Cool image I ran across promoting home gardens in WWII

[K8-EEE]

Sometimes my gardens are NOT so thrify....as I end up buying so much gardening crap, but, am trying to do better with that.

[beac]

1. Neat!

I hear you on the difficulty of having a truly thrifty garden. With my addictin, it's more like going-broke-saving-money. ;)

[K8-EEE]

2. Want. Fancy new hose. Want, want!!

I ALWAYS WANT SOMETHING FOR THE GARDEN!! I'm so sick of my tangly, patched up hose and enamored of the bitchin' retractable versions in the Gardener's Supply.....sigh. I remind myself of Lucy and Ricky when they went into the chicken business and she says "at least breakfast is free" and he says something like "with all the expenses those eggs are $11 a piece!" or something, LOL!

[beac]

3. I'm just glad we're on a well. I can't IMAGINE what the water bills would have been last summer!

I think each cherry tomato might have been $11. :rofl:

My latest WANT!!! is one of these (or LOTS of these, really) upside-down indoor planters: http://www.dailygrommet.com/products/boskke-sky-planter Good thing we are going out of town for a month this summer b/c the guilt of asking our housesitter to climb a ladder to water it is holding me back.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I have not visited the gardening group before, so I guess I don't

know how this works, but my gardening is mostly cost-free. Heirloom seeds: free after the first year. Compost: free. Water collected in a bucket that would go down the drain while waiting for hot water: free. Dragging the buckets around to all the plants: free exercise. So what am I doing wrong?

[beac]

5. Sounds like your doing it just about perfectly!

I garden mostly in containers and though I recycle most of the soil, I do need to buy amendments like worm castings each year. I can't compost b/c we live in the country and there are too many critters all around who just make a hideous mess of whatever I try. (I do put all biodegradable materials in the woods around the property, so at least it's not going into the landfill.

I have done some seed saving, but the lure to try new things is still strong.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I have lots of critters around too. And they like the compost pile.

But they really don't make a big mess with it. I have one that I made with boards. Bottom ones are notched at the top about 6 inches in so that the next boards can be fit into them. All of the next boards are notched top and bottom to fit into the notch below it. They are easy to move by just disassembling and leaving the pile where it was. Critters do get into it, but don't strew things around. And the only times I have problems with the critters is if I put egg shells in it. I never put meat products in it. And speaking of worms, lots of worms in the compost.

I do containers and in the ground both (containers seem to do better but that is probably because my soil is crappy, and I reuse soil too, by dumping it all in the compost pile, so it goes back in the containers. You really should try compost piles again. I don't do a good job with compost when I read about how others do it. My compost takes two years to be ready and I can't get it to degrade quicker. I started composting before there was the internet or easy sources for how to do it, and there were no bins to be bought. But who cares how long it takes. It is beautiful when it is done.

[beac]

9. GAH! Stupid typo... "you're" not "your"--- I know perfectly well

that you are = you're but my typing fingers always want to shorten it into the incorrect word. Hate that.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. Don't worry, I am not the grammar police. I knew what you meant.

Well, sometimes I will make a correction just because. But usually I could care less. LOL, I can't believe that you worried enough to correct this. But DU can be brutal.

[WhiteTara]

8. nothing, except maybe putting

in drip? :shrug:

[Curmudgeoness]

11. I have thought of that. Actually thought of drip with a rain barrel.

But those rain barrels are so damned expensive for a stupid plastic container. I hate when they take advantage of people who care about the environment by charging outrageous amounts for green devices. And for that reason, I am holding out.

Then again, if I had drip, I wouldn't have to do all that exercise to water every day, and that also gives me an excuse to be up-close-and-personal with all the plants daily. Just enjoyable time.

[WhiteTara]

7. wow. the absolute sexual tone of the ad is amazing!

the submissive woman with the spouting bush and on her knees with the upraised hand! Madison Ave learned from these guys or they were the fathers of.

But, beyond that, my seeds that I saved from last year are seemingly worthless, so each leaf of lettuce must have been $11.00! :rofl:

[pengillian101]

12. "wow. the absolute sexual tone of the ad is amazing!"

That's exactly what caught my eye also!

Sorry your seed saving didn't work. How did you save them? I've only just dried seeds, put in labeled sealed envelopes and kept over the winter in the fridge.

That seemed to work for me. But I wasn't serious about it, so I don't why it worked. I just loved to experiment. Marigold seeds went crazy good the next year. They grew into beautiful bushes.

I can just smell spring around the corner. :hi:

[lizziegrace]

13. I found this one