Whizbang Gardening

Whizbang Gardening Good ideas make great gardeners. This is the official page of "The Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners." www.WhizbangGardening.com

Tomato Planting Scheme for Minibeds—As in past years, I plant one tomato to a Minibed. I cloche them when planting to pr...
05/23/2026

Tomato Planting Scheme for Minibeds—
As in past years, I plant one tomato to a Minibed. I cloche them when planting to provide a protected environment.

The solar pyramid cloches are on tomatoes from the local Amish greenhouse that I planted yesterday. The clear trash bag cloches are on tomatoes I started and planted a couple weeks back. I removed the solar pyramids on those yesterday and placed the red plastic mulch over the beds, then the cage with plastic.

I will remove the clear plastic on those cages once the weather here improves. It has been cold and rainy. The solar pyramid tomato plants will eventually get trash bag cloches.

Once the tomato plants are established with mulch and cages they are pretty much good to go for the growing season. I will remove any bottom leaves that grow to touch the ground, and perhaps prune the plants some, but I rarely do much pruning. The plants have everything they need to grow with joyous abandon. They will fill the cages and, God willing, produce an abundance of fruits.

My Trash Bag Cloche Video: https://youtu.be/fgeByhxv7nI?si=X_Ks80nm9rgtTAPQ

My blog post explaining how to make solar pyramid cloches: https://minibedsonplastic.blogspot.com/2017/05/making-whizbang-solar-pyramids-most.html

Onion Hope in The Spring—Yesterday I planted onions in my Minibed garden. Mostly Patterson, but a couple different red v...
04/25/2026

Onion Hope in The Spring—
Yesterday I planted onions in my Minibed garden. Mostly Patterson, but a couple different red varieties too. I've experimented with different spacings and am pretty much settled on 20 onions per bed, as you see in the planted bed. They don't look like much to start, but they will grow big and fill the bed, as the photo from last year's garden shows. ... When these starts get a few inches of fresh growth, I will cultivate the bare soil and mulch around the plantings. The beds will not require any more attention until harvest. For fertilizer, I added poultry feathermeal to the soil before planting.

War Rationing—Every so often I'll find old war rationing booklets at an estate sale. They are an interesting part of Ame...
04/24/2026

War Rationing—
Every so often I'll find old war rationing booklets at an estate sale. They are an interesting part of American history. If the current war in the Middle East continues (and that appears to be the unfortunate trajectory) Americans may once again have to deal with rationing of food, fuel, and other items. This is already happening in some other countries.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the government already has some sort of modern, internet based rationing system figured out... just in case.

I've always been a proactive person. So, my garden this year is 2x the size of recent years. There is no downside to growing a lot of your own food.

Click this link to learn more about WW2 rationing books: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/take-closer-look-ration-books

Strawberry Update—I got my strawberry plants awhile back and planted them, four to a Minibed. They don't look great at t...
04/22/2026

Strawberry Update—
I got my strawberry plants awhile back and planted them, four to a Minibed. They don't look great at this point, but it looks like they are going to survive. The berry plants I put in last year are looking great. They were covered with leaves over the winter. I left some leaves for mulch through the growing season, and topped that off with cut-up oat straw I had saved from last year's Minibeds. The straw will help keep the berries clean when they come.

Tomato Hope in The Spring—A couple days back, I planted tomato and ground cherry seeds in my Lee Valley self-watering se...
04/21/2026

Tomato Hope in The Spring—
A couple days back, I planted tomato and ground cherry seeds in my Lee Valley self-watering seed starting trays (I've used them for many years).

Unfortunately, my TommyToe and Juliet seeds are some I saved from 2022. It's not ideal to plant older seeds, but some shoud still be viable.

My objective is to get the tomato plants up to transplanting size without artificial lights, heat mat, greenhouse, or cold frame. I've done it in the past on the kitchen windowsill by transplanting the seedlings twice into progressively larger pots, then planting in the garden when surprisingly small, and covering with a solar pyramid.

It's low tech, and it can work very well. But I only have so much windowsill area, and we always buy most of our tomato and pepper starts from the local Amish greenhouse.

Garlic Never Disappoints in The Spring—I have 8 Minibeds planted to garlic. 13 to a bed. That's an ideal spacing. Leaf m...
04/20/2026

Garlic Never Disappoints in The Spring—
I have 8 Minibeds planted to garlic. 13 to a bed. That's an ideal spacing. Leaf mulch put over the planted bulbs last fall keeps weeds in check through the growing season. No care required until harvest. I wish every crop was so easy. Do you grow garlic?

My Old Trammel Compost Sifter—Back when I was growing a lot of garlic for making "Herrick's Homegrown" garlic powder, I ...
04/19/2026

My Old Trammel Compost Sifter—
Back when I was growing a lot of garlic for making "Herrick's Homegrown" garlic powder, I made a LOT of compost, and I needed an efficient way to get it sifted. So, I made this revolving wire drum.

The raw compost was shoveled in one end, the sifted compost was directed on to a tarp on the ground, and that which did not sift would automatically eject out into a wheelbarrow at the other end. It worked perfectly and was a joy to use.

But the machine was bulky and my compost requirements declined as I moved on to other pursuits. The sifter was eventually disassembled. It is part of my inventive history. All that remains is these few pictures. My middle son, Robert, is shown in the photos.

Honeyberry Bushes in Minibeds?Yes, I'm liking these plants, and Minibeds seem just right for them. We tried growing blue...
04/18/2026

Honeyberry Bushes in Minibeds?
Yes, I'm liking these plants, and Minibeds seem just right for them. We tried growing blueberries (twice) over the years. They never did well. My 4 honeyberry plants are in great form. They say honeyberries are more nutritious than blueberries. These bushes should grow quite large, and be very productive. We're lookig forward to that!

Do You See it?—At first glance this looks like a typical old photo of a man with his 25 wives. But look behind those peo...
04/17/2026

Do You See it?—

At first glance this looks like a typical old photo of a man with his 25 wives. But look behind those people at the trellis in the background. It is a remarkably fine creation!

Garden trellis structures were once much more common than they are these days.

I think it's safe to assume that the one in the photo wasn't made in China and sold at Walmart. It was more than likely made by a local person. I'm impressed.

The photo was part of a lot I found at a garage sale in Scott NY back in 2018. I made a YouTube video showing many of the photos. You may find it of interest (sound comes on at 32 seconds into the video): https://youtu.be/a1yjpDSi8Ew?si=uK9Qh_xkBsAt2dQV

The Almost Daily Text...It's a good day when I'm out working in my shop in the morning and I get a text from my wife: "B...
04/13/2026

The Almost Daily Text...
It's a good day when I'm out working in my shop in the morning and I get a text from my wife: "Breakfast is ready."
She makes different things for breakfast but more often than not we have scrambled eggs with vegetables, like you see in the photo. Photographing food is a real craft, and one that I may have failed at here but I can tell you the food is very good, and it is very good for reasons beyond taste. I'll explain...
First, the eggs are from local chickens; either from our up-the-road neighbor or our son. We don't have egg layers like we once did (when our 3 sons were growing up).
Next are the vegetables...

Green and red peppers from my Minibed garden. Marlene (that's my wife) cuts them up, puts them in freezer bags and keeps them in the freezer. I grow enough, and she freezes enough, to keep us supplied with peppers for breakfast all through the winter, into spring.
There are onions in the mix. They are also grown in the Minibed garden, and I grow enough to keep us supplied through the winter, well into the spring.
The potato cubes are, unfortunately, not from my garden. I didn't grow enough to last us to now. It's not practical to grow a lot of potatoes in a Minibed garden. It is convenient to grow a few plants but not a year's supply.
There are bacon pieces in there. The bacon came from a pig that was raised for us last year by another neighbor.
I think there may be some garlic in the mix. There usually is. And I grow plenty of that in Minibeds.
Finally, there is the ketchup. Marlene made ketchup last year for the first time. We, of course, had an abundance of tomatoes (they grow especially well in Minibeds!).
I was somewhat leery of homemade ketchup. No reason in particular. I was the same way about carrot juice years ago when my mother and Marlene went through a juicing phase. The thought of a liquid carrot offended my senses. Then, one day, I gave in and took a sip. Oh wow! I was instantly converted to a carrot juice believer.
As you might guess, Marlene's ketchup is VERY good. Frankly, it's better than any store bought. And that's how I get some good tomato into my breakfast.
I like to refer to my garden as a "Quality of Life" garden. Yes, it sustains us physically, and probably saves us some money, but there is a quality of life benefit to gardening that just can't be beat. I suspect most of you who have made it to the end of this little missive can relate. 🙂

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