By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

This time of season is full of seasonal cheer and the arrival of the first seed catalogs.

As any gardener knows that means hours of drooling over new gardening tool, seeds, and plants.

But as the recent economy has shown, we all need to learn how to budget and be frugal in every aspect of our life and gardening is not an exception.

Gardening can be as expensive or as frugal as one would like. And while seed catalogs display everything in beautiful color there does exist some guidelines that need to be followed before the first catalog is opened and the page turned.

Below are 10 of my favorite rules to follow before, during, and after viewing gardening catalogs.

1. Decide the area you plan to plant or containers you plant to use for the coming gardening year.
2. Make sure to check your planting zone before picking anything out of the catalog.
3. Examine the amount of time you plan to have available for gardening. Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

If you’ve ever stopped to look at the fertilizer product shelf at the garden center, you may have wondered what the numbers on the front mean.

Never fear – it isn’t as complex as it seems.

First, the main number you want to look for is usually plastered across the front. You’ll see a series of three numbers separated by dashes, like 5-10-10.

These three numbers stand for the amount of Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium and are abbreviated as N-P-K. The numbers are the percentages of the elements that are contained in that bag.

For example, if there was a Read the rest of this entry »

Guest post by Mike Gettler, Vice President of Nursery at Lowe’s

We’ve all seen gardening trends come and go, but for city dwellers that yearn for fresh fruit, veggies and herbs – edible and organic gardening is surely here to stay.

Even the White House is getting into it!

Honestly, nothing says home sweet home quite like a meal made from scratch.

Creating an urban edible garden harvests other great rewards too, including taking a load off of your wallet and saving you a trip to the grocery store. Plus digging in the dirt can be a great stress reliever and just plain fun.

What to Plant?
Popular herbs, fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and onions are easy to grow in an urban garden setting and are flavorful alternatives to store-bought varieties. Herbs can grow almost anywhere in nearly anything that will hold soil and water.

All you need is a good pot with adequate drainage, great potting soil, fertilizer and seeds. This makes herbs an ideal choice for small-space gardens and shallow planters placed in a greenhouse window or hung a few steps from the kitchen door.

Where to Plant?
With all of the pot choices Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Gardeners have many ways to decide when they want to plant their vegetables.

An article I recently read from the Lawrence Journal-World talks about, “Gardening through the moon’s phases”.

Gardening by the moon is nothing new. “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” has printed specific dates for the different phrases of the moon for years. You can get the moon dates for your area on their website.

There are four phases of the moon – new moon, first quarter, full moon, and fourth quarter. These happen over the course of 28 days. The first two are called waxing and the last two are called waning.

“When the moon is waxing, you plant above-ground crops. In the first quarter, plant leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach, which have their seeds outside the plant. In the second quarter, plant vining crops that produce Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Are you starting a garden for the first time and don’t know how to decide where to plant all of your vegetables?

Want to try different scenarios with what you want to grow?

Gardener’s Supply Company is offering an online tool to help you plot out your vegetable garden.

Their tool will help you create a 3 x 6′ planting map.  You can choose from 6 preset designs or input your own selections.

-All American Garden
-Cook’s Choice
-High Yield Read the rest of this entry »