Gardening | One Hundred Dollars a Month

Container Gardening with Andy the Plant Whisperer – Tomatoes, Carrots and Lettuce

May 8, 2013 3 Comments

I popped out to get the mail yesterday and when I came back, Andy was planting one one of my tomato plants in a steel drum. I walked around to inspect his technique, and found out that he was going to plant carrots and lettuce in the steel drum as well.

Try not to get too distracted by the glow of Andy’s hair, Gladys is coming next week. {Andy got a postcard from her with all of the details.} Well, apparently Andy got so excited about good old Gladys, that he went a little crazy with the sun-in spray. He says, “you can take the man out of Florida, but not the Florida out of the man.” Whatever that means.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised to find that Andy still reads the seed packets. He seemed more like a fly-by-the-seat-of-his- pants-throw-it-in-the-dirt-and-grow-it sort of guy. I asked him, and he said the plants choose to speak to him in many ways. Hmmm, well, I am not sure about channeling the plant through the back of the seed packet, but Andy certainly seems to know a thing or two about container gardening, so I asked him to give me the 411 on the whole tomato, carrot, lettuce combo.

Andy told me that tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce love to “hang out together” {read: companion planting}. Plus, “they each add a different texture and height in the container.” Then he kissed his fingers and mouthed the word “exquisite”. This guy is definitely going to take some getting used to. He asked me repeatedly if I had used potting soil and not just regular dirt in the drum. I assured him I had. When I was finally satisfied that I had prepared the steel drums to his satisfaction, he started by planting the lettuce and carrots around the edge of the steel drum. He said he planted them basically just as the seed packet instructed.

Then, he gently scooped out a hole in the center of the drum and placed the tomato plant in the hole. He patted the dirt around it, being careful not to disturb the newly planted seeds, and then watered everything in.

Finally, he added a tomato cage, and voila, container magic.

Apparently all of that gardening really wore Andy out, because not even his new BFF Lucy could entice him out of the chair. Oh well, at least a nap in the sun will accentuate his highlights.

Read More of Andy the Plant Whisperer’s Container Garden Tips

Filed Under: container gardening, Gardening Tagged With: carrots, container gardening, Container Gardening with Andy the Plant Whisperer, Gardening, lettuce, tomatoes

How to Grow a Greenhouse Vegetable Garden

May 8, 2013 9 Comments

I snapped a few pictures in the greenhouse last night so I could show you how all the plants are coming along. Yesterday my neighbor and I removed 66 tomato plants from the greenhouse and planted the heirlooms in 6 raised garden beds. It’s beginning to look a little bare in there.

I love how the greenhouse gutters are looking right now. It’s fun to see them overflowing with greens.

The Swiss chard is ready to move out of the garden as soon as I find a good spot.

The mesclun lettuce is ready to be picked.

We clipped the spinach last week {or was it the week before?} and now it’s growing back nicely.

Check out these gorgeous Brussels sprout plants. I picked these beauties up at the Seattle Tilth sale over the weekend and I’m excited to try and grow them this year. I’ve never had purple Brussles sprouts before. Have you?

Fresh basil.

It’s time to break out the salt shaker because it appears some baby slugs have made their way into to the greenhouse. As you know I’m not a big fan of using chemicals on my vegetables so I just catch the little buggers and douse them with salt instead.

The cucumber seeds are up! This year we planted 3 different kinds of cucumbers. Unfortunately I forgot the label them and one of the varieties has long vines so I’m totally in trouble.

And last but not least, pumpkins. So far I have about half of my pumpkins and winter squash planted. Hopefully I can get out there today, mix up a batch of homemade potting soil and get the rest potted up.

What’s new with you? Have you planting anything exciting lately?

~Mavis

See More Greenhouse Pictures and Stories

Looking for a great gardening book? Check out The New Self-Sufficient Gardener By John Seymour. It’s loaded with all sorts of goodness.

Filed Under: Gardening, Greenhouse Tagged With: Gardening, greenhouse, How to Grow a Greenhouse Vegetable Garden

How to Grow Your Own Food – 5/8/2013 Garden Tally

May 8, 2013 3 Comments

This year I’m on a mission to grow 4,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables in my suburban backyard. In 2012 I was able to grow 2,028 pounds, and in 2013 I’m going double or nothing. I have absolutely no idea if I’ll be able to achieve my goal. But, as with any adventure, half the fun is getting there. ~Mavis

*******

Thanks to the food we have growing in the greenhouse gutters, we were able to harvest a few handfuls of romaine lettuce this past week. I’ll post some more greenhouse pictures in a little while so you can see everything that’s growing in there.

The mesclun lettuce needs to be harvested {it grows back} so I think I’ll make a big salad for dinner tonight.

We also harvested a few French breakfast radishes {my favorite} plus some basil and chives as well. From now until the end of October we should be able to enjoy our own homegrown veggies and I couldn’t be more excited. Growing your own food is cool!

Now, if I could just figure out how to grow cinnamon gummy bears, I’d be all set.

~Mavis

Here is what I have harvested so far this year:

Basil – 2 ounces

Beets - 14 ounces

Carrots – 3 ounces

Chives – 6 ounces

Egg Count – 1,013

There were only 77 eggs this past week. I’m not sure why the hens slacked off, but there are still plenty of eggs for breakfast and baking and plenty extra to give to neighbors so I’m not complaining.

Maybe it had something to do with the heat?

Lettuce – 14 ounces

M icrogreens 5 ounces

Oregano - 1 ounce

Potatoes – 2 pounds 9 ounces

Radish - 9 ounces

My neighbor Hudla and I both picked a few radishes.

Spinach – 3 ounces

Sprouts -1 pound 2 ounces

We harvested a bunch more sprouts this week, I’ll be posting about those a little later, but if you don’t already grow your own sprouts, they are super simple to grow. Here are instructions for growing your own sprouts.

Swiss Chard 11 ounces

Wheatgrass - 7 ounces

Total Food Harvested in 2013: 8 pounds 7 ounces
Total Eggs Collected in 2013: 1,013

Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard farming and home skills for self-sufficient living

Filed Under: 2013 Garden Tally, Gardening Tagged With: garden tally, Gardening, Mavis, one hundred dollars a month

Mavis Garden Blog – Planting Tomatoes in Raised Garden Beds

May 7, 2013 7 Comments

My neighbor Hudla came over this morning to help with a few tomatoes plants. We bartered French breakfast radishes and eggs {mine} for garden labor {hers}. Does it get any better than that?

I’ve decided Hudla is the best garden assistant on the planet. Mainly because when she comes over, she’s only here for one hour at a time and she’s fast like lighting. It’s super easy to drop everything for 60 minutes and go outside with her and get some gardening done in between cooking, cleaning, blogging and taking care of Lucy.

Did I mention Hudla home schools her kids? Yep. So she’s totally good at juggling 20 million things at once and thinking ahead. Of course we’ve only done “fun” gardening project so far. Re-potting plants, planting vegetables and working in the greenhouse.

I suppose when it comes time to dig the well and the irrigation canals out back she might not be so eager to pop over for an hour.

We’ll see.

Our raised garden boxes are 4×8 feet and are filled with some pretty good soil. In years past I have packed the garden boxes with as many as a dozen plants and each time the results were pretty much the same. Awesome.

This year Hudla and I planted 66 tomato plants in 6 garden beds {11 in each bed}. 4 across the back row, 3 in the center and 4 across the front. Plus we still have a bunch left over.

Here is what the 6 raised garden beds looked like after all the tomato plants were in.

Now, we just have to figure out what we are going to plant around the bottom of the tomato beds. According to my Companion Planting Chart not only do carrots love tomatoes, but tomatoes love onions. Which is pretty stinkin’ perfect because I still have 2 flats of onions and leeks I’ve been neglecting in the greenhouse for months.

Looks like I have the perfect place to plant them now.

Giddy up! Summer is finally on it’s way.

~Mavis

P.S. Have YOU planted your tomatoes yet?

Filed Under: Gardening, Raised Garden Beds Tagged With: Gardening, Hudla, Raised Garden Beds, tomatoes

Square Foot Gardening – Potatoes, Onions, Strawberries, Kale and More

May 7, 2013 7 Comments

I snapped a few pictures of our square foot garden while I was out working in the backyard today. For the most part things are growing as planned. I think I’ll set out some cucumber starts and more lettuce next week, and tomatoes, tomatoes are totally on the list as well. I just need to find the right variety, some thing that won’t get too big.

The purple potato I planted a few weeks ago is growing like crazy. I still think it was kind of a bad idea to plant the potato in the square foot garden, but I think I’ll keep it there anyway and see what happens. It will be interesting to see how many we get.

The kale is back. Yipee. My family will be so pleased. Ha!

I counted 8 strawberry blossoms so that must mean Mr. Gnome Guy is doing an excellent job at keeping the slugs away {so far}.

5 Walla Walla onions.

Purple Kohlrabi. Have you ever tired kohlrabi before? It goes great with hummus, but I think it’s kind of an acquired taste.

Celery. I think I may have planted these too close together.

And last but not least. Broccoli. For some strange reason, the broccoli likes living/growing in the square foot garden bed better than it does 2 beds down with the radishes. The thing is, the soil is the same so I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe planting all different kinds of vegetables this close together really is beneficial.

Who knew?

Stay Green,

Mavis

Are you thinking about putting together a Square foot garden? See the how I built a square foot garden grid HERE.

For more information, check out All New Square Foot Gardening. It is an amazon bestseller and the author, Mel Bartholomew is basically the king of square foot gardening.

Filed Under: Gardening, Square Foot Gardening Tagged With: Gardening, kale, onions, potatoes, Square Foot Gardening, strawberries

Gardening in Oklahoma – Raised Garden Beds + a Potato Tower

May 5, 2013 Leave a Comment

Wowza! Check out these pictures Michelle sent in…

Hi Mavis!

I’ve been Oklahoma gardening for four years now. Each year I learn more and my garden grows by at least one box.

My superman husband made me all of my garden boxes and my A-Frame cold frames.

We have a total of six garden boxes so far. Because we have such a small yard we have utilized our driveway for part of them! It was as easy as setting a garden box on the drive, stapling weed block cloth to the bottom inside (to retain the dirt) and then fill. I told my kids that if they didn’t play or ride bikes more on the drive I would start claiming more of it for gardening. Use it or Lose it!!!!

I do square foot gardening. This year I started making seed squares indoors while it was still cold outside. It’s along the same lines as seed tape but on the paper napkins that have been opened full to 12″x12″ (see photo). When the weather was cold and miserable, I was snuggled inside nice and warm making my seed mats.

With the first chance of planting, I just picked up a seed mat and ran out to plant. Easy peasy! Now its a no brainer with staggered plantings. I’ll just grab a mat and lay it in my garden. It takes five seconds. I time it! hah! Plus, this is a fun project I did with my kids. I dotted glue and they sprinkled the seeds. Next year I’m promoting them to glue dotter.

Money is tight and I had to get creative on making trellises for my garden. I made trellises out of bamboo canes from a friends yard, arbors out of tree trimmings for the peas and even a trellis from two old fishing poles with scrap wire in between. I call it my “English Garden” look. It’s a look that I’m really starting to enjoy.

The potato towers are an experiment. So far they seem to be doing well. The real test will be when we harvest. On the very top of the towers I’ve planted bush beans. I read they’re a companion to potatoes. I’m trying to grow in any spare spots of dirt I can find. Space is such a premium I’m thinking of growing squash and pumpkins out front among the flower

But, I think the BEST things we added to our garden this year were the cold frames. Superman husband did a fabulous job making them out of an old redwood swing set that was falling apart. I can now plant out warm loving plants much earlier than normal and start seed outdoors!! I have such beautiful tomato plants covered in blooms already!!

Happy planting!

~ Michelle

April From Santa Cruz, California Sends in Her Garden Photos

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
Cool Arts & Crafts - Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go HERE for the official rules.

Filed Under: Garden Tours, Gardening, Mavis Mail Tagged With: garden tours, Gardening, Gardening in Oklahoma, mavis mail, potato tower, Raised Garden Beds

How to Grow Beans {Start to Finish}

May 5, 2013 5 Comments

I don’t know one person who doesn’t like green beans. My son Monkey Boy will only eat them raw, but everyone else in our family could totally eat a plate full of delicious green sticks for dinner. There is now doubt about it, beans are cool!

Brief description: Beans have long edible pods and beans inside that can also be eaten. They are great for snacking on raw, cooking, or canning.

Where to Plant Beans: Plant in full sun after danger of last frost. Plant in raised beds, garden beds, and even containers if they are big enough.

Planting Seeds: Plant seeds 1″ deep. Most packets say to thin them to every 4 inches, but I think that is crazy and typically space them every 2″ to maximize my crop.

Growing Tips: Beans are awesome for succession planting. If you plan it right, you should be able to get a crop from June all the way through September. I sometimes have troubles with the birds getting to my bean sprouts, so I tend to over plant them to compensate. If the birds don’t get to them, I go back and thin them later.

How to Harvest: To harvest, snap beans off the plant by hold the plant firmly {so that you don’t damage it while picking}. Beans taste better when they are thinner than a pencil, so try to pick them before they get too big.

Are you ready to start your garden but you’re not sure when you should plant your seeds or set out your transplants? Head on over HERE and you’ll be taken to a handy dandy chart that is broken down into what vegetables should be planted {or transplanted} each month in your area.

Anyone can do this. Dirt + Seeds+ Water = Food!

~Mavis

Here are a few of my Favorite Bean recipes:

Green Beans with Sweet Onions and Bacon

Pasta Salad with Green Beans, Tomatoes, and Roasted Peppers

How to Can Green Beans

Fact: Beans have been found in Egyptian tombs–apparently they thought they were easy to grow too.

Filed Under: Gardening, Growing Guides Tagged With: beans, Gardening, gardening with mavis, growing guides, how to grow

Seattle Tilth Plant Sale Pictures

May 4, 2013 8 Comments

If the long line you know it’s going to be good!

This morning I stood in line for 30 minutes in hopes of finding a few heirloom tomato plants to add to my collection.

If you have never been to the Seattle Tilth May plant sale, you are totally missing out. Not only is the Seattle Tilth plant sale worth waiting in line for, but there were so many cool heirloom plants to choose from, I felt like a kid in a candy store.

seattle plant sale pictures

Frugal Tip – Bring your own flat, box or wagon to carry your plants home and save a buck.

I wonder how many people actually attend this 2 day event? If I had to guess I’d say it’s somewhere around 5,000 to 7,000 people. At least. Maybe I’m way off, maybe more. It seemed like every gardener in the city {and beyond} was there.

Anything you could have possibly wanted for your vegetable garden, was there. Herbs, spring crops, warm weather crops, you name it, they had it.

But the amount of tomato plants available was nuts. I think there were over 60 varieties. Sixty! I was looking for one variety in particular today – Japanese Trifele, and it took me a few minutes to find it. But once I did, I felt a sense of relief.

It was seriously one of those keep calm Mavis, hold it together, you will find your stinkin’ plant. Just relax you freak, kind of moments.

It’s times like those that I think I need to be on meds.

I have no idea how a tomato plant can cause a panic attack, but it did.

Maybe my heirloom tomatoes are like some people $19 DVD players at Walmart at 5 am the day after Thanksgiving. I might need a tomato intervention here pretty soon.

I bought 18 heirloom tomato plants! Yee-Haw!

What? You want to know how many I have? Dunno. Lost count.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Peace Out,

~Mavis

Seattle Tilth Plant Sale
Meridian Park
4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, Seattle 98103

Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: Gardening, seattle tilth, tomato plants

Mavis Mail – Teri From Deville, Louisiana Sends in Her Garden Photos

May 4, 2013 Leave a Comment

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

Check out these photos Teri from SwampyFarms sent in:

Our garden consists of 4 – 4 foot square raised boxes. Like you, I have OCD and wanted my garden to be nice little boxes in nice little rows. I plan to have 15 total, but decided it would be best to start with four. This way if it turns out I don’t have a green thumb, I won’t have to find a use for all 15 boxes.

We put chicken wire around the perimeter to keep out the neighborhood dogs and any stray rabbits that may come by for a visit.

The cinder blocks began as a way to hold down the bottom of the fence, just in case someone dared to dig underneath. Then I thought that since they were there, why not put them to use. So, I filled them with dirty goodness from the compost and planted some things that will climb up the fence.

I have a couple dozen mysterious melon plants growing in some cinder blocks on the back side of the garden, that sprouted up from the dirt we got out of our compost pile. We have narrowed it down to either watermelon, cantaloupe, or pumpkin. Though none of us will know for sure until it provides something more than a stem and 4 leaves. I also have green beans growing on the right and tomatoes, onions and sunflowers growing on the left side.

You wrote a few weeks ago about planting potatoes in your square foot garden and if square foot gardens are effective places for your little spuds. This is the first time I have planted potatoes in a square foot garden, much less anything else really, but I would say that you could with better than average results. The past two times that I have planted taters, those suckers did not grow above a foot tall, and that’s probably an over estimate.

I may be able to add a little more dirt to give them more room to root around. I even have a pair of cabbages playing peak-a-boo in the box. I think the potatoes may provide shade when it gets warmer. I would say the cabbages are pretty happy in their little spots.

I borrowed your potato tower idea, I hope that is ok. Though, I only added pine straw on top once they started growing. I even bought some of those snazzy fabric potato pot that are supposed to be super-duper potato producing machines.

I am trying the whole “companion planting” thing. I am trying to shy away from spraying our food with loads of pesticides this year. Last year I was over run with cabbage worms everywhere. I planted nasturtium and marigolds with the beans, and dill and onions with the broccoli and cabbage. I hope that “everyone” will help each other to keep pests at bay.

I blog about all of my little adventures in the garden and with our 6 Cuckoo Marans and 3 surviving Rhode Island Reds at swampyfarms.

Wow Teri! Everything looks great. I really like the cinder block idea and I might have to try that in the greenhouse this winter. Awesome job.

~Mavis

Gardening in Tacoma with Lisa

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
Cool Arts & Crafts - Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go HERE for the official rules.

Filed Under: Gardening, Mavis Mail Tagged With: Gardening, mavis mail

Mavis Garden Blog – Planting Squash Seeds

May 4, 2013 3 Comments

I don’t know what the weather was like at your place yesterday, but holy cow, the sun shined all day up here in the Pacific Northwest. I spent most of the afternoon in the greenhouse starting my squash seeds.

Normally I want until May 15th or so to plant my zucchini and cucumbers and around June 1st to plant my pumpkins and winter squash. But the weather has been so nice lately I couldn’t resist.

Are you growing a bunch of squash this year? I am trying 3 different kinds of zucchinis this time around and even cantaloupe. I highly doubt I’ll be successful at growing a melon, but it’s still fun to try anyway. We’ll see what happens.

How about you? Have you planted your squash seeds yet? If not, when do you plant yours?

~Mavis

P.S. If you live in the Seattle/Tacoma area, I would totally wait another week or two before planting your squash outside unless you are starting them indoors or in a greenhouse {just to be on the safe side}.

Filed Under: container gardening, Gardening Tagged With: container gardening, Gardening, squash