By Michael Nolan

In this installment, we’re going to take a look at a few creative ways to use what you already have instead of buying expensive pots for your container garden.

Egg Cartons
My partner always looks at me funny when I rinse and save my empty egg cartons. When it comes time to start the seeds for a new gardening season, I pull them out, fill them with some nutrient-rich compost and voila!

I’ve got seed starters that didn’t cost me a penny. I did start buying eggs that come in cardboard cartons so that I can simply cut them apart and drop them right in place in my garden.

Toilet Paper & Paper Tower Rolls
Those sturdy paperboard rolls can easily Read the rest of this entry »

By Reggie Solomon

If you’re a winetaster, you’ll enjoying gardening like one as well.

Grow two or more types of each vegetable in your garden so you can compare and contrast tastes like a wine taster.

In this way you can build your palette to recognize and discern the subtleties in taste within a particular vegetable group as was noted in a previous posting.

You can conduct this experiment with every vegetable in your garden or choose two of three of your favorite vegetables on which to experiment. Read the rest of this entry »

By Reggie Solomon

This week Urban Garden Casual conducted its annual Seed Magazine Review for 2007?

What’s your favorite seed catalog to order from and cuddle up with on a late night and why?

Share contenders you’d recommend to other urban gardeners and to Urban Garden Casual for our next round of reviews.

By Reggie Solomon

[This post is the third part of a three-part series reviewing catalogs produced by three major seeds providers and examining the magazines’ helpfulness to gardeners in deciding what seeds to purchase and what to grow in their home gardens. To read the beginning of the series – click here]

Seeds of Change (SOC)

Seeds of Change’s 84-page magazine may appear skimpy with its small number of pages as compared to the other contenders, but it makes up for it by being unapologetically organic.

If you’re into organic food, this is the seed magazine for you!

Read the rest of this entry »

By Reggie Solomon

[This post is the second part of a three-part series reviewing catalogs produced by three major seeds providers and examining the magazines’ helpfulness to gardeners in deciding what seeds to purchase and what to grow in their home gardens. To read the beginning of the series – click here]

Johnny’s Seeds

Johnny’s Seeds’ 170-page behemoth is a serious gardener’s and would-be-farmer’s magazine!

This is a magazine Charles Ingalls (from the television adaptation of “Little House on the Prairie”) would read while enjoying his evening pipe.

Read the rest of this entry »