January 3rd, 2009
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One of the first harbingers of Spring is a glimpse of crocuses or daffodils peeking through. But in January?
So far in middle TN we haven’t really had very much cold weather yet, and we’ve had highs in the upper 60s several times in the last couple of weeks – thus the daffodils peeking through the mulch. Actually they weren’t really peeking through – I uncovered them by accident while grubbing out chick weed yesterday – New Years Day. Anyway, they’ll be fine – I covered them back after taking that picture. BTW fear not, although it might be a bit early those bulbs will be fine. Just sprinkle a bit of loose mulch over them if you must – or not. » Read more: January in the Garden
January 2nd, 2009
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Many seeds such as this basil can be easily saved from year to year.
Winter is a great time to sit down with a nice warm beverage and a seed catalog to plan your garden for next Spring. Unfortunately sticker shock usually strikes when you start tallying up everything that you would like to grow. But it doesn’t have to be like that. » Read more: Free Seeds for Life
December 31st, 2008
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Every year lately I make a big batch or two of potting soil – it saves quite a lot of money and it’s more convenient than working with a bunch of awkward leaky plastic bags. Plus I know what goes into it.
This is the rig that I use to screen compost – it works very well and is built out of scrap lumber and a piece of 1/2″ by 1″ galvanized wire mesh left over from building some rabbit cages.
The last time I painted the garage roof I gave my retired commercial wheel barrow a nice thick coating with the last bit of roof paint to keep from having leftovers. It’s ugly, but it keeps it from rusting.
A simple efficient compost screener
Just work your compost around with a hoe and pull the big pieces off the back. Toss them back on to the compost pile when you finish. » Read more: Potting Soil From Compost
December 25th, 2008
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Welcome Stumblers! How about a thumbs up if you find this article to be interesting or useful?
Anyone can raise rabbits, but then why would you want to?
Raising rabbits is enjoyable – the animals are gentle, and interactive – they often “thump” at you when they hear you come outside if they want attention. If you are actually raising rabbits as opposed to just keeping them as pets then you will have litters of baby rabbits on a regular schedule, and that is also enjoyable.
Rabbits don’t take up much space, and they make almost no noise at all. They don’t smell as long as the rabbit keeper does his or her part.
Raising rabbits is not very expensive to begin – breeding stock can be had for $10 – $20 each or less, and the required equipment can be built from inexpensive or recycled materials by anyone with a modicum of skill. » Read more: Anyone Can Raise Rabbits
December 16th, 2008
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While perusing some of the comments that we’ve been blessed with lately I checked into some of the blogs and other web sites that our readers have…
Chris at – Urban Horticulture has some great gardening how to articles, and a beautiful site with lots of photos and video content. His article on Brown Turkey fig trees caught my eye. I’m thinking of trying some container fruit trees now that I have a greenhouse which I can use to protect them from our notorious late spring frosts.
Dave at The Home Garden is another Tennessee gardener who blogs on his pastime. Lately he’s done some good posts on propagation – free plants, you gotta love that.
Cheryl blogs with plenty of photos on her gardening experiences at Cheryl’s Garden Goodies . Her friendly writing style and replies to comments are something that I really enjoy as a visitor.
Andrew at – Garden Hacker – reports on his garden experiments and links out to other interesting/experimental garden sites.
Bill comments on sustainability and environmental issues at his Recycle blog – just another voice crying out in the wilderness, but maybe if enough of us get on our soapbox our leaders will realize our concern isn’t just a fad.
Dave’s Workout has great articles on Health, fitness, and nutrition as well as healthy / vegetarian cooking. Don’t be intimidated by the sign up form on the home page you can just click on the articles without all that if you want.
Merry Christmas!
November 29th, 2008
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photo by Michael Smith - New Windsor, Maryland
What to do in the garden in December? The truth is, even here in the sunny south there isn’t a lot of excitement garden wise going on in the month of December – which isn’t an entirely bad thing of course. At the very least it’s a chance to look forward to next season.
Nonetheless, there are a few things that need to be done.
- If you are an on-the-ball fall gardener you don’t need to be told that you have cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, greens of all kinds, carots, jerusalem artichokes, celery, radish, spinach and all manner of good stuff to deal with. The rest of us need to remember this next August when we should be planting instead of lounging by the pool.
- If you haven’t already done so it’s high time to get rid of any crop residue that’s left – mummified fruits are very likely to harbor disease or pests – remove or burn anything like this.
- As ground becomes available it can be dug and left rough – compost, manure, and other amendments can be spread and left for winter weather to work on for a while. The freeze thaw cycles will do a lot of the work for you. » Read more: December in the Garden
November 26th, 2008
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Mid November brings the first hard freeze - and frost painting on the cold frame.
I took this picture on our coldest morning so far with over night lows in the upper teens. Yet according to my tell tale thermometer the temperature in my small green house has never dipped below 32 degrees F – although I’m sure it soon will. » Read more: Almost Winter
November 10th, 2008
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<< Building the $50 Greenhouse
Welcome back Stumbleupon Gardeners!
If this looks like too much work – I did a much simpler door on the other end.
This weekend I finally got time to start on the doors for my 50 dollar greenhouse. The design that I came up with is light, strong, simple, and can be built easily and quickly using only a circular saw and a hand drill. I must admit that I did use a table saw to rip out the stock, and put it through a planer to accurately dimension it, but this was only a convenience, and isn’t at all necessary for a good result. This polytunnel door design can be built on a set of sawhorses out in the driveway, but it will be a lot easier if you get someone to help you hold things while you saw, drill and fasten parts together. » Read more: Building Greenhouse Doors
November 9th, 2008
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While I’ve recently been hard at work on some new gardening stuff for your enjoyment, I don’t quite have any of that ready to post just yet. So, instead I’m going to reveal an extremely useful tidbit of top secret garden blogger information.
How to find Authoritative, Accurate Gardening Information – Fast
The problem with the internet is that anyone can post anything about any subject (me for example) whether they know what they are talking about or not. For example if you Google for “Home Garden” you get 151 million results – most of which are trying to sell you something. Finding the really good stuff is like looking for the proverbial needle.
Fortunately if you know how to ask, » Read more: Find Accurate Gardening Information – Fast
October 27th, 2008
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- This Article is featured in Jan 2010 issue of Birds and Blooms Magazine!
- Want to find out if this thing works before you read all this? Read 6 months in the Greenhouse first.
- Want to see what happens when a few inches of wet snow accumulates on this? Collapse!
- Building the Greenhouse Doors is addressed in a separate article – isn’t this enough for one weekend?
My $50 Greenhouse
Welcome Stumbleupon Gardeners! How about a Thumb up if you like this article?
Materials list
Construction Steps
Hind Sight – What I would do differently
The planning is over and construction on my hoop house greenhouse has begun. I’ve rounded up all of the materials and it looks like I’m going to end up with about $50 in a 165 square ft. green house. Granted I already had most of the materials because I’m an incorrigible pack rat, but even if I had bought everything new just for this polytunnel It would still only come to about $120 $150 – less than a dollar per square ft. Due to the fact that we are in the midst of a global economic meltdown, and the future is a bit uncertain keeping the cost of this project as low as possible is an important consideration. » Read more: How to build My 50 Dollar Greenhouse
