Misc/Chat Gardening Is Expensive + Rip Offs

R

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I am trying to expand the variety of vegetables that I grow. I'm tired of eating the same old things. I never really knew much about eggplants so I decided to grow some. Holy Cow, or rip-off?
I went to HomeDepot to the Burpee seed display and bought three varieties Black Beauty an heirloom and White Knight and Green Knight both of which are hybrids. $2.59 each before taxes.
The White Knight had 17 seeds and the Green Knight had 12.

I have sterilized the seed starting mix and I am going to take great care getting these things going. I am not an amateur and if these seeds don't germinate Burpee is going to hear from me.
I normally grow open-pollinated heirlooms so I save the seeds.
Am I out of touch or what?
 
F

FireDance

TB Fanatic
Man. I know NOTHING about growing eggplant. I know I like to look at them while they grow (not my garden) but that’s about it.

And I’d get very upset if those didn’t germinate also. If we don’t tell them, they don’t know (maybe). Plus, I’d want my money back. Plants are ridiculously expensive this year. I’m going with starts and if they don’t make it, well I guess that’s tough. I am going to splurge on a tomato plant. I needed to do this last week, but was hit by sticker shock and put it back. If you look, you can usually find more than one plant in one of these pots. That helps. Especially if they didn’t get too crowded. But blast! The prices!

Saw someone on tiktok yesterday looking at all the neat plants that they have at Walmart now. She was oooing over 8 inch pots of stuff for 20 dollars!! I was like, lady, you’re crazy. I’m sure she was selling for Walmart but holy Toledo!!

I’ve started thinking about trellises and other things that can help keep things off the ground. I wonder if tomato cages would help with these? Now, I have never seen an eggplant on the ground, but mostly thinking about airflow to plant. And frankly, I don’t even know if that’s a problem with growing eggplant. Lol.
 
Toosh

Toosh

Veteran Member
Blow your mind with new varieties and checkout www.rareseeds.com. These are heirloom seeds so they are more expensive but you'll only cry once. If you plant one plant a year you'll harvest enough seeds for a lifetime. Learn to save seeds. Request a free catalog. A wealth of gardener education is included.

I am the cheapest gardener you'll meet. For me:
  • Save money - instead of commercial fertilizers and 'cides, check out JADAM. Nearly free, sustainable and better for your soil. (on YouTube or buy the book.)
  • Standardize the size/shape of growing areas so that coverings and trellises can be moved as you rotate crops.
  • DIY simple trellises. Keep a box of conractor plastic bags on hand. In a pinch, a contractor bag makes a great planter for expanding the growing space quickly and planting excess plants. Learn about concrete and how to DIY pretty rocks, fountains and paths. You can do a lot with a $5 bag of concrete.
  • Spend money and buy the best garden hose/attachments and, nursery-grade shadecloth, frost prevention plastic and landscape weed barrier you can afford. Reduces frustration and makes gardening more enjoyable over several years.
  • Be prepared to protect harvest. I get a regular stream of racoon, groundhog, skunk, posum and squirrel. Coyote urine is my favorite.
 
kyrsyan

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
About COVID time, maybe a year or two before, companies started reducing the number of seeds in the packets. It's an annoyance when paying that much for a packet. Some of them also started carrying over seed from prior years, at the same price.

Several options exist. I use seed exchanges and save seed from successfully grown plants.

And I use a lot of the methods that Toosh does. Definitely agree on buy the sturdiest and best you can afford, even if you have to save up.
 
R

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Toosh said:
Blow your mind with new varieties and checkout www.rareseeds.com. These are heirloom seeds so they are more expensive but you'll only cry once. If you plant one plant a year you'll harvest enough seeds for a lifetime. Learn to save seeds. Request a free catalog. A wealth of gardener education is included.

I am the cheapest gardener you'll meet. For me:
  • Save money - instead of commercial fertilizers and 'cides, check out JADAM. Nearly free, sustainable and better for your soil. (on YouTube or buy the book.)
  • Standardize the size/shape of growing areas so that coverings and trellises can be moved as you rotate crops.
  • DIY simple trellises. Keep a box of conractor plastic bags on hand. In a pinch, a contractor bag makes a great planter for expanding the growing space quickly and planting excess plants. Learn about concrete and how to DIY pretty rocks, fountains and paths. You can do a lot with a $5 bag of concrete.
  • Spend money and buy the best garden hose/attachments and, nursery-grade shadecloth, frost prevention plastic and landscape weed barrier you can afford. Reduces frustration and makes gardening more enjoyable over several years.
  • Be prepared to protect harvest. I get a regular stream of racoon, groundhog, skunk, posum and squirrel. Coyote urine is my favorite.
Click to expand...
I do save my own seeds that is why I had such sticker shock.
 
kyrsyan

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
A couple of things I replaced this year with better versions:

Shovels. This was a three fold improvement.

First, I went with fiberglass handles. After years of wood handles that splintered or carpenter bees would attach, I was done. I looked at steel handled shovels but there were multiple reports of the shovel splitting at the weld. I actually have an old fiberglass shovel that lasted almost 3 decades until the bolt holding the handle to the shovel finally broke.

Second, the new shovels have a flat spot for the foot to rest on and push down on. No more sharp edge digging into the bottom of the shoe. And third, I bought a brand that does lifetime free replacement, Kobalt. So if it does break during normal usage, I just have to take it back to Lowe's and they have to exchange it.

My handsaw and a couple of the hand spades for the garden. Those were swapped for Fiskars. More expensive yes. But as I discovered last year, no questions asked replacement for broken parts. The titanium blade they sent me for free when the one in my loppers got notched was what taught me about their policy.

I got a serrated edge hoe that is meant for surface weeding from Hoss. And I'm likely going to order a fiberglass handled replacement of my action hoe because my original has a wood handle that was already too thin, and now it's getting a bit old.

For now, my different pitchforks are fine. I replaced the handles on most of them in the last couple of years.

My ground cover in the raised beds are trampoline mats. When I run out of those, it will be woven cover. The ground cover for the walkways is non-woven fiber cover. I ended up with a heat knife to make cuts and I love that thing.

And an set of smaller augur bits for the drill, so all the holes are easy to make now.

I purchased a jig for bending poles to hold frost covers or plastic as I chose. I have piles of old tent poles, trampoline poles, etc that can be used. And while PVC bends easily... it bends easily. So when we get heavy winds, PVC is likely to bend in not good ways.

The latest change up is that my wood raised beds are getting swapped out for steel beds. This is both for life length and height. The wood beds were 10". The new steel beds are 20" to 24". And that height is better for my back as I'm getting older and my spine is getting more tender. And if needed, they can be moved.
 
Weps

Weps

Veteran Member
Had a who tray of peppers not germinate last year, can't remember if they were Burpee or not.

This year we have mix of Baker Creek and Burpee heirloom tomatoes and peppers on the grow racks right now, everything germinated nicely and is looking good.

Got our onions in the ground a few weeks ago.
 
Dinghy

Dinghy

Veteran Member
I buy my seeds from MIGardener. Excellent germination, and only $2 per pack. He has tons of videos on YouTube on how to grow everything.
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Wife uses Baker seeds. We have decent results and I have posted pictures in the past of how well she does.....

My opinion is everyone above is correct for their area. No one is wrong......

That is both the solution and problem......

You don't live there so it doesn't really apply to you.... it can only give you a guide that you must adapt to your area....

I will say this, store seeds are over priced and under volume. I remember the 20 cent seeds that actually filled the package. Not so much any more.

I remember soil that could be bought with actual nutrients, not any more.....


Be prepared to do everything from scratch.
Buy seeds online
Test the soil once every two weeks and adjust.... this has given us the best results.
Buy in volume if you get fertilizers.... we have sandy soil, with lots of rain, so we use a lot more...
Protect Protect Protect as you will not notice the small bit disappearing daily. Protect early
Harvest often.....daily or twice daily if possible.
Get the best tools you can afford, they last forever
I am a big fan of above ground gardens
 
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