wanting to connect with Cincinnati gardeners

Hi! I'm Kathy and I live in West Chester. I've been gardening for years, using raised beds, but am just now learning about square foot gardening. I am interested in learning where to find the ingredients for Mel's mix nearby and for the best price. I'm also interested in any area classes or groups that would be instructive. Thank you!

Hi Kathy. I am in West Chester too. I live off of Dimmick Rd. Where are you located?

Let's see . . . Mel's Mix components can be found at such places as Lowes and Home Depot for some of the composted manure and peat moss. Ohio Mulch has some as well. The vermiculite can be found at Menards (sold as insulation, but is "supposed" to be okay for plants, and it is not graded as "course"). Otherwise, a garden center here or there may carry compost, peat, and/or vermiculite.

Worm's Way, in northern KY, will have worm castings, guano and other types of compost, as well as, the vermiculite.

If possible, start making your own. I do that. However, it is never enough for my needs, but every little bit helps!

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know where you are located, but for compost I am definitely going to Marvin's organic gardens in Lebanon. They take materials from the zoo (animal dung and bedding), lawn trimmings, businesses who collect food waste, and leaf collections. There has been some discussion as to whether this counts as one source or multiple, but it sounds like homemade blended compost to the extreme to me. Multiple materials in, so it would make since it would count as multiple composts. They sell it by the cubic yard for around $40.

I would love to have a Cincinnati board about our gardens. Everyone can show what they are doing and how their garden is coming along. Think we should start a new board, or should we post on here?

Mijejo, I live near you....in the neighborhood off of Cox and Barret Roads! I haven't been to Menard's yet, but I was wondering if they might have a nice garden department.
I am already set up with quite a large garden in raised beds with soil that I have worked on amending for years. I do my own composting, but got interested in SFG and thought I might try a few small ones this year. I will definitely check out Marvin's for one of the composts, then use mine and I guess I'll need 2 or 3 others.

We'll have to stay in touch - it's neat that you are so close. Tell me about your garden and how long have you been doing SFG?

Kathy

Lisa,
I'm in West Chester right near Butler Warren road - so very close to Mason. Marvin's isn't very far away....do they deliver? Or do I need to go up with a truck to get the compost?

It's great to meet you and Mijejo and know that you are so close!

For Vermiculite, go to Dayton Hydroponics. They are just south of Mulhauser and 747 on Provident Drive. They have 4cf bags for $25.

They also have what I believe are 1.5cf bags of worm castings from a local worm farmer for $19.

They have various types of guano as well, but these are smaller quantities and pretty pricy.

You should be able to find peat at any garden center or home improvement store.

Reading Feed has both manure and mushroom compost.

Good luck!

Darren

Thank you so much for the info! I am glad that I found this forum....you guys are great!

O.M.G! Another one of us. I'm in Trenton, about 25 mins from Cox Rd.

Menards has there seeds out and they are 0.09 each on sale, Their garden center is OK ( insert some sarcasism there)

Their vermiculite runs about $13/ 4cu ft but liike stated, it's not course. I've used it and still have great results. I found a local nursery in New Miami (Couch's) that has coarse for $17 a bag.

I purchased my ingredients here:

peat moss - Lowes

Organic hummus, posy power - Ohio Mulch

mushroom compost, cow manure - home depot.

Ed's feed and seed ( across from Ohio mulch) has vermiculite (coarse) also.

I hope this helps you out. Thank you for joining us, this is going to be a great place to see how we all do.

That is great news Kim....so glad to meet people who are experiencing the same weather and soil conditions...we should be able to really help each other.

Did you say that Menard's has seeds for 9 cents???? Oh my goodness, I just paid $1.59 a pack at Home Depot.....but I still haven't bought my squash family seeds, so I'll have to go check them out. Plus they have a bi-fold door that I want to get for my new pantry (converted half of the hallway into a pantry).

It is good to meet you! I was just out walking and can't believe how high my daffs are pushed up out of the ground....this has been a very odd winter.

Kathy

They run their seeds on sale often. The most I've paid is 0.11. I have to go there today for Kohlrabi seeds. I'll let you know when the seed sale ends.

If your into canning. they will put the Mason jars on sale for $7/case plus there is sometimes a MIR for them also. I'll definetly post that deal when it comes around.

madnicmom wrote:If your into canning. they will put the Mason jars on sale for $7/case plus there is sometimes a MIR for them also. I'll definetly post that deal when it comes around.

Oh, I'll definitely want to know when this comes around!

Heck, I don't even can, but I might buy a case or two. There are so many uses for mason jars. There is even a way to stain them and make them different pastel colors for decorating (saw it on Pinterest)

Hi Kathy and welcome to the Cincinnati crew. I'm in Mariemont and this will be my third year with my sfg. My abandoned thread "Don't Laugh" has tons of pictures of my adventures at the community garden. Burger Farm might be a stretch for you (out on 32), but I get most of my supplies there. Ed's is right across the street from where my mom lives (she's in the condos behind Ohio Mulch). I work in Mason and also love Marvin's. Last year we attempted a meet 'n greet there that didn't pan out. Perhaps we'll try again this year.

Again, welcome! Post often. And we love pictures!

nancy

Hi! Welcome to the forum! I'm in Glendale, just South of the loop! I think everyone covered anything I might have added but definitely keep posting and asking questions!

If anyone is interested and on Facebook, I have set up private groups before and it's pretty easy to handle. For instance- I started a group for all the parents of kids in my sons kindergarten class. We post reminders about stuff coming up, ask class related questions, post pics from class parties, etc.. The point of it is that is isn't posting to any of your friends' newsfeeds-it only shows up on the feed on the other people in the group, so we could ramble on and on about seed catalogs without annoying our FB friends and ramble on and on about local manure sources without boring our forum friends! If anyone is interested- I'll set up the group and then we just have to friend each other!

Sounds good to me Glendale-gardener! Please let me know if the FB thing gets set up.

Thanks.

Count me in on FB!

menards - has the Valley Greene seeds 0.10/pack but pretty limited to flowers with some veggies left. no sale end date noted.

Burpee seeds are 40% off. I picked up Kohlrabi and Kale for $1/pack.

They are also running a MIR 11% on all purchase until 02/26/12.

I'll jump on board the FB group as well!

madnicmom wrote:Count me in on FB!

menards - has the Valley Greene seeds 0.10/pack but pretty limited to flowers with some veggies left. no sale end date noted.

Burpee seeds are 40% off. I picked up Kohlrabi and Kale for $1/pack.

They are also running a MIR 11% on all purchase until 02/26/12.

I went today - and picked up alot of seeds! Thanks for the tip! You will have to give me some recipes for the Kohlrabi....this past year I've been experimenting with rutabagas and found a way to make "steak fries" with them that is pretty good and Low Carb!

I'm interested in the facebook group as well. Has anyone started seeds yet? I have some herb seeds in a window sill planter, some lettuce and spinach, and just got some seedlings popping up of broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, kale, and cabbage. As soon as we have a nice day and I have a baby sitter, I want to clean up my garden and plant some sugar snap peas.

I have some broccolis in the windowsill that I started on Jan. 28. I just transplanted them last night. And today after work I planted the first row of sugar snap peas. 4 each of 2 kinds - one from Baker Creek, the other unknown. I might have bought them at Rahn's. I hope to get lettuce & spinach going this weekend. Hurray!

Well it's official. Steve Horstmeyer just said that he doesn't think we will get the "wet" spring like we had last year.

I really am itching to have spring fever but it just seems weird that we haven't had a decent snow yet this year. January is usually at least a couple of big snowstorms and sometimes even an early December snowstorm. And I know I've been snowed in on Valentines Day before in the past. This year so far? Nothing! It has "snowed" twice and neither time did it stick to the road. I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Is anyone else out there getting all our snow? Sorry!

I was just searching today for a Cincinnati Forum for Gardening, so count me in on the facebook group. I'm technically located in West Harrison, IN but Cincinnati is the closest big city to me. I am newer to gardening but have been interested since I was younger. I have a small collection of house plants. Also, I am currently in the middle of moving yellow and purple irises from a friend's house who is moving. I gave him a few to start and when I dug them up yesterday there were about 28 or so bulbs. So if anyone would like some or maybe trade some different colors or other bulbs/tubers then let me know.
-Matt

I'm brand new but I'd like to tiptoe in as well I'm in Colerain Twp. I've been kind of half SFG'ing for years (I just try to use the planting guides but didn't do all the marking it out and Mels Mix) and this year I'm going for the full SFG experience . I'm building a 4x6 box right next to my patio so I can hopefully keep up with it better than my old beds on the far side of the house. I have three kids and babysit my niece and nephew so I need easy! I'm going to plant corn and squash in my old beds since they are such space hogs.

I just ordered a bunch of seeds from Pinetree, and my Dh and I are going to Menards next week to get the lumber for the boxes and the vermiculite. They do also have peat moss according to their website so I may grab it as well. I don't start my own seeds indoors so I'll be buying tomato and pepper plants once it gets warm. Little pots full of dirt plus two small boys equals a HUGE mess, I won't be starting seeds indoors for quite a few years.

Does anyone know much about the cheap bags of compost from Lowes and Menards and such? I'm not sure I can afford to pay for Zoo Poo or other really good compost but at the same time I know I need the nutrients. If I am stuck I can get free horse manure from a friend's farm but I'd rather not worry about the weed seeds.