Where To Find Good Gardening Supplies

[Hardondee]

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. 

I haven't found a good retail or online place that sells cheap seed flats.  It's pretty damn annoying.  When I do find one, they charge $20 to ship.  $20 to ship plastic, light-weight seed trays!!!!

Regarding the clay, I live in Georgia and have to deal with terrible red clay.  I amend the soil with potash, blood meal, and lime (since it's pretty acidic).  After that, I dump a ton of compost on it, cover it with pine straw to keep in the moisture, and just let it sit for a few weeks/months.  I had two 40 foot rows that produced phenomenally well compared to my non-conditioned soil.  I also lifted up rocks and stuff around the house to round up about 80 worms and left them in the composted rows.  Soon enough, they spread to the rest of my garden.   

[Katie]

Clay soil is the soil with the most nutrients, in some ways the best, post-po in my opinion, for that reason.  One main problem with clay soil is that it gets compacted.  That's why it has a bad reputation, it's been wrecked by humans being careless  .  If you do the above stuff in the other posts, that will help a lot, making it lighter and fluffier.  Also, never, ever walk in your garden beds or (gasp  ) drive on it.  That will wreck the structure.  I've never formally done lasagna gardening, but that might be something to explore. 

[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. 

I haven't found a good retail or online place that sells cheap seed flats.  It's pretty damn annoying.  When I do find one, they charge $20 to ship.  $20 to ship plastic, light-weight seed trays!!!!

Regarding the clay, I live in Georgia and have to deal with terrible red clay.  I amend the soil with potash, blood meal, and lime (since it's pretty acidic).  After that, I dump a ton of compost on it, cover it with pine straw to keep in the moisture, and just let it sit for a few weeks/months.  I had two 40 foot rows that produced phenomenally well compared to my non-conditioned soil.  I also lifted up rocks and stuff around the house to round up about 80 worms and left them in the composted rows.  Soon enough, they spread to the rest of my garden.   

$20 to ship plastic seed flats does seem high.  I went back to the Novosel Enterprises  website to check their shipping fees.  They're offering free ground shipping on orders over $75.  And right now they're giving 20% discount if you order over $100.  The pots and seed flats are priced cheaper than what I can find locally so it's a good deal for me.  I really don't need that many but thinking long term it might be the thing to do.

And I have heavy clay soil too.  Adding lots of compost and well aged chicken manure made a major difference. I'm expanding the garden this year and planning on adding the same things to the new area.  It may not be as much as last year but anything will be an improvement.

By the way  I like your idea with the worms. 

[Jonathan_Byron]

Peaceful Valley is one good source - they are geared to serious organic growers, but have some stuff for small hobbyists.
http://www.groworganic.com


Richters for herb seed and plants.
http://www.richters.com/

[Simple Home Gardening]

Clay soil is the soil with the most nutrients, in some ways the best, post-po in my opinion, for that reason.  One main problem with clay soil is that it gets compacted.  That's why it has a bad reputation, it's been wrecked by humans being careless  .  If you do the above stuff in the other posts, that will help a lot, making it lighter and fluffier.  Also, never, ever walk in your garden beds or (gasp  ) drive on it.  That will wreck the structure.  I've never formally done lasagna gardening, but that might be something to explore. 

It's interesting that you mention lasagna gardening.  I 'm considering composting directly into one of my garden beds.  And maybe combining it with Hardondee's worm idea.  That's not quite the same as lasagna gardening but it could be a real labor saver.  Especially if you don't need the bed early in the season. 

And yes I agree about the nutrients in the clay soil.  I am happy to say that mine is starting to loosen up and the yields are much better.  If you add fertilizer check out Plant-Tone.  For me it gives better results than chemical fertilizers like Miracle-Gro.  I only used about 1/3 of the recommended amount too.

[Simple Home Gardening]

Peaceful Valley is one good source - they are geared to serious organic growers, but have some stuff for small hobbyists.
http://www.groworganic.com


 for herb seed and plants.
http://www.richters.com/

Thanks for the links.  I'm going to check out the prices for seed flats and pots at Peaceful Valley.  Richters is cool too.  I'm just getting into herbs this year and they have quite the selection.  My goal is to find three or four good sources for things like this.  That way if something is out of stock I have a backup supplier.

[gasman]

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. 

I haven't found a good retail or online place that sells cheap seed flats.  It's pretty damn annoying.  When I do find one, they charge $20 to ship.  $20 to ship plastic, light-weight seed trays!!!!

Regarding the clay, I live in Georgia and have to deal with terrible red clay.  I amend the soil with potash, blood meal, and lime (since it's pretty acidic).  After that, I dump a ton of compost on it, cover it with pine straw to keep in the moisture, and just let it sit for a few weeks/months.  I had two 40 foot rows that produced phenomenally well compared to my non-conditioned soil.  I also lifted up rocks and stuff around the house to round up about 80 worms and left them in the composted rows.  Soon enough, they spread to the rest of my garden.   

$20 to ship plastic seed flats does seem high.  I went back to the Novosel Enterprises  website to check their shipping fees.  They're offering free ground shipping on orders over $75.  And right now they're giving 20% discount if you order over $100.  The pots and seed flats are priced cheaper than what I can find locally so it's a good deal for me.  I really don't need that many but thinking long term it might be the thing to do.

And I have heavy clay soil too.  Adding lots of compost and well aged chicken manure made a major difference. I'm expanding the garden this year and planning on adding the same things to the new area.  It may not be as much as last year but anything will be an improvement.

By the way  I like your idea with the worms. 

A few tips on clay, if you don't know already.
Don't forget to keep replenishing ammendments every year, or better, on a continuing basis. If you don't maintain the humus in clay soil, it will revert back to it's natural state. clay does hold nutrients and water well, but it compacts easily and does not breath or drain very well. Adding liberal amounts of organic matter will disperse clay particles (they are the finest of all soil types) to improve the tilth of the soil and that is the goal. Gypsum can help as well. be careful if you add non-composted material such as bark or wood chips directly into the soil. they can consume nitrogen as they decay. As for cover crops, it depends on your growing season, but legumes actually fix nitrogen into the soil. No substitute for soil testing. depending on how much rain you get, among other things, the soil will be acidic, alkaline, or neutral. where i am, it's dry and the clay can build up excess salts. A variety of vegetables will grow ok in clay soils if you ammend it fairly well. For some veggies, like carrots, you are better off bringing in some sandier, loamier soil. Some veggies tolerate in soil with poor drainage, others don't. it can get expensive and labor intensive to bring in loads of soil, so you are better off doing as little as you can and growing the crops that don't like the clay in that area. if money isn't an object, then putting in raised beds solves many problems. then again, it can be labor intensive with clay no matter what. Fortunately, with most veggies, you are concerned mostly with the top 6 to 12 inches of soil. As long as you are willing to continuously ammend this layer, you can grow just about anything. trees are a different story when it comes to clay soil, but even so, for many fruit trees there are a variety of rootstocks with differing levels of soil/moisture/disease tolerance and growth habits. you may not be able to grow a specimen tree of the chosen variety, but you may still have success with higher density plantings and using techniques like espalier in which a ess vigorous root habit is ideal. it depends on the depth of the hard pan. most times, clay is not the kiss of death, but it is a lot of work.

[Hardondee]

I wanted to add a supplier to the list:  http://www.gardeniq.com/store/catalog/Nitron-Industries,94.aspx

They have some great products from Nitron Industries.  They have some of the best prices for soil amendments that I can find on the internet.  Blood Meal runs $23.95 for a 25 lb bag!

[Xenopus]

Does anyone have a source they'd recommend for an indoor growing table with light fixtures? I used to have a marvelous one that friend built. It folded up when not in use and lived in a kitchen window all winter starting seeds. Lost it in one of our frantic moves. I'd build my own now, but we have too many more important projects like chicken coop and pruning.

[Simple Home Gardening]

I don't know of a good supplier for the indoor growing table Xenopus.  Most of the ones I've seen in the gardening catalogs look a little flimsy.

I can recommend a good supplier of herbal seeds though.  Horizon Herbs.  Their website is very informative.  And after looking around for about three months I went ahead and ordered.  Yea, I make decisions quickly. 

Some of the seeds needed to be planted in the fall so those went into the ground about a month ago. That would be the black elderberry and oregon grape seeds.  The seed count was greater than the listed amount and they looks fresh too.  It's too early to tell about the germination rate though. 

I also bought several mints plus a few others that will get planted this spring. 

They offer books too.  There's a small extra chagre for shipping them which they plainly list on the website.  And which I completely forgot about when I ordered.  It was 1:30 in the morning, what can I say.  The next morning, when consciousness returned to my physical body, I realized what had happened.  After imagining all kinds of problems and delays I decided to send off an e-mail to them before going to work. 

Less than two hours later I received a reply stating it was no big deal.  For an extra three bucks it could all ship in a USPS Priority box.   Did I mention the e-mail came an hour before they opened, from the owner?  And they also called two hours after opening to make sure that was all right with me and give me the new total. 

How cool is that?

They also have an awesome printed catalog.  I think they put some stuff in there that's not on the website.  So be sure to request one.  For someone like me, it serves as a valuable reference on herbs.  You might like it too.

[kendwell]

Two soil amendments I've used and can recommend are Azomite (A-Z of minerals) and Manafee (sp?) Humates. MF furnishes humic acid, which processes the minerals to a form the plants can use. I now use also a biological bacteria, all from Fedco here in Maine, in all my seedling plants. It takes up the minerals and makes more available to the plants.  From Stokes, this years catalog, is  surprising amount of information I've never seen, though a life long gardener when in country and fit.  Last year was bad weather. Planning on starting raised beds this year, before supply of cheap used RR ties runs out. I'll line the inside of the ties with verticle hemlock rough boards.

[mommaterra]

The only seed companies I order from these days are Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) and Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org); both places are big on heirlooms, open pollination, and preserving real seed diversity.  The farmer/vendor next to me at the local farmers' market is going to be selling Baker Creek seeds this coming year.  Locally I can find coir pots to start seeds in; these are supposed to be made from coconut fiber, so are sustainable in the way that peat most definitely is not.  But the biggest challenge and the thing I'm most enthusiastic about is edible forest gardening.  On one of the sites I visited today, the speaker mentioned that seven acres of forest garden was too much -- took too much time to harvest, and grew too much food -- for his small family.  My favorite gardening 'supply' is the two volume set called "Edible Forest Gardens."  Another local and I are working toward forested community gardens, and a third and I are pairing up on no-till garden, at least I'm hoping she'll join in since she believes in it.  --diana

[justanouveaufarmer]

While looking for some good sturdy reusable plug trays, I came across these:
www.greenhousemegastore.com
www.stuewe.com
www.charleysgreenhouse.com

[paracelsus]

I've regularly bought from greenhousemegastore. They have a good selection and reasonable prices, IMO, and ship pretty fast. Another good source is AMLeonard, for bamboo poles:

http://www.amleo.com/index/item.cgi?

I have found tons of uses for the 100 7-ft poles I got from there four years ago.

[bobd]

Does anyone here remember a thread I can research that speaks to herb selection for cooking and/or health issues? I'd like to plant some herbs that are perennials and would survive the winters here in upper NH. If someone out there has figured out what combination of herbs to plant that takes care of most basic cooking and/or common health issues I'd love to hear about it? I'm new to the whole gardening scene so I hope this isn't too stupid of a question? Thanks in advance for any help rendered!