One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1915 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Mavis Garden Blog – What’s Wrong with My Tomato Plant?

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 20, 2012 · 24 Comments

I hope you know, I do not consider myself to be a “gardening expert.” I have no formal training, and I did not grow up in a household full of gardeners. I grew up in suburbia, and we had a gardener who cut our lawn, trimmed the hedges, and occasionally planted flowers for us.

Although I do remember going with my mother to the local nurseries from time to time to pick out flowers, we never bought seeds or vegetable starts. Growing up, my only real experience with gardening was watching my mother fill the large pots that sat next to our front door with hot pink, purple and white annuals.

This whole “love of vegetable gardening” happened quite by accident.

Which leads me to today’s topic “What’s wrong with my tomato plant?

Yesterday, as I was cleaning up the garden beds I finally made the decision to pull up about 10 diseased tomato plants. With the exception of 2 doses of Miracle Grow each summer, I don’t like to use chemicals in my garden. Now, I don’t want to sound like a garden snob, but the only time I have had problems with tomato plants has been when I purchased the plants from a store, farmer’s market, or some other type of plant sale.

And although I planted over 120 heirloom tomato plants in my garden this year {started from seed}, I was forced to buy a bunch of new plants because the Handsome Husband killed half my crop while The Girl and I took a mini vacation.

So, in a nut shell, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with diseased plants, and I need your help.

Can you tell by the photographs above what was wrong with these tomato plants?

I would really appreciate any suggestions you might have, just in case more of them start to go downhill.

Thanks in advance,

Mavis

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Ugly Tomato Contest – Enter to Win a Compost Bin + a Pair of Garden Boots!

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 19, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Attention tomato growers…

If you are growing tomatoes this summer you will definitely want to be on the look out for an ugly tomato growing on your vines. Simply Snap a picture of your ugliest tomato and submit it HERE to the Ugly Tomato Contest, sponsored by Relish Magazine. The winner will receive a new pair of gardening boots + compost bin from Gardener’s Supply Company.

This contest ends July 31, 2012, so get your entries in asap!

Thanks Queen Bee Coupons

If ugly tomatoes are not your thing… Then you may want to check out The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table By Amy Goldma n instead. The book is filled with over 250 photographs of tomatoes and 50 recipes. The pictures are like little works of art. You’ll love.

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Mavis Garden Blog – Giving to Those in Need… Is Cool.

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 19, 2012 · 9 Comments

After picking another whopping 32 pounds of carrots in the garden yesterday, I stood there trying to figure out what I was going to do with them. The food bank in my town is rather small, and they already receive fresh produce from a local grocery store, so although I can donate fresh fruit and veggies, I just can’t do it in large quantities.

Reading the comments on a previous story I had written, Lisa suggested I donate my extra produce to the Rescue Mission. So after washing the carrots off, the kids and I hopped in the car and made a trip to the Rescue Mission in downtown Tacoma.

Basically, the Mission serves the greater Pierce County area homeless population. The Mission not only serves more than 1,800 meals each month to people who would otherwise go hungry, but they also provide shelter, job training, addiction support, and homework assistance to homeless children who have parents being served by the Mission.

We were able to donate just over 32 pounds of carrots yesterday, and it felt great. Giving back is cool. Especially when you are giving to people who really need it. Food is such a basic thing and I think we should all have it, no matter what our circumstances are.

So if you planted a large garden this year, and you find yourself with more than you can eat or pass along to friends and neighbors, rather than composting it, find an organization who can use it.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, I’m off to play in the dirt.

Need help finding a local food bank? Head on over HERE to f ind a food bank near you.

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How To Grow Your Own Food – Mavis’ Vegetable Garden Tour

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 19, 2012 · 12 Comments

Well, it’s official. I am starting to feel overwhelmed. There are so many things going on in the garden, it is now becoming increasing difficult to group them into one post. So today I’ll show you what’s happening in the main garden, and tomorrow and show you the greenhouse and the side gardens. How’s that? Does it sound like a deal?

We now have oodles of young celery stalks growing in the garden boxes. There is so much of it, I am tempted to start harvesting some now instead of waiting for it to bulk up. But I need the poundage, and every once counts, so I suppose I’ll wait, unless I’m in desperate need of some celery for a recipe.

I few weeks ago I started a second round of pumpkin and squash seeds. I was able to plant a few of them out yesterday, and hopefully I’ll be able to get the rest in the ground today.

There are more shelling peas to be picked, zucchini to keep and eye on, and I suspect the Copenhagen cabbage will be ready to harvest in another 3 – 4 weeks or so.

The pole beans and finally starting to climb the teepee poles, radishes need to picked again and I still have no idea what kind of volunteer squash I have growing in one of my garden beds.

Check out the Hubbard squash! Wahoooo… It’s totally rockin’. I’m hoping the Hubbard squash will continue to spread out and cover the entire hillside.

Pears! We have {a few} pears for the first time in 4 years. The Girl and I are so excited about this. Actually, over the moon would be more like it.

And finally, here is a view of the garden from the back of the 16 raised garden beds. Grow baby grow! 2,000 pounds…Here I come!

To view more of my garden tours, which include pictures of my garden and other’s head on over HERE and take a look around. The French Laundry Tour is especially amazing.

Fiskars Garden Bucket Caddy $10.49 ~ Amazon

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