06:35 +0000

I am very frugal and have never thrown out any seeds and I have a huge cache them that are 20 years old. I just did an experiment and sprouted 10 of each by putting them on a paper towel labeled with the name of the seed,wetting them with a spray bottle, folding several times and putting in a large ziplock in a single layer, so they each get some oxygen. Put the single thickness of paper towel upwards. I found that almost all of them sprouted at 90% to 100%. A few were 0%-30% and I threw those out. Those that were 40%-70% I will just plant more closely. I just wanted you to know that if you keep your seeds cool and dry you can use them far after the season they are packed for. They still do grow fine vegetables.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:19:45 +0000

Trent, if there is a late frost your garden is small enough to put some old sheets over it to protect it.

By: Melody

Melody — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:59:36 +0000

Can I find her journal on GardenStew?! That’s where I started a blog. I’ve just gotten the guts, as it were, to try gardening vegetables this year. Since I am in FL (*raspberry*) I already have sprouts for the pickling cucumbers, hot and crispy peppers and tomatoes. The only difference is I plan to try Hydroponic gardening! Some of them will be in soil, though. For a ‘control’ group.
Great article – I’m amazed at the little chart! I agree, I need some of that organizational mojo!

By: sarah

sarah — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:15:11 +0000

@ Gigi- Check w/ your extension office about any canning questions. If they don’t know right away, they will find out for you.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:11:13 +0000

Roma or other paste tomatoes are bred for sauce-making. They thicken faster than the “sandwich” tomatoes like Beefsteak or Big Boy, which have way more water. Brandywines are heirloom favorites around here, as are little yellow cherry tomatoes for eating off the vine. My husband often takes a box of cherry tomatoes for snacks at work! :) Seed swaps often allow for more seedling varieties, FYI.

I highly recommend membership in Kitchen Gardeners International, (KGI), for helpful friendly information about gardening from some awesome master gardeners.

By: Sikantis

Sikantis — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:41:10 +0000

I like gardening tips like yours. For an eco-friendly gardening planting potatoes like that is just great.

By: George

George — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:17:32 +0000

Another thought on potato starts: buy the more rare varieties for your starts (purple/blues, yellows, and reds) as the russet is grown as a commodity, so russets are cheap in the supermarket. Even organic russets are relatively cheap, so little benefit to growing them yourself.

By: George

George — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:13:04 +0000

@Stu – if you start with certified virus free potatoes, then you only need to consider new ones once every 3 years; just rotate your potatoes to a new location every year. If you live above, what, 1500′ elevation (?), then you don’t need to worry about the viruses [need some empirical evidence? the Incas never had troubles with viruses affecting their potatoes and no way are there enough certified virus-free potatoes to meet Idaho's planting needs].

By: Ellen

Ellen — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:39:07 +0000

Great article and great inspiration. Thanks! Can you tell us where you purchased your peat pots for $6? Thank you!

By: Gigi

Gigi — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:00:20 +0000

We’re looking to expand our gardening this year. I’ve had great success with tomatoes, then we do some peppers,, raspberries, a couple of pumpkins, 1 small cherry tree, and a small grape arbor. With this (and a little help from the farmer’s market-who can resist when they sell those bushels of unbeautiful tomatoes so cheaply, which make perfectly good sauce!), I can tomatoes, jelly and jams. I’d like to expand this into other vegetables that I can can, but it seems like canning green beans and peas…the extensive boiling in the processing would take out a lot of the nutrients and makes the texture mushy. Do you know of anywhere I could find information on the nutritional content of home canned foods? We very seldom eat commercially canned foods because of the sodium content and the lack of vitamins. But we’d like to be more self-sufficient when it comes to what we eat.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:50:50 +0000

I know nothing about gardening, but am giving it a go this year. Thats a very timely article. Thanks

By: Denise

Denise — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:59:58 +0000

Mother Earth News, which you can access online, has great tips for making homemade compost holders. Or you can, as someone suggested, pile most of your waste on the garden, in the winter time and let it rot. Thanks for the pictures; I love it when you post them.

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:15:00 +0000

An old galvanized trash can with the bottom rotted out makes a great compost bin. If you have the lid, poke a few holes in it and put it on UPSIDE DOWN to funnel rainwater into the compost. The other cheap alternative is some chicken wire or wire fencing staked into a square. Every year we cut up the sprouting potatoes about a week before planting, to let them develop a dry surface on the cut areas. The potatoes are placed ON TOP OF THE PREPARED EARTH and covered with spoiled hay or straw. The plants sprout through the straw, and when June comes you can start harvesting small potatoes without damaging the plants, by gently lifting the hay and then patting the hay back in place after removing the potatoes. At harvest time you remove the straw, pick up potatoes on the surface, and then dig each spot because some of the potatoes insist on growing in the earth. Have not had trouble with this system in decades. BUT WITH GARDENS YOU NEVER KNOW!

By: Bettsi

Bettsi — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 05:38:04 +0000

Thanks, Trent! This is a lot of good info for a garden neophyte like me.

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:34:26 +0000

I applaude your organizational skills! That is an outstanding gardener’s diary.

I think you could turn that garden over with a shovel quicker than going to the trouble or expense of borrowing or renting a rototiller. It appears from the photograph you hardly have enough room to operate a machine of any size within that plot.

You can experiment with growing potatos from your pantry. As a biologist, this is something you should already realize – chances are it is a hybrid and will not produce the same quality potato as the original.

You can put your compostible materials directly into your garden and bypass that unsightly composting pod. A neighbor would probably want see a clothesline instead of that thing! Use plant wastes as mulch throughout the growing season and turn it under when the garden is finished for the year. During the winter, toss the compostibles directly into a pile in the garden and turn it under again in the spring.