Where To Find Good Gardening Supplies

[Simple Home Gardening]

Here's why I started this thread.  Recently my computer crashed taking with it seven years worth of information.  Lucky for me I'd stored the most important thing on cd's and dvd's.

Still, there's stuff I may never find again.  So here's what I'm thinking.  What if we all list our favorite gardening sources on this site?  Then if your computer dies all your good stuff will be here, easy to find. 

It seems like it would be easy enough to do.  Just take a moment and list a good source for anything gardening related.  And it would probably help new gardening folks too.  A sort of head start if you will.  What do you think?   

BTW I edited this post to make it quicker to read.  I tend to ramble sometimes. 

[pamela]

A really good idea. I think we did something similar in the past but I'm not sure it's still here.
I'll sticky this for a while and see if we get some interest going.
My computer had to be reformatted twice from viruses so I lost a LOT of good info, so I know what you mean.
 

[zenobia]

Just make this thread a sticky in this section...

[Simple Home Gardening]

OK here's what I used for fertilizer this year.  It's called Plant-Tone.  It's billed as an all natural plant food for organic gardening.  A quick scan of the ingredients convinced me to give it a chance.  It was applied once a month for three months with a very stingy hand.  The end result?  My plants were healthier (fewer insect/disease problems) and they looked better this year too. 

Of course it wasn't all fertilizer related.  Last fall I had a lot of compost, aged chicken manure and half a round bale of hay to feed the soil.  My garden was rather small too - just 20' x 40' total.  So I'm sure the soil amendments made up most of the difference.  In fact I'd be willing to bet on it.

The thing is, I've used several different types of fertilizers in the past and never noticed results like these.  No matter how good the soil was.  There must have been some missing nutrients even with everything I'd added to the soil.  Which is where the Plant-Tone seems to have made the difference.   

One more thing.

In the past I've tried making up for poor soil with fertilizer and it just doesn't work.  It's an additive not a growing medium.  So if you already have good soil Plant-Tone might help you too.  If you don't then you'll probably be better off doing whatever it takes to improve it.  In the long run you'll be happier with the results.

One more thing.  For real this time.

If you have anything that's working really good for you, would you post it?  I'm sure there are lots of people besides me that would appreciate it.  Thanks.

[Simple Home Gardening]

This isn't technically a gardening supply but it's something you might find useful.  It's a supplier of glass and plastic containers.  Tins too.  It's called  Specialty Bottle

I noticed some gallon and half gallon glass jugs.  They look like something you would drink moonshine out of.  Or maybe store home made wine in.  There was also something like a clear lotion container with the pump top.  They're listed under Clear PET Plastic bottles .  And they have those little spray atomizer bottles too.  PLUS sauce and syrup bottles, gourmet food and candle jars, vials, European dropper bottles, etc. 

Looks like a really cool site.

[zenobia]

SHG - Espoma products are great - all of their fertilizers, PlantTone, GardenTone, etc. 

[Simple Home Gardening]

zenobia,

Thanks for the heads up.  Have you noticed much difference in the way each one works?  The reason I ask is my budged is pretty tight right now.  So I was hoping the Plant-Tone could be used for everything. 

[zenobia]

SHG - since I used them for clients' gardens, I used the different fertilizers as formulated.  I am down in DC right now and so I can't go out to the barn and look at the bags to see which is what.  I think for general use, the PlantTone and GardenTone are fine in general.  You want to pay attention to the NPK ratios, depending on what you want.

As I said, I mostly used them in containers and gardens for clients.  In my own garden, I use fish emulsions, kelp meal, manures, manure teas, etc., as well as other soil amendments.  Clients often want a 'product' you can bill them for.  The Espoma stuff worked really well for this as it wasn't a crappy MiracleGro kind of thing.  HTH.

Try kelp meal if you have a good local source and can buy it in the 50 lb bags.

[Simple Home Gardening]

zenobia,

What do you recommend for heavy clay soil?

[zenobia]

Are you talking about fertilizer or conditioning your soil?

A deeply rooted cover crop that will break up the clay and add humus to the soil once turned in.  I would just keep adding as much compost as you can over time and use cover crops to build up the humus content of your soil.  Have you done a good soil test lately?  Fall is always a good time for that as the labs are less busy, and a good one will give you recommendations for the optimal amounts.

I haven't had to worry about clay since I lived in Alaska because I have about three feet of sandy loam and no ledge, which is unusual for Maine.

I am away from my files and I know I have some more good info.  Grower will also know as will others.

[Simple Home Gardening]

I'm more concerned with building the soil.  And no I haven't done a good soil test.  This is only the second year for the garden in this spot. 

The soil was almost impossible to use last year.  It was heavy clay with almost no organic matter.  So I just added all the compost, manure and hay I had on hand.  My thinking was, no matter what I did it would be an improvement.   Maybe not the best idea but it seemed to work ok.

What do you recommend for a fall or winter cover crop?  I'm in zone 7B or 8A depending on which gardening catalog you believe.  Also, what's a reliable source for a soil test? 

Thanks!

[Simple Home Gardening]

Guess what?  lady-t already beat me to this.  Here's her link.  http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.php/topic,8815.msg101357.html#msg101357

And MidWestHerbalist has another good one going for books.  OMG the books are incredible.  http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.php/topic,29978.msg403737.html#msg403737

Thanks for posting these guys.

[Simple Home Gardening]

Anyone got a good source for pots, seed flats, etc.?  I found a site called Novosel Enterprises.  They have a nice selection of general gardening supplies.  The prices look pretty good too. 

[pamela]

found this looking for a nursery.
it's a list of sellers.

http://www.riparianbuffers.umd.edu/suppliers.html

[TravelsHopefully]

For folks that don't want to lose their bookmarks - if you use Firefox & then download the add-on/plugin "Xmarks" it will back up your bookmarks remotely. I use it to keep my browsers on multiple machines all synchronized.
Still obviously relies on the Internet - if this disappears you've still lost everything