Hurray, free stuff for the garden

Are you only growing Black Krims and why so many?

No, C! The 45 BKs were from the first flat. I'm growing Pruden's and Cherokee Purples, Sioux, Momotoro, and Bull's Hearts, too. And Emerald Giant Bell Peppers. I'm now up to light 4 shelves. I've calculated - should have close to 150 tomatoes and 30 BPs.

What do you do with so many tomatoes?

My golly!!! You have a farm??? Do you work for a living??? Or are you growing to feed the hungry?? LOL!!! Bellie

Gymgirl, your setup looks great and your tomato seedlings look robust. Good on ya!

Gymgirl....

I've decided that you must be one of those real organized types...you know.... where every item is checked off on their 'to-do list'.

I WISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's just that, historically, when I've put my mind to doing something I really wanna do, I do it wholeheartedly.

I wholeheartedly wanna be good at growing great veggie seedlings...

We won't mention everything else that's going undone while I'm pursuing this craft...

I hear ya! LOL I must have ADD. I get into a new idea and run with it whole hog ... for a bit. Then my attention goes somewhere else and I run with that full steam ... for a bit. Something else always comes along to grab my attention. I have the attention span of a gnat. LOL But I have always stuck with gardening.

That is so cool that you are raising seedlings to help less fortunate people. I am sure God will bless your efforts.

Just thought I'd show you an update on my seedlings in my virtually free "greenhouse" (aka old shelving unit with a shower curtain liner that goes over it -- saw almost the same thing at Lowe's for $40).

You'll notice the "dirt globs" with Swiss chard popping up. That was my frugal attempt at duplicating the "soil block" or "soil cube" method. I decided all it was was a little compressed moist seed starter, right? So I just played sand castle with a Solo cup for fun. No problems! I felt like a little kid, and the seeds seem to like it okay. So for the cost of one Solo cup, I can duplicate the effects of a $30 soil block maker.

This message was edited Feb 24, 2011 1:35 PM

And here is one batch of potatoes I've started. I put a few seed potatoes into a mound of dirt on the ground, a couple into a tub, and then these in an old 40-lb dog food bag that I cut a lot of holes in. So far, the dogfood bag is doing the best. The bag was given to me by a friend and she's given me 2 more, so I plan to do more this way -- cheaper than finding tubs to plant them in, and easier than the mound of dirt (because I don't have too much garden real estate to plant in, and these are also portable).

This message was edited Feb 24, 2011 1:36 PM

OUTSTANDING, LiseP!

Now, please tell me about your potato varieties. Last night I cut up all my Purple Vikings before I located my ashes, which I never found to seal them. In desperation, the only thing I came up with was a bag of playsand, so I dipped 'em in that. I'm praying...

How long have your spuds been down in that bag?

Also, on your shelf, did you start them all outside on the shelf, and in those cups?

gymgirl...I never did potatoes before, I was told to just cut the seed potato in sections with 2 eyes then plant,,,what is the ash or sand for?

Deezil72,
Dipping the cut face of your potatoes into fireplace ash helps to seal the cut so pathogens & other uglies don't enter the spud n infect it.

Basically, the ash does what a bandaide does for a cut. I couldn't find the 3 ziploc baggies of ashes I saved last winter. So, I improvised.

I've sealed pruning wounds on a tomato Plant with white Elmer's glue. Couldn't find that either...

Never heard of the ash method. We always cut them and let them dry for a few days before planting.

A friend gave me 2, 10lb bags of white taters that are not much bigger than "new" potatoes and they are sprouting like crazy so I am just going to plant them whole, 2 in each bag. I used the bags last year. I used the nylonish ones my horse feed came in. They came apart by the end of the season and made cleanup hard. This year I am going to use the plasticish ones lots of other stuff I use, comes in. I will have to make holes for drainage. I am going to plant in rotted wood chips.

My grandma would let the pieces air dry for a day or two until the cut sides scabbed over. She never told me why she did that.

Same reason a human cut forms a scab - to protect the wound from bacteria...

Thank you Gymgirl for the info, I have plenty of ashes from my fireplace.
Cajun-- in one of your earlier posts, I was LMAO... your comment about A.D.D...was exactly like me..I read it to my husband too...he said I must have a twin...lol

Hi Gymgirl. I can't tell you what types of potatoes they are -- just 'red' and 'white' -- Home Depot was not more specific! LOL

I did shune's method -- just let the cut pieces air dry a couple of days -- actually a few days.

As for my seedlings, I started them inside. Once they germinated, I let them sit in a sunny window a few days, then moved them out. I did start most of them in the cups. I also bought one of those 72-cell (?) seed starter tray kits from the Dollar Store and they did fine too, but now I have a lot of potting up to do.

Gymgirl, you asked when I planted those potatoes too. I bought them 21 Jan, let 'em sit a few days, cut them and let them sit 3 or so days...I'm going to say I planted them the 1st of Feb.

I'm fixing to read that potato mega-thread pretty soon so I know what to do next, but hey, you're my potato guru anyway, so if you have a few moments to advise, that would be great. I'm wondering how soon I need to add stuff, just what to add (compost, leaves, soil, maybe a combo) and how much of the leaves need to be covered.

I have 2 more dog food bags with holes cut and ready to go with some already cut and scabbed pieces (more Home Depot stuff, I never seem to get time to drive anywhere but there or Lowe's), so that's my project for today, to get them going. This time, I think I'll stick some weed block in the bottom of the bag to keep more of the dirt in, and hopefully little critters out. I think I'm going to put all the bags on top of some weed block, for the same reason.

Hey, Lisep,
Been outta pocket. We all let our tater vines grow to approximately 6"-8". Then, we would mound up more dirt around the plant, leavIng about 3" of green vine peeping out.

I don't think we were using fertilizer

I cannot plant taters for 2 more months. :(

Okay, just gotta brag on the free stuff we brought home from our walk today. A beautiful patio umbrella! The "only" thing wrong with it was that the outer covering on the cord that pulls the umbrella up and down is frayed. The cord itself is perfectly strong, all the spokes are fine, the fabric is like new. And, it matches our house and deck colors.

And now, we can dismantle our old patio umbrella, which was ripped and stained by 16 years of use, and I will soon have an assortment of wooden plant stakes (the spokes) or maybe even a small trellis. Cool.

Great find!

Even better'n the crib!

Another great frugal coup. There is a yahoo forum called Sharing Is Giving. It's available in many cities, although it's not as widespread as freecycle -- but the concept is the same, and I belong to both groups for my area.

Anyway -- I'm the proud new owner of over 35 pots! They're mostly terracotta. About 6 or so are pretty large (12-15" across) and a couple of those are even decorative. The marjority are probably 8" across and then there are some smaller ones -- great for potting up, before planting out, or maybe for smaller things like herbs.

Lise

Good job! Wish they had such a thing here.

All I have found lately is a big square wooden box. I'll try to take a pic and post it. Have not decided what I will do with it yet but it was too good to pass up. Even if I dismantle it it has some nice boards on it.

I also got something I can use to roof the new part I am building on my goat house. It's the side pf a semi rigid fiberglass pool.

Great finds, CajuninKy. Hmmm, a big square wooden box could be....

a planter
a compost bin
storage for garden stuff
a cold frame (just add glass or heavy plastic)
turn it upside down and use it to elevate the back row of a planter arrangement
cut holes in it at varying intervals and plant strawberries or herbs?
maybe useful in vermiculture?

Let us know what you end up doing with it.

Woo hoo! I was out of town all last month, but today on my walk, I found:

TWO large bags of MG Organic Choice garden soil
1/2 bag of HEB's Outdoor Solutions potting mix (which is what I generally buy)
Most of a roll of black soft mesh fabric that I believe to be some sort of row cover or shade cloth?

All of this was at the curb with the rest of someone's garbage. I rang their doorbell and found a lockbox on the front door. I'm guessing they moved. So, with the garbage man heading up the street, I nabbed the stuff!

SUH-WEET SCORE!

ground score extraordinaire !!!

That was a treasure!!

Thanks, most of it's already in my garden now!

Also found last week -- neighbor tossed some white rigid plastic grid stuff. I think it was once a covering for a large fluorescent light (?). It was broken up into pieces and that gave me the idea that I could cut it into strips (a scissor snaps through that stuff easily. I have laid the strips down across my line of cement blocks, to cover seedlings. It's working great so far in the garden. My intent was to dissuade birds from pecking the seeds out of the dirt, but also, some raccoons ate seedlings out of holes I didn't have covered, but they left the covered ones alone. The plastic grid does slide around a bit, so I added wooden skewers to anchor the grid down onto the holes.

liseP

I love your planters.

Jan

Thanks, meadowyck. JoParrott started me down that path and I'm loving it. I have 58 little holes to plant in. If you want to read more about planting in cinder block holes, check out the thread I started called Holes! You'll get some great insight from those who use this method and I think Jo has some of her photos on there too, as well as tips on what grows well. She grows amazing stuff in hers.

If I've had a Smile Greater than I do now, I do not remember it, or it has blended with it, Thank You LiseP , I'm very new to this site and Love it already. I live in Southern New Jersey, and have had 4 Organic Farm's for the last few year's, most of which I have pieced together like you. Hopefully we'll share some thought's, perception's, and Idea's, and enjoy the Bounty.
Thank You
I can't stop Smiling
My wife think's I'm crazy too
Until it comes to Plate.

Sorry about the "FARM's ...I meant Garden's...we can dream though....

Lovely, MrPappyG! Growing smiles is almost as great as growing vegetables. Glad you're among us and I'm sure we'll benefit from your experience and perspective. You'll rapidly discover that most times I don't know what the heck I'm doing, but with the help of the folks on here, there are occasional successes to report, and I'm sure having fun. Welcome.

Welcome to the garden, Pappy. So nice to have you.

I'm going to look for that thread. What forum is it on?

You have the best ideas!



This message was edited Sep 17, 2011 8:38 PM

Welcome! And thanks for reading my blog!