<p>Emeraldkity4, I have a city garden, and I have problems with squirrels and the occasional raccoons.
Does anyone knows, how to keep squirrels away from fruit trees?
I was disappointed last year, when all the peaches (first harvest), went to the squirrels.</p>
<p>Gardening- a fantasy at this time of year. We got yet another 6" to cover any bare ground that dared show itself, it’s been snow covered here since the beginning of Dec (I had gotten used to some below average snowfall winters, the last two have made up for them, sigh). I liked the rabbit/dog story- add deer… to the diet of our Shih Tzu (the deer ignore him)- he’s been healthy for 12 years so it hasn’t caused any problems. Nice to have woods/hills in the yard, but wildlife and SHADE mean limited places for most plants. Heavy deer and rabbit pruning with all of the snow cover again this year- had a glimpse of all of the yard work I can’t wait to be able to do. Cabin fever. Feed my fantasies with more gardening posts.</p>
<p>Okay, here’s my gardening question.</p>
<p>I am obsessive about summer tomatoes. But this summer I will probably be moving in June or July (I hope, anyway, our house is on the market). How do I grow tomatoes in such a way that I can MOVE THEM in July? Does anyone have experience with tomatoes in big pots?</p>
<p>I usually grow tomatoes in pots because then I can turn over the soil easier ( they are supposed to be grown in different place every year.
It is also easier to move them around depending on the sun.
Determinate tomatoes stay( the bush) smaller and produce one crop which ripens at same time.
Inderminate tomatoes grow and grow, and ripen until frost ( if you are lucky)</p>
<p>( also unless you have lots of sun your tomatoes won’t be ripe in June so it shouldn’t be a problem transplanting them.
I grew some tomatoes, strawberries and raspberries for my daughter last year, didn’t get a chance to take them down to Portland until late July/early August and they still produced a crop ( well not so much the raspberries</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ocregister.com/articles/tomatoes-tomato-orange-2247251-county-tips[/url]”>http://www.ocregister.com/articles/tomatoes-tomato-orange-2247251-county-tips</a></p>
<p>Thanks EK! Which tomatoes have you had good experiences with? I love sungold cherry tomatoes but they are really indeterminate (sprawl everywhere) and I can’t imagine them in a pot.</p>
<p>tomatoes are really weeds- even though they don’t always ripen very fast- I just look for the shorter season tomatoes- whatever starts are at the grocery store
cherry tomatoes are good cause they don’t take long to grow- you can also take the flowers off to control the plant a little- just get a support , or you can stake it as needed</p>
<p>Stupice is my favorite early tomato, excellent flavor.
Brandywine is big, juicy and good flavor. I gave some to a friend and she said it was her best tasting tomato.
I also have a few heirloom tomatoes.
I usually have 16-40 different type of tomatoes per season.</p>
<p>I see you are getting tomato advice from the same region. For others I would suggest finding out which of the local varieties available at your area garden shops would work best. Around here we buy plants in late May and in a good year can harvest green tomatoes to ripen indoors after the frost sets in by October. My biggest garden problem is critters (after making use of my limited full sun, garden potential areas)- it’s too often deciding to add the extra fencing the next day while they decide that night is finally buffet time. We couldn’t eat the fresh tomatoes produced by 16-40 plants- and I refuse to do the work of canning.</p>
<p>
I have successfully forced an indeterminate tomato vine into a compact form that still bore fruit by consistently pinching or snipping off the leaders one or two leaf petioles above each hand (set of blossoms) and let the lower leaf axil buds develop into additional shoots, then do the same to them.</p>
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<p>Ha, back when I lived in New England the challenge was vine ripe tomatoes by 4th of July, achieved most years by sprouting seeds on a sunny windowsill in Feb, out to gently heated cold frames by March, planted in a deep mix of … Well, I can’t give out all the secrets…</p>
<p>Now in CA the goal is vine ripe tomatoes by June 1st. By mid July everyone is so overloaded with tomatoes you can’t give them away…</p>
<p>
[quote}Ha, back when I lived in New England the challenge was vine ripe tomatoes by 4th of July, achieved most years by sprouting seeds on a sunny windowsill in Feb, out to gently heated cold frames by March, planted in a deep mix of … Well, I can’t give out all the secrets…
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Pretty please . . . . I’m in MA and I can’t even get into this thread because we’ve still got snow on the ground. I don’t dare put tomatoes in until June 1–I’d love to know how I can get them sooner. I wait all year for vine ripe tomatoes.</p>
<p>Check out this book
</p>
<p>[Books</a> by Eliot Coleman ::: Four Season Farm](<a href=“http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/main/books/books_eliot.html]Books”>http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/main/books/books_eliot.html)</p>
<p>Thought I would check back into this thread and let everyone know about a great deal at Costco right now - They have the Bayer 3 in 1 Rose food for $19 for an oversized bottle - about 30% cheaper than OSH/Home Depot. </p>
<p>I switched to using this stuff last year and my roses have never been healthier.</p>
<p>Funny that you should post a price comparison of the two stores this evening. This afternoon DH discovered that HD has the better price on Miracle Gro moisture soil. Thanks for sharing your discovery with us.</p>
<p>Depending on what you want to do with them, you can just wash the tomatoes, let them dry completely, put them in ziplock freezer bags and freeze. I use them in soups/stewed tomatoe combinations, etc. It’s fast, easy and I don’t like to can.</p>
<p>Lettuce and herbs</p>
<p>I would like to grow herbs and lettuce this summer in containers. Any help/advice would be apprciated. For herbs I am planning to use different size pots , need advice on how big /bushy they tend to grow, which are suitable for smaller pots and which need big ones. I will most likely wait for starters to be available at the store.</p>
<p>Lettuce/greens I will probably do in boxes (do not know if 1 or 2). Should I start from seeds or wait till there are starters available at my nursery? How fruitful is lettuce grown in a container, what do you feed it with? What types are best to grow in a condition like that?</p>
<p>Kelowna, I don’t know that the Better Homes and Gardens website will answer your specific question but I’ve signed up for their gardening e-newsletters and am finding them helpful. Check out [Gardening</a> - Garden Care, Flower & Plant Names, Landscaping, Houseplants. BHG.com](<a href=“http://www.bhg.com/gardening/]Gardening”>Gardening)</p>
<p>I’ve grown parsley and basil in containers…mid size containers, one plant per container(it says patio planter 12 on the bottom). I pick the basil leaves, wash, dry and freeze in freezer bags for future use (it does turn black, good for cooking with, not for pesto).</p>
<p>I just grow lettuce from seeds directly in my containers. You can sow fairly thickly and eat the babies. Tomatoes (even the indeterminite ones) I do in big pots on my patio and use six foot stakes. I like growing heirloom tomatoes - dh really likes the green zebras.</p>
<p>For herbes - thyme, oregano could go in smallish pots. Basil does better in a big one. Sage I brought in for the winter and put in a medium pot - it seems happy. (I killed everything else I brought in, but they were in a window box and I didn’t think they’d overwinter.) Parsley gets pretty big too as does dill.</p>
<p>
I bought some of these Miracle Gro moisture soil bags from HD and discovered they have cow manure in them. I would not want to use them to plan my lettuce, I had to purchase different soil.</p>