Garden Extras
Building up Green Acres even further
Even though we have the established raised beds and tire gardens, we felt the need to try and add some more to the whole garden area, to further our food production. As stated before, we prefer to have a surplus of food that we would have to sort out later than to come up short in our harvest.
One of the things that we did find at Lowe's was a couple of Stevia plants. Stevia is a natural sugar substitute that is far sweeter than sugar, and far safer than ANY of the synthetic sugar substitutes out there, including splenda (which we do use). To use Stevia one just has to dry the leaves up and crumble them into a powder to sprinkle on their foods or do whatever they desire.
Since the raised beds were already filled up, we decided to do a separate tire garden for the two Stevia plants that we got. We planned on lining the perimeter of the house with tire gardens that would be used for growing yet more vegetables. We started with a tire for a crapped out rose plant that we got from Lowe's at discount (its salvagable), then next to it we put another tire garden for the Stevias. The mix consists of equal parts of top soil and composted manure
One of the things that we did find at Lowe's was a couple of Stevia plants. Stevia is a natural sugar substitute that is far sweeter than sugar, and far safer than ANY of the synthetic sugar substitutes out there, including splenda (which we do use). To use Stevia one just has to dry the leaves up and crumble them into a powder to sprinkle on their foods or do whatever they desire.
Since the raised beds were already filled up, we decided to do a separate tire garden for the two Stevia plants that we got. We planned on lining the perimeter of the house with tire gardens that would be used for growing yet more vegetables. We started with a tire for a crapped out rose plant that we got from Lowe's at discount (its salvagable), then next to it we put another tire garden for the Stevias. The mix consists of equal parts of top soil and composted manure
Shot of Stevia plants in tire alongside the house
GREENHOUSE
A new addition to our gardening operation is one of those semi-portable easy to set up greenhouses that you can get from Harbor Freight for a low price. They're equipped with two shelves on either side, tall enough to walk inside and have enough room for even some larger potted plants you may want to house inside for the time, such as some of those dwarf citrus trees that you can find at the big box stores.
These greenhouses are good for starting off your garden seeds outside where they have a better chance of getting acclimated to the outside weather versus starting inside and moving them in and out as the weather improves. We acquired this greenhouse off of Craigslist for cheap and broke it down enough to transport it in our truck. After a few minutes reassembling the unit, we immediately housed several potted plants we've been moving in and out of the house through the winter as well as the year's starts of seedlings that we picked up from Lowe's. Our next thing will be to start some seedlings for the plants we can't get at the stores. If all goes well, we will look to possibly get another one of these specifically to house the potted plants in that need sunlight but can't be subjected to freezing temps.
These cheap greenhouses are indeed better than spending a large amount of money building a greenhouse and can be broken down after the weather has improved and the plants can be permanently housed outside, so the plastic skin and the framework tubing won't degrade from continued exposure to sunlight.
These greenhouses are good for starting off your garden seeds outside where they have a better chance of getting acclimated to the outside weather versus starting inside and moving them in and out as the weather improves. We acquired this greenhouse off of Craigslist for cheap and broke it down enough to transport it in our truck. After a few minutes reassembling the unit, we immediately housed several potted plants we've been moving in and out of the house through the winter as well as the year's starts of seedlings that we picked up from Lowe's. Our next thing will be to start some seedlings for the plants we can't get at the stores. If all goes well, we will look to possibly get another one of these specifically to house the potted plants in that need sunlight but can't be subjected to freezing temps.
These cheap greenhouses are indeed better than spending a large amount of money building a greenhouse and can be broken down after the weather has improved and the plants can be permanently housed outside, so the plastic skin and the framework tubing won't degrade from continued exposure to sunlight.
Right: Shot of greenhouse set up alongside house
Left: Shot of inside of greenhouse, note flats of seedlings among potted plants