Category Archives: Gardening: Vegetables

Growing your own veggies can be fun.

Aug 22 2011

Gardening Fail

Yeah, the garden? Well it hasn’t gone very well.  We had a wet spring and very mild summer.  So far I’ve harvested  about six strawberries, two small zucchini and have three misshapen bell peppers on the plant.  I have yet to see a ripe tomato.

My funky bell peppers.

Zucchini, the most forgiving of all vegetables. You almost can't mess them up, but I've come close.

The first (SMALL) tomatoes are starting to turn red. Maybe by September we'll have some to eat.

I can’t blame the weather completely. My watering schedule has been hit and miss.  I have only fertilized once. And I think the containers I used were too small.  But like everything in life, we learn from our mistakes (at least we should be learning) and strive to do better the next time.  And who knows, we could have a warm fall and still see some produce from this year’s garden.

 

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May 31 2011

Backyard Container Garden Update

We planted our garden a few weeks back.  So let’s see how it’s coming along, shall we?

Tomato.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, the tomato is doing fine.  I finally got a cage so it can start climbing. Tomatoes are very forgiving and easy to grow which makes it a good choice for us.

Zucchini.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, the zucchini are doing very well.  I had four in there originally, which I knew was too many.  I thinned out the middle two and now they have some room to spread out.  We even have our first baby zucchini growing nicely and it should be ready to pick in a few days.

Basil.  Well, the basil is not doing too hot.  So poor in fact, that I won’t bother with a picture. I think next time I will keep it in the kitchen window instead.

Happy gardening everybody!

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Apr 14 2011
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Frugal Friday: Starting Seeds in Egg Cartons

In addition to the few vegetable plants I purchased, I also picked out a few packets of seeds.  When I was little we used to grow a garden every year from seeds.  I lived on a farm so there was plenty of room to sow directly into the soil and lots of space to grow our plants.  That’s not the case where I live now, so we are going to try a different method.

A few weeks ago I was getting ready to throw away an egg carton when something made me stop.  I was looking at the little compartments and thought how much they looked like the specialized containers for starting seeds.  It seemed to me that they would be great for starting my vegetable seeds this year.  I looked it up and found several articles confirming that people had successfully used egg cartons, both paper pulp and Styrofoam to start seeds.

I have a plan for dividing up the sprouts once they get to a manageable size.  A friend and I were discussing how we always have to throw away unused herbs we buy at the store. Recipes call for 1/4 cup of fresh herbs at the most, and then the rest rots in the crisper drawer of the fridge.  She had purchased an herb garden kit at Target, but none of it grew. When my seeds are sprouted I plan to surprise her by cutting a few cells off each tray and giving them to her to start her own little herb garden.  (Don’t worry she doesn’t have a computer at home so I’m not spoiling the surprise.)

Sean and I started with the planting this afternoon.  We planted lettuce in the 18-count foam egg carton.  In the others we put carrots, cilantro and sweet peppers.  I gave them a good soaking and then set the egg cartons out on a rack in the sun.  Hopefully we will have sprouts in about two weeks!

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Apr 1 2011

Frugal Friday: Vegetable Container Garden

I’m on a mission to save some money by growing a few vegetables.  Now, I’m not delusional, I know it won’t replace buying produce from the store, but it will help.  If I can grow one tomato plant I will have more than enough tomatoes for what my family needs.  This certainly beats buying them at the store only to have them go bad.  Same goes for basil.  I love fresh basil, but it’s not an everyday ingredient in my cooking.  So better to have a plant and pick just what I need than buy it (expensive!) and have it go bad. 

Other things we will be growing this year: bell peppers, zucchini, strawberries; and if I can get the seeds to germinate, lettuce, carrots and cilantro.  I’m growing all of it in containers because we have a small yard and what little space we have is dedicated to a lawn for the kids.  I had several ceramic pots from the old house and picked up two new plastic containers from the local hardware store.  If things take off, I may add another pot or two.  I know that containers aren’t for everyone since they require more frequent watering.  But in my case, we are in a mild climate and I’m home to do the watering.

This is also a great opportunity to get the kids exposed to agriculture.  We will be growing our own food and cooking it.  I’m hoping that since they will be helping with the garden they will be more likely to eat the vegetables!

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