How to build My 50 Dollar Greenhouse First off – you really can build this thing very cheaply, but to do so you have to recycle, freecycle, and scrounge. If you just go out and buy new everything it will probably cost over $200 – still not bad all in all.This Article is featured in Jan 2010 issue of Birds and Blooms Magazine!Want to find out if this thing works before you read all this? Read 6 months in the Greenhouse first.Want to see what happens when a few inches of wet snow accumulates on this? Collapse!Building the Greenhouse Doors is addressed in a separate article – isn’t this enough for one weekend? My $50 Greenhouse Welcome Stumbleupon Gardeners! Materials list Construction Steps Hind Sight – What I would do differently The planning is over and construction on my hoop house greenhouse has begun. After some research I’ve decided to build the structure of the hoop house out of 20 ft. joints of three quarter inch PVC plumbing pipe. If your Greenhouse is too Flat it will collapse! How to Build the $50 Hoop House Thusly
Easy vegetables to grow Planting a garden doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. But the fear of failure keeps many a gardener-wannabe from spending time and energy on planting backyard crops. Knowing the easy vegetables to grow for your region — in addition to when and where to plant them — is the best way to ensure success. When planning your crops, try to space out the planting of foods that have a short harvest season. Some of the easiest garden goods for first timers are yellow squash and zucchini, potatoes, radishes and tomatoes. Squash plants can be planted into small hills, and are ready to eat when they are about 6 inches in length. Radishes are another no-brainer crop. Strawberries are popular for their ability to grow in many places and for their sweet, tangy taste and beautiful appearance. Keep in mind that something must be done to keep away the squirrels — they have a thing for those sweet berries. Tomatoes are possibly the most popular garden vegetable. Know of other easy vegetables to grow?
Improved Cowpea Storage Larry Murdock (right) and James "Jess" Lowenberg-DeBoer (center) receive the National Order medal from Gnisa Isaïe Konaté, Burkina Faso minister of scientific research and innovation. The Purdue faculty members received Burkina Faso's highest honor during a ceremony in the "Maison de Peuple" (House of the People) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. (Burkina Faso National Institute for Environmental and Agricultural Research photo/ Quattara Kaly Amos) By Tom CampbellOctober 22, 2012 Purdue University College of Agriculture faculty members Larry Murdock and James "Jess" Lowenberg-DeBoer received the highest honor given by the West African nation of Burkina Faso for their work in improving storage of the staple cowpea crops. The Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Burkina Faso, the equivalent to the U.S. "The high-level honor we received is a direct consequence of the priority that the Burkinabés put on food security," Murdock said.
How to Turn a Pallet into a Garden Good news and bad news. I had planned to film a short video showing you how to make a pallet garden, but the weather didn’t cooperate. I was stapling the landscape fabric onto the pallet when it started drizzling and got really windy. That’s the bad news. But I know I promised a tutorial today, so I took photos and have kept my word to share how to make the pallet garden. So keep reading my pallet loving friends, instructions on how to make your own pallet garden are just a few lines away… Find a Pallet The first thing you need to do is–obviously–find a pallet. Don’t just take the first pallet you find. Collect Your Supplies For this project, you’ll need the pallet you found, 2 large bags of potting soil, 16 six packs of annual flowers (one six pack per opening on the face of the pallet, and two six packs per opening on the top of the completed pallet garden), a small roll of landscape fabric, a staple gun, staples, and sand paper. Get Your Pallet into Shape Let the Stapling Begin!
Nuggets To Ponder Farmers Markets Farmers markets are an integral part of the urban/farm linkage and have continued to rise in popularity, mostly due to the growing consumer interest in obtaining fresh products directly from the farm. Farmers markets allow consumers to have access to locally grown, farm fresh produce, enables farmers the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with their customers, and cultivate consumer loyalty with the farmers who grows the produce. Direct marketing of farm products through farmers markets continues to be an important sales outlet for agricultural producers nationwide. As of National Farmers Market Week, (the first full week in August), there were 8,144 farmers markets listed in USDA’s National Farmers Market Directory. This is a 3.6 percent increase from 2012.
Ancient Tomato Growing Secrets Increase Your Tomatoes and Keeps Plants Healthy Small Footprint, Big Yield: Create an Easy Micro Organic Urban Garden Today! | Urban Gardens | Unlimited Thinking For Limited Spaces April 28, 2009 by Robin Plaskoff Horton There are two things urban gardeners are short on: space and time. The Urban Garden, brainchild of Bill Arquitt, resolves both of these issues, making it efficient and simple to plant a vegetable garden with up to 55 plants in a 3-foot deep by 4-foot wide footprint. The contained six level tiered system is nearly maintenance-free, eliminating heavy weeding, and its northwestern cedar construction renders it naturally bug repellent.