<p>Thanks for all the suggestions from CCers regarding the problems of my container garden. I’m confident that you were right about the lack of nitrogen as a reason why the summer squash had performed so poorly. With more frequent doses of a water-based fertilizer, the squash leaves are now bigger, greener and blooming [as are the cucumbers], so hopefully we’ll see fruit soon. I suspect that even though the tomato plants have produced o.k. yields, more frequent fertilizing would have offered greater results for them as well. Of course, a warmer and dryer summer here in the northeast would have helped too, I guess.</p>
<p>Experience makes us all better prepared for the next time. Now that my head is full of all these tips and suggestions and past experience, I’m ready for next year already! Actually, I’m intending to plant raddichio and parsnips for the fall in a week or two. This has been my first foray into gardening and I’ve enjoyed it.</p>
<p>Congrats, LakeWashington! My tomatoes and eggplant are doing fantastically this year, and my dill was not eaten by slugs - that’s a major victory. And the Great Wall of Chickenwire protected my garden from the voracious cottontails! I haven’t bought any veggies since the end of July, since we have enough homegrown “plant material” to eat with every dinner. Next year I will plant some horseradish so I can make pickles like my grandpa used to make (with horseradish leaves and dill).</p>
<p>Today’s question: What is causing some of the leaves to turn yellow on my hibiscus? This has not been a problem in the past. I have two, but only one has the problem.</p>
<p>Sorry cottonwood, I’m the novice here. No answer for you but good luck. Search my earlier thread on gardening and maybe IM the folks who seemed like they were seasoned gardeners.</p>
<p>My tomatoes are finally ripening, though I found a huge slug munching one recently. I can’t imagine how it got there since there are about ten feet of patio it has to cross and I read somewhere they can’t handle that much normally. (I think maybe they can if it’s wet though.)</p>
<p>I also have two hibiscus and only one has turned from BEAUTIFUL blooms to yellow and dropping leaves!!</p>
<p>Mathmom, maybe a raised bed for tomatoes would solve your slug problem next planting season?</p>
<p>My tomatoes are in containers on a table. How much more raised can they get?!!!</p>
<p>That was one $#@%^ determined slug! :eek:</p>
<p>Either the soil gave spontaneous life or the soil already had slug eggs. Soak some wadded Bounty in beer and place in pot.</p>
<p>I am sure there is a CSI trick to check for slime entering or leaving the scene.</p>
<p>I hadn’t thought about slug eggs. If I see another slug I’ll go for the beer trick, back when I had my tomatoes in the garden, I used to put the beer in jar lids and collect them by the dozens.</p>
<p>
Oh NO, mathmom! Don’t tell me this! Tomatoes are among the few slug survivors in my gardens! Yikes. </p>
<p>Well, I like this guy, and I’m going to try his Mason jar mixture next:
[Hill</a> Gardens of Maine - Dealing With Slugs & Snails - Naturally](<a href=“http://www.hillgardens.com/slugs.htm]Hill”>http://www.hillgardens.com/slugs.htm)</p>
<p>I have at least 14 cat food cans with beer, but it turns out some slugs are teetotalers. I have done the diatomaceous earth repeatedly, I have sprinkled wood ash all around and in the gardens, and I have some dry seaweed.</p>
<p>No slugs on tomatoes! They must not win.</p>