Picking before the first Frost of the Season

Now that we are starting to enter the time of the fall and winter months we are going to need to start worrying about frosts and freezes. These both can be very devastating to your plants and produce however there are ways to help keep your garden alive and producing during these cold days ahead.
The first possible to solution to this idea is to convert your garden box into a greenhouse. This has its positives and negatives and if you are growing the majority of your vegetables and fruits you will need to create a greenhouse that way you are continue through these cold months producing produce. I haven't ever built one myself however you can find several how to guides on the internet by searching "outdoor garden box greenhouse." For someone like me who is just getting into gardening, I wouldn't recommend this approach for starters because of the cost behind the creating the greenhouse, heating the greenhouse, and the time spent every fall and spring. In the spring you will be needing to tear down the green to avoid storms tearing up the greenhouse. While in the early fall you will need to remember how to put it back together and.put the green house together before the first frost but not to early otherwise you rise burning up your plants.
The other approach is more of temporary solution for the first frosts of fall and the last frosts of spring. This approach is very simple, during the nights of frosts you will need to create a fire up wind from your garden. This will allow for the heat off of the fire to keep the air around the garden warmer than normal. I haven't ever tried this way however I know my grandfather has done it several times in the past.


My useful tip of the week
This weeks useful tip resolves around the first frost of the year and what you should pick from your garden before the first frost and what you should pick up. You will want to pick all of your peppers, tomatoes, and more sensitive vegetables before the frost otherwise the vegetables will start their rotting process. This rule does not apply to vegetables growing underground like turnips, onions,..... This is because they have more insulation around them due to the dirt covering them. Don't get me wrong this won't protect them from a hard freeze but they will last longer with the occasional light frost in the mornings.

Gardening using Pottery Part 3

First off I know I sound like a broken record continuing talking to talk about gardening your pottery even though I have told you can't product as much fruit and vegetables in pottery like you can in a raised bed or traditional garden (at least in my experiences).
This week I have learned one thing that I thought was interesting and wanted to spread it to you though and yes it involves gardening your pottery. This is something I should have put together a while ago but didn't. Did you know if you are using a pot that using a dish to hold the extra water that you can actually cause your dirt to rot and cause root rot if the dirt is always sitting in water. In my case this explained why when I tried transplanting plants into bigger pots the dirt always smell rotten and the plant never seems in good shape (on the edge of death). Since I have start switching over from pots and water saucers underneath now to these new pots (new to me) I am actually seeing better looking plants and overall healthier plants too.
I would recommend only using these kind pots for indoor use though because if you keep them outside you can temporary flood (rains) your plant which can use your plant to die. This is because it will take the pot longer to drain out the liquids that it would the traditional pot with several holes in it.

On a side note
The reason I am bring up gardening using pottery is because I now using this technique to grow my habernos and other plants for my greenhouse.

Fact of Week
In terms of gardening I have learned that pepper plants seem to grow a better in spring and fall than in summer including habernos, bell peppers, and jalapenos.

Greenhouse fruit of my labors

I just had to post that I have now officially received my first gotten my first haberno from my greenhouse. Now I am trying to figure out what to do with it... If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Building and using an indoor greenhouse

This year I have decided to try my hand at having an indoor greenhouse; now this doesn't mean that I am building one in my backyard or anything crazy like that. Instead I am taking over a closet my house and converting it over into an indoor greenhouse. I am starting small and hoping to maybe one day go big. The reason I have decided to try my hand at building a mini greenhouse is because I think I can long term be able to grow some simple vegetables (tomatoes and peppers) and always be able to grow my plants for my garden from seeds instead of having to buy the plants from places like Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot,....etc
In order to build a greenhouse like this all you will need is metal or plastic shelves, greenhouse "growing" lights, and a timer (if you don't want to be in charge of always turning on and off the lights everyday). You should be able to get all of these products for less than a hundred dollars at any warehouse or super center store. I would also recommend getting some cheap plastic pots and something to put underneath the pots so when you water then the water does spill onto your floor.I personally bought the cheap aluminum throwaway pans used for cooking and put the my pots in them.
After you assemble your shelving you will need to attach the growing lights on the underside of each shelve excluding the very first shelf of course because it will just have plants on it and nothing below it. I then plugged in all of my greenhouse/growing lights into a surge strip and plugged that into my timer. I would personally recommend you have you timer set to on for 18 hours on and off for 6 hours a day.

This year I am growing to try and grow habernos, tomatoes, and a lemon tree. Below is what my indoor greenhouse looks like:

On a side note:
If you are thinking about building a garden next spring, try and start buying all the material you will need for in the late summer and early fall. The reason for this is because you will be able to buy the material while its on sale and the companies are trying to get rid of the materials and ready for the holiday season.

Fall Gardening

Now is the time of year that we start thinking about fall gardening and what we can grow in a fall garden. I will be the first to admit that this the first year, I have tried to fall garden so I will be learning right there beside everyone else. I have always been told you need to grow fast growing plants and ones that are more suitable for cool weather too.

For my first time growing a fall garden, I am sticking more with the basics like green beans, turnips and radishes. I planted these plants because they have some of the fastest seed to produce times of any plants. You can also grown broccoli, cauliflower, and others. I planted my seeds/plants around the middle to late August and so far I am seeing the plants acting healthy and growing very well. The green beans are veining out wonderfully, the radishes and turnips are starting to produce bulbs (hoping for a bunch of turnip bulbs, they are one of favorites). You will want all of your plants to be producing vegetables by the end of September at the latest (depending on where you live in the nation or world).

You will not want to try to plant anything that is picky about the temperatures otherwise the plant will more than likely not make it during the fall season. Another good rule of the thumb is don't buy "baby" plants is because it will become incredibly difficult to make your money back on these plants. I would recommend planting your seeds into the garden and letting them grow naturally in your garden.

My useful tip of the week
If you are wanting to build a garden box next spring now is the time to buy all the products needed especially timber like landscape timbers. For example landscape timbers are normally around 4 to 5 dollars however because its the end of the season you can get them for a dollar a piece at certain stores. I bought 35 landscape timbers for 35 dollars which is a savings of over 100 dollars.

Side notes
I am starting to get an indoor greenhouse working inside of my house. I will keep you updated on how it goes.

Canning peppers

First off let me eliminate the idea that only older people can because that isn't true and actually canning is becoming more and more popular with my generation (early to late 20 year old). This is because as the price of canned foods go up it is becoming more and more economical to can your own vegetables, now this doesn't mean that we need to start out trying to can the more complex vegetables ( making pickles for example) because like anything it takes practice. The only person to successful can cucumbers was my grandmother but she would have been the first to admit that it took her several years of trial and error before she was able to make one good batch of pickles.

In today's example, I am taking banana pepper, I actually grew in pots because I ran out of room in my garden (tomatoes took over the garden) and will be canning them. You will need to make you have Vinegar, water (tap water), Canning Salt, Alum powder, and jars with lids. You can get all of these products at any local grocery store honestly for probably under 25 dollars. For those of you who are afraid this took will take all night; tonight's canning honestly look me less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

In order to can any kind of pepper, I always use one part vinegar to one part water and bring it to a boil. As I am bringing the vinegar water solution to a boil, I will wash off the peppers (making sure to remove all dirt and possible chemical), cut the stems off of the peppers, place the peppers in the jar making sure not over load the jar with peppers, pour one eighth of a teaspoon of alum powder and pour one fourth of a teaspoon of canning salt into each jar. Once the vinegar water solution is boiling furiously; you will need to pour that solution into the jars and immediately put the lid on and screw it tightly to the jar. Finally you will want to flip the jar onto its lid and let it sit over night.
If the jar does not seal properly, I would put the jar into a boiling pot of water for 15 minutes making sure to have the whole jar covered in water. After 15 minutes I would place jar on its lid and let if rest over night again on the kitchen towels.
To keep it from burning your kitchen table or counter top I would lay down two or three thick kitchen towels on top of each of other then put the jars on top of the kitchen towels. I didn't water bathe the peppers because the vinegar acts as a natural sterilizer and because I am putting the vinegar water solution into the jars still boiling, this will actually cause the jars to naturally seal.

Side note
     I am not sure why this is but I will admit that home grown and canned foods taste 1000 times better than anything you can buy at the store.
My useful tip of the week
     If you decide to grow corn in your garden I would recommend having at least 4 rows of corn together. This is because the corn cross pollinates each other using the wind and if you don't have more than two rows of corn you will honestly probably not get any corn. Trust me on this, I have tried growing only one row of corn and two rows of corn and I honestly didn't get any corn at all.

Watering your garden

When it comes to watering your garden it can become very tricky on when do you water your garden and how much do you water my garden.

When it comes to when should you water my garden you will find two different answers: watering in the morning or water in the evenings. Some people will say when you water your garden at night you promote mold growth while others will say if you water in the mornings you have a greater chance of burning your plants. When I started trying to figure out the best time to water my garden and potted plants, I tried both and honestly I don't see any major difference as long as you don't water in the heat of the day; and between you and me if you are going to water in the middle of the day I would say just soaking the ground around the plant is the best opinion. This will help keep you from burning you plant. The biggest problem I have with watering my plants is in the middle of summer, when it is over 100 degrees, is your vegetables (tomatoes especially) will get splits in them.

This doesn't mean your tomato is bad and you should throw it away, it just means that the tomato had more water than the skin couldn't hold in it. The tomato will heal from this tear/split.

When I am watering my plants I want to try and get as much water on the plants roots as I can without flooding the plant. The reason for this is, you want your plants to develop a deep wide root base that way you aren't having to water your plants as often. This will help promote a healthier and stronger plant. A good way of testing to see if you are watering your plants enough is to pick a place beside your plant (not close to the roots hopefully) and see if the ground has moisture at least an inch deep. This is because any water you have near the surface is first to evaporate during the heat of the afternoon, plus will once again help allow your plant's roots to dig deeper for water.
On a side note,
     I wouldn't water you plant more than a couple times a week that way you keep from having giving you plant root rot and allowing the plant to adopt the environment you are in.

Useful tip of the week
If you are wanting to grow strawberries in a garden, try and buy the plants that have runners shooting off from them. That way you are buying two or more plants instead of just one plant for the price of one plant.

Gardening using Pottery Part 2

Like I promised in the earlier post I will show you the difference between plants in pots and plants in a garden box.
Below is an example of a Habanero plant I have been growing in a post and next is a picture of a Habanero grown in a garden box/flower bed.

I am not sure how easy it is to tell from the pictures but the Habanero plant growing in the garden box/flower bed is easily 4 inches taller and a lot healthier of plant. There is no yellowing or leaf decay on the plant while the potted plant is considerably smaller and not as healthy of a plant. Both of these plants were planted on the same day and in the same soil; they were treated the same when it came to fertilizer and watering.
Now like I said this doesn't mean you can't grow certain plants from pots. I have been very successful in growing banana peppers and tomatoes in pots.

These tomatoes plants are considerably smaller in height and overall bushy-ish  however they are strong and healthy plants.
Growing plants in pots are very useful when it comes to gardening in small spaces however I don't feel like you can get the same "bang for the buck" in produce from a plant as you can from growing the same plant in a garden box. I am not sure why this is but this is what I have learned in my gardening experience.

Question of the week
What kind of garden plants have you grown in pots and what kind of luck have you had growing in pots?

Gardening using Pottery

I am sure we have all tried growing a flower in a pot, which makes us think we can grow anything using a pot, soil, and a seed. Well through my experience it doesn't work that way for every plant. I have been trying to grow Habanero plants using pots for two years and so far I have had no success doing this. The problem I have had is that the plant will grow tall and bushy with tons of leaves and flowers; then the next thing I know all the leaves are turning yellow and all of the flowers are all just falling off.
This doesn't mean I can't ever get a vegetable or fruit plant to grow in a pot. I have had great success growing banana peppers, lemon trees, and growing tomatoes. It seems like these heartier plants do better for me.

I am going to keep trying to master growing plants from pots however I would recommend building a garden box for your vegetable and fruit plants. I will describe in later posts, how to build a garden box. I will try and remember to take pictures of the my plants in their pots and then compare it to the same kind of plants I have planted in my garden box; and let everyone be the judge

My useful tip of the week
When it comes to using pots for gardening; I would recommend getting the next size up in pottery from what you are thinking. If you notice you are having to water a plant every day otherwise it looks dead (not because of heat); you will need to transfer the plant to a larger pot because that plant is getting root bound (roots haves no where to expand too)

First Gardening blog

I would like to first off like to introduce myself. My name is Farmer Stamps and unlike my name I am not a professional gardener but just starting out. I live in a subdivision with my wife and daughter and work 40+ hours a week. I got introduced to gardening from my grandfather and my dad who have a combined experience of at least 80 years when it comes to gardening. In this blog I am going to post about things I have learned, experiments I try, failures I have, hopefully successes too, and little bits of random (hopefully) useful information.
Let me start out by saying anyone can garden and grow vegetables but let me warn you it will take some time and effort on your behalf. I have a 12' by 26' foot garden and I normally spend around an hour or two every couple of nights out there; I am normally weeding, watering, or picking vegetables. I use to never believe people who said that garden fresh fruit and vegetables were better but honestly they are right. I might just be the fact that you are rewarding yourself with all your hard work and effort or it might be that you don't pick your fruit and vegetables early either.

My useful tip of the week
Don't buy the vegetable plant that is fully grown and will cost you 20 to 30 dollars because you will never make your money back on it, instead buy the little 6 pack of vegetables for around 6 to 10 dollars. That is how you make money gardening. Personally I am trying to grow them from seeds and then plant what comes up.