I’m not blind. I realize that’s a crappy basket picture, but I forgot to break out the camera before I wrapped it up.
Wanna know what’s in it? This suburban farmer wants you to keep on gardening through the fall and beyond (if possible). So some of us had this completely unique idea of putting together a Badass Fall Garden Basket Giveaway. Okay, so it’s been done before. BUT not with the exact same items, yes?
Badass Fall Garden Basket Goodies:
~ Bitchin’ – not to mention super handy – Bypass Pruners by Corona Tools (Hand ‘em down to your kids)
~ 2 gift packs of Authentic Haven Brand Soil Conditioning Tea. That’s 6 tea bags nutrition for your garden!
~ TONS of seeds from BBB Seed – there’s 4 packets of heirloom veggie seeds and 1 big, chunky pack of wildlife flower seeds.
~ 2 Goat Milk Soaps handcrafted by Annie’s Goat Hill (1 lavender scented, 1 oatmeal/Honey scented) for luxurious hand-washing when you’re done gardening for the day.
~ An intensely fragrant candle handcrafted by Blue Moon Candles with a barbershop 1920′s scent. Another natural luxury for relaxation after a day in the garden.
~ And last, but I hope not least – The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Composting by Yours Truly.
All I ask is that you leave a comment here – not just any old comment. Tell me your most amazing garden secret (or garden practice that’s priceless). Don’t get chintzy on me – I’m seriously picking your brains. On September 3rd I’ll have the Chiweenie draw a name randomly (yes randomly, she can’t read – yet).
I love this… and totally doing this when I hit the magic number on my fan page at FACEBOOK!
I want to try that Goat Milk Soap so I will fess up to a garden secret! WOW… I share everything on my blog via photos and video so I am not sure what I have kept as a secret. Oh… I got it : No one knows that I do little random touch ups like pull weeds or pick a veggie for breakfast in my P.J.’s in the garden on occasion. NO PHOTOS of that will be shared you can count on that!
Most amazing garden secret. hmmm. That takes some thought. OK – I don’t know that this one is the most amazing, but I always toss my spoiled milk on my tomato plants. The calcium is supposed to be good for them AND it gives me a way to use the milk besides pouring it down the drain.
Maybe my funniest garden secret is the sight of me running around the garden with the hose on full blast,trying to shoo away the cabbage moths and encourage them to leave my veg alone. I imagine its a pretty funny sight but sometimes it actually works.
Best secret? Well, we were attacked by cucumber beetles this year and learned more than we EVER wanted to know about them. I had to become a cucumber beetle killing machine. Most places I read said to take a small hand vacuum out to gently suck the beetles out of your squash flowers. I found a much easier way. Just wait until early morning when the flowers are nicely open and carry your water hose with you, fill the flowers with water and pick the beetles right out as they float to the top helplessly!
MOST AMAZING UNTOLD GARDEN SECRET? (Yes, I’m shouting.) Wow. This one is a challenge.
One of my favorites is that I keep a bucket in my shower. It takes a while to get the shower water hot, so you’re just standing around waiting. I collect that water, add a couple heaps of compost or old coffee grounds to it, stir, and water my container gardens with it.
Good for the environment for several reasons because it saves water and I am depositing the water some place where it does NOT go to our storm water systems, instead it will ultimately go back into our water table. I’m “fertilizing” organically without chemicals and it saves me the hassle of pulling a hose around my house.
Love it!
By the way, with a family of four taking showers every day, this water can definitely add up to boo-coo money savings.
Shawna
My best secret??? Hmmm…this summer it has to be comfrey. As a pollinator-attracting beautiful plant and as a fertilizer. It goes in compost, use it as a mulch or make a fertilizer tea. Plus the roots are good for breaking up rough sub-soil. All good, all natural. Wowsa!
What a totally awesome gift package … and you’re selecting winners the day before my birthday, but don’t let that influence you.
Seriously, my top garden secret is to take the time to select plants that provide something special. Maybe they are edible (both the flowers and the fruit). Maybe they smell terrific (to you and the pollinators). Maybe they are a different color, size or shape then normal (like many of the heirlooms and new hybrids). Maybe their history is rather remarkable. Or, maybe they just touch your heart. Whatever you need … there’s a plant out there just for you. I know, because I’m constantly trying to find more space to squeeze in just one more in my garden. Best, Teresa
That basket is too good to pass up – I’m throwing my hat in the ring!
I’m a pretty low key gardener, so don’t have much in the way of secrets but here goes. I’m strictly organic, and don’t mind some aphids on the roses, but also don’t want them to cover a shrub completely. My aphids must be especially stubborn, because when I try to knock them off with the hose, they just cling harder. Instead, I rub a damp washcloth over the most infested spots. After a few passes, the washcloth is a completely disgusting mess of squished bugs. It’s oddly satisfying.
This secret is in the soil and goes back a few generations in my family. We used aged horse manure. It provides beneficial nutrients to the plants and since the soil is aged a few years the weeds have totally died out. My dad drops off a truck load every year and it has defiantly helped our garden flourish.
Adam: Are you playing to the Admin? Hmmmmm? *grin*
Fun contest! I use the water leftover in my pot from boiling corn, potatoes, noodles, etc., to water my containers. Tips- let water cool off and don’t use water where you’ve added salt!
This is my first year gardening…so I don’t have any super secret tricks yet. But I do stop by and water my plants, talk to my tomatoes, and harvest my herbs every night when I get home from work (and before I go in and change clothes!).
I would have to say my biggest secret is rabbit poo! Its the best thing for a garden and cheap if you have rabbits!
What a great prize!
Jennifer: Oh, here’s another one with insider information, LOLOLOL…
I am obsessive about cleaning my pruning sheers! I actually clean them with clorox from bush to bush, tree to flower, etc to prevent any spreading of anything icky! Haven’t killed anything yet! Oh and I throw fish guts around my rose bushes! They love em!
What an amazing basket. I use ground cinnamon in my seed starting mix to help with mold.
My favorite tip comes from my grandfather. Use a spray bottle of diluted soap and water and spray the leaves of bean and tomato plants to keep the bugs at bay.
WOW secret…. OH When weeding the garden this year this being the 5th session with this particular soil of which we do our own composting and the soil came from our local mushroom farm so I was out in the garden playing in the dirt big time it was so rich and soft *the turning your soil by hand and getting down in the dirt is my secret*…. . It started out as a weeding and turning the soil project mind you. I had so much fun doing it that I came out to find my grand kids playing in the dirt from the garden too a few days later *the turning your soil by hand tools and getting down in the dirt is my secret*…. I guess it’s true that children learn what they live and if it’s good enough for gramma I guess it’s a real fun thing for them to do. It was a little hard to get mad at them as I watched them copying me to a tee. ha ha.
My amazing garden secret? NO WEEDS!
I use raised beds and a weed-free soilless mix, so I have zero weeds. This means no heavy labour under the hot July sun! And heavier yields, too. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Not taking myself too seriously.
I always felt like a failed gardener when something didn’t go the way I’d hoped my first two years…
This year, I had powdery mildew, blossom end rot and low yield on my beans…but that hasn’t stopped me from smiling and enjoying the pumpkins that still grew, the tomatoes with their bottoms chopped off, and green beans tossed into a minestrone!
My garden secret to all my lush flower beds and veggie beds is my chickens poo. I have 20 hens that lay eggs for me as well as give me great fertilizer.
My secret? It has to be that I’m not concerned with it being perfect. I’m open minded about gardening and am always willing to learn but if you don’t like that my raspberries are planted next to my flowers, who cares. If the colors “clash”, who cares? My biggest secret is that I enjoy my garden both because of and despite the work and the effort that goes into it.
That IS a badass basket of gardening.
I’m discovering that my secret weapon in the garden is my own notes from previous seasons. I’m still learning exactly what level of detail to track without going too far, but I know that when I don’t keep good notes, I regret it.
I put in strawberries last fall, for instance, and forgot to write down which of the two varieties did best. Now I’ll probably try them both again this year.
My secret? It’s not really a secret, but I’ve learned to start small, and only expand the garden to a size I can still handle. My husband was the gardener, my job was to watch and keep him company as he plowed, planted, and weeded, and sometimes comment on how nice the garden looked. Later, I did help him harvest and eat.:) When I moved to our new house, without him, my son plowed up what his daddy would’ve considered a small space. I did okay that first year, mostly because of all the help from the kids. The last two years though it’s been harder to maintain. I’ve determined next year I’ll just try to plant a few things and just keep the rest of the garden mowed until I can make the whole thing look like I want. Yep, that’s my secret, start small, and only expand as much as I can handle. ~Nita
I finally got huge, healthy cilantro plants this year. I’ve tried for years but the plants bolt immediately in my warm, dry climate. Last fall I let several plants scatter seeds, and they started growing this Spring in March- 3 ft high and wide before the heat finally got them
Secrets……hmmmmm….I water my acid loving plants in containers with the dregs from the coffee pot. I fill it up with water and pour it on. I also throw used coffee grounds on as mulch/fertilizer. When I had a fish tank, I used to water with the water I took out of the tank every week. That was the only time I had a happy gardenia. My other secret is I interplant mildew prone plants like asters with ornamental Alliums, like Allium moly. I get two seasons of flowers and mildew control, too.
Oooh! Chasing my suburban raccoon family (that happens to live under our deck!!) away from my plants with a broom!!! Sorry – that’s all I got! Thanks for the contest
Not sure this is a secret, but I hand-pick the Japanese Beetles off the plants and either take them in the house and run them down the garbage disposal or I put them into the pool skimmer, where they eventually drown. I don’t want to kill them in the garden because I remember reading somewhere that the smell of the crushed beetles will attract more, just as the traps do.
Every summer, I keep a running total of the number of Japanese Beetles I’ve disposed of and those that escaped as I tried to grab them, on my blog. Just a fun thing to do and it lets me see how each year compares to the others in terms of numbers. This year is a lean year. Yay!
As a novice gardener, this is only my second attempt I do more discovering from others than creating new ways to do tihngs. I do one thing that so far seems to be working for me,. I’ve been trying to grow veggies in containers this time around and am using large storage containers for some of the plants.
I take the foam packaging that I get in the mail break them up into small chunks and put them into the containers to fill a little space and provide some air for the roots.
I just started doing this, so far so good.