Frugal Gardening Tips

[amandajane]

Does anyone have any frugal gardening tips to pass on? I'll start it off, this one is on my frugal life blog

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Starting your seed germination early will extend your growing year as you’ll be ready to plant out seedlings rather than seeds when the soil is warm enough to begin sewing, and you’ll maximize your gardening resources.

The ideal way to do this is to start your seeds off early indoors. You can do this by making an inexpensive indoor greenhouse.

You can make your indoor greenhouse by lining a cardboard box with silver/tin foil. Make sure you have the foil shiny side up and make holes in the bottom of the box and the foil for drainage. Half fill with your preferred potting/seed compost and plant your seeds.

The foil in the top of the box helps magnify the light and heat and is particularly useful for starting the germination of your vegetable seeds early. Capsicum, tomatoes and your sun loving herbs will do particularly well in this warm, heated environment.

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Who's next?

[jdp]

Don't know if we're allowed to do this but there is no where to compare when it comes to frugal gardening tips:

Frugal Gardening Forum - GardenWeb

It started with me wondering what I could do with my tp roll core's which led me to this site (use them as seed starters) and its been downhill ever since. :lol

[leslieinbham]

Originally Posted by jdp

Don't know if we're allowed to do this but there is no where to compare when it comes to frugal gardening tips:

Frugal Gardening Forum - GardenWeb

It started with me wondering what I could do with my tp roll core's which led me to this site (use them as seed starters) and its been downhill ever since. :lol

OMG! I just had the same wondering this past week and have since transferred some cuttings to tp cores! Kept wondering if I was proceeding directly over edge of sanity with this experiment. Too funny.

I also have turned one of my sons' cribs into my compost bin, so I don't know why the tp thing struck me as odd.

regards,
leslie

[kav122]

okay, I have a question. How to I prepare seeds from veggies for planting? Do I need to dry them first? Or refridgerate them? Tomatoes in particular.

[purplefdu]

I've never prepared my own seeds, but I have ordered from someone on Ebay who does her own and she suggests keeping them in the fridge until ready to plant to keep them from germinating....

I actually have purchased a few very well made plastic germinating trays and clear lids from a local greenhouse to start my seeds. I own four of them, but I have owned them for 5yrs and they don't show any signs of wear yet. I have one really small cell one for quick germinating things that won't need much root room, and larger cell ones for slower germinating things. I think I spent about $8, plus a bit more for some felt to help get the water where its needed (it goes between the bottom tray and the seed cells).

I have snow fencing thrown out from a construction site for bean trellis (well I did till my parents threw it out). The plastic covered metal tomato stakes work great to hold it up, and it is moved easily and stored in the winter.

[lucille]

I used half gallon clear plastic milk bottles as mini greenhouses for starting plants last year. These are the totally clear PET plastic. I cut them in half horizontally and cut notches into the top portion so I could push it down inside the bottom part. Drilled holes in the bottom of each bottle for drainage. I put dirt mix in the bottom then seeded & watered. I put the top back on along with the cap. I put all of these on one of those heavy duty metal wire shelving units that we put in front of our downstairs patio window.

As the seeds started to sprout and grow we gradually loosened and then removed the bottle caps and later the top half of the bottle. This worked great as little greenhouses. I then used some of the same bottles with just the bottom inch cut off as covers for the seedlings when I put them out. This gave the greenhouse treatment and some shelter to the plants in the early spring when it isn't very warm out yet. We got things going much earlier this way.

I have saved seeds from melons and had them sprout the next year. I just dried them on a piece of paper and stored in an envelope in the garage until next year.

[boba1212]

I save and dry seeds from oranges, grapefruit, heck pretty much anything that has seeds. I've planted them figuring nothing would happen but I've been blessed with some pretty plants. Not any that are fruit or veggie-bearing, but it's nice to see some green.

[amandajane]

Thanks for all the tips folks :0)

jdp - What are tp rolls? toilet rolls? lol

That web site is awesome, thank you for the link.

leslieinbham - that's a great idea for a compost bin. I'm still debating starting one as I have so little room here in my small courtyard.

kav122 - I've just got this book from the library, I haven't read it yet but will pass on any insight asap :0)

purplefdu - I like the felt idea, that's ingenious! I'll have to get some felt and try it.

I have some peas, zucchini and beetroot to plant out at the moment, it's summer here and the plants get really thirsty, felt would work really well I think.

lucille - I like the mini greenhouse idea, although I am somewhat limited because of container gardening I can see how the smaller ones would work. Thanks!

boba1212 - do you think they might be fruit bearing in time? I have a lemon tree in a pot now, it has lemons on it but they are so small and most of them have fallen off, I'm hoping next year will be different once it's had a chance to establish itself.

[jkuo13]

Originally Posted by kav122

okay, I have a question. How to I prepare seeds from veggies for planting? Do I need to dry them first? Or refridgerate them? Tomatoes in particular.

You can get away with just drying a lot of seeds and storing them in a cool, dark place. This works particularly well with things like beans and squash in my experience. But some seeds require that you eliminate the sugars sticking to the seeds (I think) so that the seeds don't get destroyed by mold. Anyhow, since I don't feel like excerpting my garden reference books, here's a general link on saving seeds and another one specifically for saving tomato seeds. Personally, I've always been grossed out by having to intentionally grow mold to harvest tomato seeds. I used to either just buy some heirloom seeds or plants from a local seed saver, or just fake it and blot the seeds dry with a paper towel and store in a cool, dry spot.

[amandajane]

Originally Posted by kav122

okay, I have a question. How to I prepare seeds from veggies for planting? Do I need to dry them first? Or refridgerate them? Tomatoes in particular.

Hi kav122 :0)

I've been reading the book I linked to earlier and have realised that this is a whole lot more complicated than I initially thought. I've written two posts on my blog that you might find useful. I am rather reticent about posting them here as they are quite long. I've split the information into two:

Drying and Storing Your Seeds, The Ultimate Frugal Gardener

and

Drying and Storing Your Vegetable Seeds - Tomatoes

I hope you'll find the information relevant. I will definitely be drying and storing my own seeds in future, the cost in processing them is much lower than purchasing the seeds or seedlings from a garden center!