One of the most common questions I’m asked is “how much money did it take to fill your beds? It must have cost a fortune!”. And they’re right, buying raised bed or potting soil mix from the store is insane. The Square Foot Gardening book introduced me to how to make my own and I’ve been doing that ever since. Check out this video to see how I make our soil mix using peat moss, […]
This video shows us planting broccoli and cabbage and talks about strategies we use to deal with cabbage worms. They wreaked havoc on our garden last spring and we’re being more proactive about preventing them this year. Here’s more information on how to use BT to prevent cabbage worm problems! We typically order it on Amazon in bulk and to save money.
Most of our tomatoes and many of our beans were severely damaged from herbicide poisoning last year. I used horse manure from horses that had eaten from fields sprayed with aminopyralid, a broad leaf herbicide that passes right through the horse and can stay in their manure for up to 3 years. I learned my lesson last year and this year I tested my compost first. See how I tested it and the results of […]
This is the story about why I decided to start helping others grow their own food and how Election Day changed my life.
Our tomatoes have outgrown their containers that we started them in and now it’s time to transplant them into larger pots until they go out into the garden in a few weeks. I want to wait until night time temperatures are consistently in the 50s before I plant them outside. We’ve had unseasonably warm temperatures this year but you never know when a random freeze is around the corner in Oklahoma! You can go ahead […]
Don’t waste your money buying mulch from the hardware store. You can get them for free from your local municipal compost facility! We use wood chips for mulching, smothering Bermuda grass, making compost, bedding for rabbits, and many other uses! We get them for free from the Norman Compost Facility (see map below). Check for a local compost facility near you and start saving money! 398 Bratcher Miner RoadView Larger Map
Birds stole many of our seeds and cats were walking through our gardens at night. We solved both problems with 3 easy solutions: Hardware Mesh, Motion Activated Sprinkler, and Burlap Motion activated sprinkler in action
I had an opportunity to speak at the OKC Open Hardware Meetup group today about our garden and how I’m planning to use Open Source Hardware to automate irrigation using moisture level sensors in the soil to control watering. I met a lot of brilliant people with exciting ideas about how to make it all happen. I feel like I have a firm grasp on what needs to be done and now it’s just a […]
We started our spring crops off by planting onions and peas! I also planted a rosemary bush I picked up from the nursery and I talk about how we use companion planting to help with cabbage moths.
6/1/2017 Update: We have a video for this now! Long gone are the days of buying laundry detergent for me. I got frustrated spending so much money on laundry detergents each month that I started to research how to go about saving money. I found some recipes for laundry detergents, but none seemed to be the best match for me. I have very sensitive skin and a lot of store-bought and homemade detergents caused […]