Rain Barrels and Water Collections

I wanted to do a post about water collection because I know for some people, water can be an issue when it comes to gardening. Bigger gardens require more water and that can be expensive if you live in the city. Check out the picture to the left for some water collection ideas.

The idea is to place water collection devices under the eves of your house and collect water during large rain events. This water can accumulate quickly and depending how much is used to water plants, it can last a long time.

• You can check around town for old barrels, wooden or plastic. These can hold a large amount of water. It may be nice to elevate the barrel and install a spicket on the bottom of the barrel. The barrel can them be opened and closed like a faucet to fill watering cans, etc. 
• Five gallon pals that have been cleaned out also make great containers. They are smaller and easier to carry around. 
• You can also use something like an old cast iron bath tub or a trough from a farm supply shop. 

Just a few ideas. Enjoy. 

Growing Herbs in the Winter

Here is a good article about keeping your herbs growing during the winter months by planting them indoors. Please check it out! I may start doing this as well. I miss having fresh rosemary!

Growing Herbs indoors

Enjoy

Heirloom Organics

I found a new site this morning while stumbling that I think could be very useful to my fellow gardeners. It is called "heirloom organics" and along with having many varieties of old seeds, they also have a large supply of "how to" pages on growing vegetables. This looks like a great site and I'm very excited to check it out more myself. You can find the link below.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Thank you for checking out my site in 2012, hopefully this coming year I will be able to make a bit better. Many of the seed companies have been sending out their seed catalogs. That means it's time to start scoping for good deals and also start planning your gardens for the coming season. My mother also happen to run into a sweet deal at a local thrift shop. She found a modest supply of new seeds for a great price, so once again, keep your eyes peeled for good deals.

Happy New Year! Enjoy

Urban Gardening to the Extreme: Aquaponics

I was stumbling this morning and I found an amazing video that I hope tons of people will check out! This is an incredible video that talks about something I'm very new to which is Aquaponics. This is an enclosed system that encompasses the growth of plants and fish to help meet the needs of our growing population. It is really inspiring to here about this type of urban gardening and I hope to check it out sometime soon!

Please watch the video below to see some really amazing Aquaponics!

Book of the Week: Compact Cabins

So lets say that you just got some land, maybe a bit more secluded and you want to farm. Well if you are like me, this book could probably give you a great idea for a cabin to build on that secluded property.My girlfriend and I found this book and have really enjoyed it. There are numerous customizable plans in this book that are for cabins of 1000 sq feet or less, which keeps things fairly affordable. This is definitely a book to check out!



Enjoy!

Day at the Park!

Yesterday, my girlfriend and I spent the afternoon at a park near our house. It was a wonderful afternoon full of flowers, frogs, and fun! Here are a few good pictures of nature and gardens that I thought people might enjoy! The garden on the roof was really cool. It looked like the park was using it to help reduce run off in the park!

Once Again...Long Time No Seed!

Hopefully everyone is having a wonderful summer and enjoying their gardens. I haven't posted in awhile due to the fact that I moved to Minnesota for the summer because of my job. However I do have some good news to put up. I found a really amazing store in the St. Paul area that deals solely with Urban Gardening.

It's called Egg| Plant Urban Farm Supply and you can check out their website here. It was really cool to find a store that specializes in urban garden after making a few posts about the subject. They had all sorts of goodies available, tools, artwork, chicken supplies. It was really quite something. Please comment if you've been there and what you thought!

Rain Gutters as Planters

The other day I was stumbling the internet and I found a page that had a list of 35 "crafty" ideas. There were some really cool pictures/ideas for small planters made from old gutters. I thought readers would like this if they were looking for a new project or something that could hold small flowers, lettuces, or herbs. If you have made this or if you try to make it, please let me know how it works!

Here is the link to the other crafty ideas: 35 Crafty Ideas

Summer Travels!

So the past week and a half I have been downstate visiting some family, getting some work done and also, hunting  the elusive Morel Mushrooms. We did very well and even sold a few pounds. But now the time comes for a change of scenery! I got a summer job through Michigan Tech and will be moving to Minnesota for the summer! So for the coming months I will be telling gardening stories from the wilderness of Minnesota. Hopefully it will be quite the adventure! I hope everyone keeps visiting and enjoying the site! Good luck to all of the gardeners of the Keweenaw and enjoy this wonderful weather! I think today I'll be planting a few spuds that sprouted eyes while I was traveling. Hopefully I will be able to put some of my urban gardening posts to good use also!

Morel Mushrooms!

Although this is a gardening blog, I wanted to add a few non gardening things in here and there to keep things lively. Morel mushrooms are one of those things because before the garden takes over your life for the summer the woods has a lot to offer in the way of wild delicacies that can be found and enjoyed and I also love hunting for them. My girlfriend and I found a few Morels yesterday and then found a half pound today. With the weather finally starting to cooperate the white mushrooms are starting to show and they look great!

So if you have pictures or comments to post feel free. Also if you are interested in purchasing some mushrooms, let me know! I'll be around Leelanau County for a week or so and will hopefully have an abundance!


Enjoy!

I found Pallets!

So the other day I happened, to be out riding my bike and a lady who lives a few blocks from me had her yard pretty torn up and full of old pallets. I got a chance to ask her what she was doing and she said she was making a GARDEN! How awesome. I'm going to try and get some pictures put up of that too!

Wonder if she saw my post about pallets?

Enjoy

Behind, Behind

I know it has been a few days since my last post, and I apologize. Exam week as Michigan Tech has kept me quite busy. I plan to get out and do a bit of gardening this coming week, as well as post the pics of my germinated plants. I have well over a dozen sprouts now of cucumber, watermelon, tomatoes, and peppers.  Hope everyone has been getting out to enjoy the nice weather.

Good Luck. Pictures coming soon....Really, I promise.

Recycle Wooden Pallets

Do you ever find yourself with a large amount of extra pallets? Do you find yourself looking for a neat project that could add a bit of flavor to your garden. Well I found a great website during a Stumble session that had 35 uses for old pallets. Several of the designs pertain to gardening and I definitely hope to implement a few them in my future gardens! There are also many other ideas that are quite ingenious.

35 Amazing Uses for Old Pallets

I also put this on the Compost Pile section of the site for an easy way to reference later on. Enjoy!

Busy Week

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy and I haven't had much time to get another post together. However, I did want to make an update about the seeds I planted. They have long since germinated some more than others but they are looking great. I have several cucumbers and tomatoes, a pepper, and I think maybe a watermelon or two.

I have also been looking for some info to add to the compost pile. Be sure to check that out.
More coming soon. Plus pictures!

Enjoy

Garden Artwork!

I've been posting artwork once and awhile because I love to draw and hopefully visitors to the site find it neat as well. If you have any garden artwork that you would like to show off, please send it along! Click Here to email your photo!

Pumpkin

Seedling

Gourd Birdhouse

Enjoy!

Germinating Plants (continued)

Finally got my pictures loaded onto the computer! I wanted to put some up of the plants that are germinated so far! There was first one lonely tomato which is shown below, and then it seemed like they all popped. Now there are several cucumbers and tomatoes. I'm still waiting for peppers, watermelon, and pumpkins.

Enjoy

Newspaper Seedling Starters

In an effort to get my watermelons and pumpkins planted, I had to do a bit of recent for reusable containers that I could find around the house. I ended up finding a very useful tool on the Urban Gardener website.

This useful technique involves creating seedling pots from newspaper! All you need is some newspaper and a small soup can.

One of the great things about these little pots is that you can plant them directly in the ground once the plants are ready to transplant. Since the newspaper decomposes, this sturdy container provides a good home while the plant germinates and then keeps the plant from damage during transplanting.

Newspaper Pots

Urban Gardening

I just wanted to put up a post to let people know that you don't have to have large amounts of land to garden! Great, fresh food can be grown even in you live in an urban area! I found a really good site to pass along to people that can give people a heads up on growing their own fruits and veggies in the city!   Urban Gardening

Pictures courtesy of: Urban Garden Resource


Take a look and enjoy!

Germinating Plants!

Today I was pleased to find that I have a couple of plants germinated in my green house. One was a cucumber and the other is a tomato plant. Pictures coming soon!