Make Your Kids Interested in Gardening - for Cheap/FREE!

I watch the Biggest Loser.  I love it.  This season, they feature some kids who need to shed some pounds.  One of the moms of one of the kids confessed to Bob Harper 2 weeks ago that her son thought broccoli was made in a factory.  Seriously?  He's like 10.  I'm not all hippy, organic or even a great mom - but I'm pretty sure my kids know that broccoli along with all vegetables grow in the ground.  Why?  Because I force them to garden with me.  I also have to take them grocery shopping every now and then and we sometimes talk about produce.  I mean, isn't it sort of basic knowledge that produce grows and is not manufactured?  Well it should be.

To make gardening fun/interesting for kids, here are some things you can do to get them to have some interest in it:

Grow Stuff that is FUN!  Last year we grew yellow grape tomatoes.  The kids LOVED the fact we grew yellow tomatoes.  I'd even let them play with them - because, well, why not?  There are so many fun and interesting things you can grow these days.  Experiment!

Give them a job.  Make it your child's job to pick the produce.  Sure - they might pick some stuff that isn't quite ripe or drop some or squish some.  Whatever.  Let them be involved.  They'll be more into it. 

Grow a Green Bean Teepee!  What better way is there to get your kids into gardening?  Make them a teepee in it!  You can grow green beans or cucumbers or any vine vegetable on them.  

Make cheap signs.  We used some spare wood in the basement and made some signs.  The kids loved it.  It doesn't have to be fancy or Pinterest worthy.  We used a black Sharpie marker.  

Start some plants from seed.  Kids love planting stuff.  They are impatient - but it's fun to watch the little sprouts start to emerge.  This also teaches kids how the plants start and whatnot.  

Remember - the last frost in Massachusetts is around mid-May.  So you don't want to hop on the bandwagon and throw stuff in the ground quite yet.  But it's good to plan and think about what you might want to plant this year.  I'm so excited for spring!

Homemade Topsy Turvy

I guess the fad of the "Topsy Turvy" is fading - but it doesn't have to.  And you don't have to drop $10 on that piece of crap.  You can make your own for practically nothing.  How?  It's easy.

You can do it - and be pretty while do so too!  Just like ME!

It's relatively simple.  Take an old 64oz. juice bottle and cut about 1" down one of the big sides and the two small sides with a razor blade.  This should allow it to "open".  Cut two holes on the side and thread some old rope in them and tie them.  Then tie a not on the top to hang it.  You want to then jam a tomato plant down through the hole and fill with potting soil. Hang it and water it.  You have a topsy turvy.  

It will get big.  It will produce.  Just be sure to keep watering it.  They dry out faster than in ground gardens.

I even made topsy turves with jalapeño plants!  They worked too!

Why I'm Hoarding My Newspapers

Tis the season!  Gardening season!  I've been hoarding my newspapers for the past month and continue to do so.  Why?  Well I shred them and use them as mulch.  Free mulch!

I don't use the glossy inserts - just the newspaper.  Although some people are freaked out by using newspaper in gardens, the USDA says it's fine.  The ink used in newspapers is almost always soy-based (switched from a chemical base years ago - mostly for worker safety).  Paper comes from wood, obviously, and minimal amount of bleach is used in newsprint.  The "whiter" the paper - the more bleach is used.  It actually biodegrades really nicely.  Worms love it.  

I used newspaper mulch in the past and it works great.  And it's cheap.  And it helps the environment by reusing it yourself.  

I wrote about this three years ago - when I first thought about trying it out.  I'm getting old.  You can read my original post HERE.  

My Cheap Green Bean Teepee

I dig gardening.  This year, I expanded my garden.  I haven't measured it, but it's pretty big.  Well - for where I live.

There is said garden this year.  Where the grass is, is my expansion area.  I threw down some wild flower seeds there.  

So my mission this year was to build a green bean teepee to get the kids into the gardening a little more.  Of course, my cheap self didn't want to drop money on this thing.  I Googled different ways to make a green bean teepee, and the best resource I found was from Tee Riddler at Veggie Gardener.  He used Bamboo he picked up cheap at K-Mart but that was still too expensive for me...

I went into my basement and found some moldings that I got off of Freecycle about 3 years ago.  We were thinking of using it on home improvements, but decided that it wouldn't really go where we wanted it.  So it's been in the basement collecting dust.  

So I took 3 of the moldings and my husband's jigsaw and I cut them down the middle to have 6 stakes.  These are 8' moldings and 8' seems to be a good length for making a teepee.  

After I had my 6 8' long sections for the teepee - I marked about 7" on all the sides.  When digging, you want to put them about 6-9" into the ground.  This was my guideline so they weren't all uneven in the ground.  

I didn't take pictures of the next steps.  I know, I suck.  I dug 6 holes and put the 6 pieces of wood in the holes and made them nice and tight in there.  I then used my kid's picnic table as a ladder of sorts.  I brought two of the sticks together to make a small "X" on top.  I have a lot of yarn I bought years and years ago and used that.  I used a lot of yard to secure the two poles together.  I then grabbed two other poles and secured them to the "X" I previously tied.  Then did it with the last set of two poles on top.  I then wrapped a lot of yarn around the whole thing.  Sometimes interchanging through the poles if that makes any sense.  At this point, you will be able to tell if your teepee is very secure.  Mine was.  

I then took rope and weaved it through the poles - leaving one side open for the "door" of the teepee.  If you don't need a "door", you can just put string along all sides.  

There is the final product.  My son is 6 years-old and probably just a smidgen over 4' tall.  So you get a sense of how tall this thing is.  Probably about 6.5' since I buried about 7" and they're tilted in.  I bought Kentucky Wonder Green Beans which are great pole beans.  I am going to soak them overnight and plant.  You don't have to soak green bean seeds, but it helps speed up germination.  I hope to have a picture of my teepee full of vines later this summer to share with you.  

Total Cost out of pocket:  $1.28 for a pack of seeds.  If you don't have spare moulding that you can cut up laying around, any wood or long pole like thing will do.  It's best to keep it anywhere from 5'-8'.  5' might be on the small side, but you can make do.  You can also use sticks.  I'm hoping the yard holds up, but twine is recommended (I'm cheap though and didn't have twine).  

***UPDATE*** September 2012:  Here's a picture of my Green Bean Teepee Success!

I Said I Wouldn't Do It - But I Did It

I said, many, many a time that I wouldn't do it this year - grow anything from seed.  Well....

I did it.  Marigolds & Pansies.  64 mini plants and 2 big hangers.

Total Cost:  $12.29

2 packs of bio-trays - $2.59 each

2 packs of seeds - $1.57 each

1 bag of potting soil - $3.97

It was just a fun thing to do with the kids.  I recycled two hanging planters that I had bought a few years back.  Here's hoping we get some flowers for the summer.  

In other garden news, I have expanded my garden.  I have to keep up with my Polish next-door neighbor.  I think I have more square footage than he does now, which means I am awesome.  He lets me borrow his tiller every year, so the husband will have to knock that out here in a few weeks.  Then, it will be off to a local nursery to buy some plants.  Will have to plot that out so I can conquer this year.

Garden Update!

Teresa over at Money Saving Maine-iac is doing Garden Thursdays. So here is what my "garden" looks like this week.  I planted a bunch of seeds the end of March.  I swore myself off tomatoes because I killed them all last year - but like most things in life, I didn't do what I said I was going to do - but that's good, because this year, my tomatoes are doing  great!  I added Green Beans to my mix of stuff I'm trying to grow.  The husband wanted jalapenos so I did those as well as some Green Peppers.  I also have some watermelon (which I'm not too sure about) and marigolds.  I'm probably going to pick up some various plants too when the time comes to plant outside. 

I live near Boston.  Last year, I planted on Mother's Day (about May 13th).  We had a freakish frost a few days later.  This year, Mother's Day is May 9th - so I think I'm going to hold off until the following week to plant.  I think the guaranteed last day of no frost is May 20th - but I get all impatient and stuff like that.  I actually usually just copy my Polish neighbor and he planted the day before Mother's Day last year. 

I'm also going to do a little "project" with my kids and give them each their own garden.  It's actually for selfish reasons - I have a raised garden box that the previous owners left here - so I'm just going to try a raised garden and give them each a section.  I'll buy soil from Lowe's or whatever to fill it in - I kind of just want to see what plants do better. 

The Grocery Cart Challenge: How To Start A Compost Pile

I just wanted to pass along this great write up on how to start a Compost Pile from Gayle over at The Grocery Cart Challenge. If I can compost - anyone can compost!

The Grocery Cart Challenge: How To Start A Compost Pile

Still Composting Away.

I started composting about 10 months ago.  I'm still going strong.  It's actually a very easy habit to get into.  It's cost me ZERO dollars.  And it's something that I don't even think twice about now - when I cut up vegetables or dump my coffee grounds - they just go into my little compost bin.  When it's full, I empty it outside.  Even my husband does it - and he's the most anti-organic person out there. 

How I did it?  I grabbed an old raggity garbage can (we had 6 of them - we didn't need 6 garbage cans).  I drilled like 100 holes in it with my husband's cordless drill.  I put the lid on it, and VOILA!  A Compost Bin. 

I'm on my 3rd round of filling up this bad boy.  The compost doesn't decompose as fast in the winter.  But I was able to put it relatively close to my backdoor (no fruit flies and other weird bugs around it in the winter). 

I'm getting excited about gardening again.  Why?  I don't know.  I want to be better than last year.  I think I'll do more tomatoes.  Maybe I'll experiment with random things.  I don't know.  I still have about 5 months until I can plant so maybe I should find something else to get excited about. 

Still Composting Away...

Just giving a shout out to let the world know that I am still composting away!  I started in March.  It's become so second nature, I don't even think about it anymore.  I fill up a 39 oz coffee can about every other day (or twice a day on days like this - making a butt load of Beef Stew from scratch and there are a lot of veggie scraps). 

I just thought as Thanksgiving and winter is approaching, it might actually be a good time to start composting if you have thought about it.  The colder weather means fewer bugs - so you won't be as grossed out than if you started in the summer. 

I made a ghetto Compost Bin with stuff we had here.  I took a garbage can that wasn't really needed (and kind of beat up).  I took my husband's cordless drill and drilled about 100 holes all over it.  I think I used a 1/8" bit or maybe even a 1/4".  Or maybe 5/8".  Any of those will work though.  Then I put the top of the garbage can on and have two bungie cords on it.  I actually never bungie cord it closed unless I'm rolling around to keep all the stuff inside.  I haven't had any critters try to get in it.  In the summer, I keep it away from the house (it gets lots of fruit flies - but that's fine - they help the decomposition).  Now that it's colder, I have moved it closer to the backdoor so it's easier. 

Here are the common things that I have been composting:

- Coffee grinds (with filter).  The paper filters decompose rather quickly.
- Apple peels (I've been on an apple pie kick)
- Potato & Carrot peels.
- Really, any scrap veggies and fruits.  I will even throw in left over frozen vegetables from dinner in it. 
- Egg shells
- Halloween pumpkins & gourds
- Leaves (not a lot - just some)
- Flowers that die

Do not put anything with meat product in it.  I guess it just doesn't decompose - and it will attract animals. 

After I cleaned up my garden, I had about an entire garbage can (55 gallons) of compost.  Not all of it was completely decomposed, but I just dumped it in my garden and spread it out.  Now I'm starting to refill it again.  When I raked up my yard, I raked a bunch of leaves into my garden.  Then I mowed over them with the lawn mower (my husband was at work at the time - he probably would have yelled at me for doing that as I'm sure it's not good for the lawn mower).  This way there are tiny pieces of leaves (and newspaper from my newspaper mulch) that will decompose in no time for next year's growing season. 

So go!  Compost!  Your garden will thank you!

Garden Love

Showing the Garden and nature some love...

Here's my compost bin. Still going strong. It's amazing how much it decomposes. It's about 1/3 full (this picture makes it look like there isn't much in there)

Cucumbers are starting to sprout!

My pumpkin plant is slowing taking over my entire garden. If I held up the stems, I'm sure it would be taller than me by now.


About a month or two ago, I had an urge to buy some flowers for the front porch. I transplanted them and have been showing them love. They are blooming out of control.

A close up! I love these flowers. Many thanks to Penniman Hill Farm in Hingham, MA!

I just want to throw a little blurb out there for small business. I'll admit, sometimes it's just easier to go into the huge super stores. Lowe's, Walmart, Target, Home Depot - but what I've most definitely learned this year is anything plant wise - you must find a little place near you to get your things. Sure it might not be big or fancy - but the quality and price is far superior than the big chains. I tried to get porch flowers at Lowe's - and a. Their selection was so blah. Sure they had a lot of all the same things, but nothing that jumped out at me. b. Their prices compared to local farm market places are ridiculous. Poor quality, poor prices = you might as well just throw your money away.

Slug-O-The-Day & My Garden

Today's slug was much more photogenic than yesterday's slug. He's currently sunbathing in the drive-way.

You are disgusting.

I'm very excited that my grape tomatoes are starting to turn red! I think we're going to have lots of grape tomatoes this season!

This is where I found both slugs.

Here is what my garden looks like today.

Mother Nature is So Disgusting!

I went out and shredded some newspapers I had laying around for my garden. After I laid the newspaper, I just looked around the garden to see what was up. I have had a few more zucchinis - so I'm probably at about 8 in total so far - with the promise of more to come.

I found the mother of all slugs near a zucchini plant! It's so disgusting and these pictures do not do it justice. I used my kid's shovel to grab it. I put it in the middle of my incredibly hot and very sunny driveway. It's probably inhumane and I hope PETA doesn't read this, but I'm really mad at all the slugs that have been eating my zucchinis up! I would have dozens by now if it weren't for these stupid things!

It's like 3-4 inches long. DISGUSTING!

Why would God ever create something so disgusting and so ugly? Ugh. Enjoy the hot driveway Slug! Tell all your little friends to leave my zucchini alone!

My August Garden Update!

See the evolution of my garden by clicking HERE.

It's August and my garden is finally taking off! So far to date, I've been able to pick 4 zucchini and about 6 tomatoes. Not earth shattering but good for me.

I'm not good at taking pictures, but here's a tomato plant. It's about 4 ft tall now.

My cucumbers are extremely deformed. My neighbor gave me 4 of hers yesterday. I ate one and it was delicious!

Grape tomatoes are coming!

Still getting zucchinis!

Again, this just looks like mangled junk, but it's a grape tomato plant that has taken off. This one too is about 4 - 4 1/2 feet tall now. Not bad since it started out as a dried seed in a pack!

Fruits of My Labor!

I picked my first tomato from my garden the other day. It was delicious. I have what appears to be more coming! My grape tomato plants are getting crazy big! My zucchini plants are crazy too but the slugs have waged war on me again. Slugs are gross. Surprisingly, my tomato plants all seem to be bug free. Cucumbers? Oh who knows. They are like the Energizer Bunny - they just keep going and going.

My Garden Today!

I braved the rain this morning and took a few pictures of the garden! It's coming along nicely!

Here is the big picture. As you can see, I have a lot of shredded newspaper down. It has been decomposing fast. I built up the areas around the plants just two months ago and they are already low and blah. I just keep adding more newspaper every week. I seriously don't have that many weeds at all. A few here and there - but they come out so easily. I also have a lot of bare spots in the garden due to death and whatnot. Hopefully I'll more plants next year (that won't die on me).

I have my first red tomato coming!

Zucchinis are a spouting! This is Gretchen! Gretchen and her cousins were planted from seed so I love them a little more than my tomato plants. Sorry tomatoes.

My Grape Tomato plants are growing so big! I grew these from seed as well - and I honestly didn't think they would take. It's amazing!

Here are my kids' pumpkin plants! These too came from seed.

The cucumbers seem to be doing okay. I bought these at a local nursery (Penniman Hill Farm in Hingham, MA). They were pretty much dead for a long time, but somehow came back to life.

Homemade Organic (Cheap for Me!) Pesticides!

I needed to share these few tips that readers have left in my comments for a cry out for garden help.

I've been having some bugs or slugs or something eat through my precious Gretchen (my #1 squash plant) and her cousins. This bothers me - obviously. So in my style, I was set to run to Lowe's to buy some pesticide. But I had no idea what to buy. I blogged about my problem. Bev at Home School Gardner gave me a recipe for homemade bug deterrent. Surprisingly, I had all the ingredients in my house so I left my pajamas on and just made it. Here is the recipe:

Homemade Orange Taco Pesticide (Name made up by me)

4 TBSPs Hot Sauce (I used Franks - I bought about 3 bottles recently due to those "FREE" coupons in the paper)
2 TBSP Crushed Garlic (I used the minced kind in the jar from my refrigerator)
1 TSP Hot Pepper Flakes
2 TBSP Vegetable Oil (I used corn, but whatever)
1 TSP Dishsoap
4 Cups Water


Mix hot sauce, garlic, pepper flakes, and oil. Let sit over night. Strain out chunks. Add soap and water. Put in spray bottle. Spray on plants sparsely. Reapply after rain and at least once a week.


I only did this a few days ago and I'm already seeing results! New flowers DO NOT have holes eaten through them! I actually have 4 or 5 small zucchinis! The flowers just fell off (probably from slug death!) before I used this special formula!

I did find some little slugs out there - even though Bev said to use it lightly, I have been spraying a lot on mine. And it's working. I'm going to be making yet another batch. I've been spraying on my other plants as a precaution. Most of it went to my squashies though.


Another tip I got was from Marilyn at Marilyn's Money. She told me to sprinkle Flour on the plants. I did not try this. But I have faith in Marilyn. She's from Ohio and Ohio is awesome.


Lastly, I got another recipe from Paula at SavingMoney101. This one is Orange Peel Spray. I didn't try this as I did not have any oranges or special soap in the house:

Pour 2 cups boiling water over the peelings from one orange then steep for 24 hours. Strain, then mix in a few drops of Castille soap. It is a pesticide that will kill aphids and also repel ants.If you dont have any castile soap you could probably use a few drops of ivory or dawn soap. couldnt hurt and wont harm your plants.

Do you have any special recipes to help deter bugs from your garden? I'd love to hear them! I'm green because I'm cheap.

Help My Squash Plants!

Help! Something is eating my squash plants. I can't figure out what. There are little holes that are eaten through the lower leaves and flowers. I thought slugs. I put some beer out on a plate and I did "catch" about 6. But the hole issues seems to be getting worse now!

Anything thoughts or suggestions? I'll probably run to Lowe's today to get some pesticide (I never said this garden of mine would be organic!). It's really sad for me! My plants are huge and full of flower buds but they just keep getting eaten and then eventually fall off. My neighbor has squash plants on his side of the fence. They are much smaller than mine but they appear to be hole free. My tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins seem to be doing fine.

Poor Gretchen...

Oh, and I did try google and couldn't really seem to find a solution.

Another Lesson In Newspaper Mulching!

Here's another post about newspaper mulching. I actually get quite a few hits from people searching "newspaper mulching" on google or whatnot. For the record. I have no idea what I am doing. I just read an article from the University of West Virginia who said this was good. I'm testing out those crazy West Virginians theory. Here is what I do:

Here I have my cheapo $10 paper shredder from Walmart that I bought to "shred my personal" stuff years ago. I bring it outside with an extension cord. I have this wonderful Ames wheelbarrel that the previous owners left. I shread and dump in there.

I just use basic old newspapers. I don't use ads.

Here's what my garden looks like now. Too much newspaper? I don't know. I try to build up around each plant to make the water stay around the plant.

And here is my beloved Gretchen.

I talked to my Polish neighbor. He asked me what was all over my garden. I told him I shredded a bunch of newspaper for mulch. I think he thinks I'm some sort of Ecofriendly Hippie. I'm not. I'm just cheap and do weird things like this from time to time.

My Garden Has Some Color!

As most know - here in MA, it's been doing nothing but rain for the past who knows how long. I braved the sprinkling to take pictures today.

Here is my beloved Gretchen. She had another flower below that one, but there was a bug on it, so I went to flick it off and when I flicked, the flower flicked off too. I'm so sorry Gretchen! Gretchen also has some bird poop on her.

These are the Grape Tomatoes I planted from seeds. I honestly don't think these are going to take. We'll see.

Here a few tomatoes and my miracle cucumbers. I swear, these cucumbers were dead and then all of the sudden, there was life again.

And I can't forget about my butt shaped tomato. Mr. Butt is growing well. Even though he looks like a butt.

I thought I took a picture of our pumpkins (doing great!)...but I guess I didn't. My watermelon are all gone. Carrots - yeah, that was a joke. Tomatoes aren't doing too hot - but they are still alive. The old owners left some tomato cages here. During one of the many rains, I went out to check on them and noticed they were a little droopy. So I threw those in really quickly.

My Garden Update!

Paula, from Saving Money 101 gave a shout out to the gardeners to post pictures! So here are some pictures I took from over the weekend!

Here is one of my tomato plants. Tomatoes have started to form. I'm glad I already have one that looks like a little butt.

Here is Gretchen. She is my prized zucchini (or maybe yellow squash - I forgot) plant. I have 4 squash plants left from when I planted from seed. It's weird to think this plant started off as a dried little seed in a packet.

Here are the sons' pumpkins. I transplanted them a few days ago.

I transplanted my little watermelon sprouts too. I'm not sure how they are going to take.

I still have much more newspaper shredding to do! The weather has been so blah here lately. I like shredding outside since it's a little messy.