<p>Booklady - try Red Robin tomatoes - they grow in small pots to only 12" tall, and give nice golf-ball size tomatoes.</p>
<p>“How do you keep squirrels away from your garden?”</p>
<p>Two-year old Welsh terrier.</p>
<p>(But then I have to keep the Welsh terrier away from the garden.)</p>
<p>As per bush cucumbers, I’ve never grown them before. They are supposed to be 6-8" high, and grow 22-24" across. But they won’t take up half a garden, and yield is supposed to be good. I will start them late (June 25th) in the greenhouse.</p>
<p>I grew bush cucs in a pot last year. Got them as happy seedlings. They don’t like the transplanting process and won’t thrive if the roots are disturbed. Make a hole to match the starter pot and just slip them into the new dirt, intact.</p>
<p>Squirrels- supposedly if you provide a food source, they won’t bother you. Luckily, my neighbor did that.</p>
<p>I find that putting sizeable rocks around transplants helps to keep the squirrels from digging them up. The rocks should radiate some heat back at night to the plant which is good for spring anyway. I used to use those spiky plastic things that people say will prevent cats from scratching but the rocks work just as well.</p>
<p>If a squirrel is going to eat something though, it seems you need total encapsulation to foil them. Sometimes, that just can’t be done. They almost always strip our pear tree at least a month before we could pick the pears and I tried to wrap some branches in bird netting last summer but they got through it. I suppose I could try chicken wire but that seems more trouble than it’s worth. Trouble for the tree too.</p>
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<p>We have lots and lots of deer, so I tried planting veggies was in containers last year. I would have had to put up fencing to keep deer out and my H just didn’t want to do that. I have one planting area that was part of the deck design and bought rectangular wooden containers–[Trough</a> Planters - Teak Trough Planters - Trough Box Planter Containers](<a href=“http://www.countrycasual.com/Troughs.aspx]Trough”>Teak Planters - Large Planters & Teak Wood Planter Boxes) </p>
<p>Last year, I successfully grew tomatoes, herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, Italian parsley, and sorrel), peppers (bell and hot), lettuces, arugula, and potatoes (fingerlings) in containers. Going to plant again this year!!</p>
<p>Happy to see this thread. Haven’t tackled any beds yet here in Ohio (garden beds, that is) but I racked our “meatballs” from the front yard (sweetgum trees).</p>
<p>Plus I planted some small pots of cilantro and basil seeds to hopefully get a jumpstart - they are on the sun porch. :)</p>
<p>I planted squash and tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. I saw some of the squash peeking through yesterday and a teeny tiny tomato coming through. My main pest is snails. So so so many snails. I’ve lost track of what they like to eat and what they don’t so I used snail bait but I also started my tomato in a little pot and I wrapped the pot with copper tape which is supposed to keep the snails away. So far it seems to be working.</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with the topsy turvy planters? I’m planning to transplant the tomato into that when it is big enough. In the past my tomatoes got all moldy from being too damp near the ground I think - or not enough sun - so I thought I would try the upside down planter this year.</p>
<p>I have friends who have tried the topsy-turvy thing - also there was someone in the neighborhood who had several hung up on the side of their house - it wasn’t the most attractive, but I have to say, they were FULL of tomatoes! Not sure what the trick to success with those it…</p>
<p>Oh, the tomatoes scream the whole time! “Help! Get me outta here!” They hate it.</p>
<p>(unless you buy upside-down seeds…)</p>
<p>Thanks, Bromfield. I have a rosemary plant in the garden (deer tend not to like very aromatic plants, and so far they’ve left it alone), and I might try tomatoes per mini’s suggestion. I grow basil on my kitchen windowsill - it faces south so there’s plenty of light to keep a plant happy all summer. As for the lettuces, etc., we have two fabulous farmer’s markets near us…and I’m lazy. :)</p>
<p>I tried the topsy turvy planter for tomatoes once and wasn’t very successful. For one thing, you have to use a “determinate” or patio type tomato plant that won’t want to grow to be six feet tall. And you have to be a diligent waterer.</p>
<p>I now love it though. It hangs in my shed and I have stacked up all my small plastic pots in it, to keep them nearby for whenever I need them.</p>
<p>PhotoOp - I’ve had really good luck using a product called SLUGGO.
It kills snails and slugs but is safe to use around pets and wildlife.
The main ingredient is iron phosphate, which eventually breaks down into fertilizer.
I sprinkle it (quite sparingly) around vulnerable plants about once a month.</p>
<p>This is a little off topic as I haven’t started growing any veggies in containers yet this year, but has anybody else noticed the strawberries for sale at the market lately are HUGE? Radishes, too, for some reason.</p>
<p>You guys are funny. Upside seeds and tomato plants screaming to be let out. :)</p>
<p>Ive hardly done any gardening this year, ( my knee isnt cooperative), but I did go to the nursery, where I bought along with some maidenhair ferns and raspberries, some garden kitsch.
My great aunt had flamingos, and I was never sure if they were supposed to be ironic or not, but I do like interesting pieces in the garden.
I have several wrought iron arbors & trellises,( the kind that go rusty) and cement statues that are aging nicely, like of a sea tortoise ( that I should put in the back by the pond, but the small kids who walk by like to look at her) and a bench along with some smaller cement stone animals. I dont have any lawn, they are all tucked into the beds. All my pieces were made locally.
But now I think Ive stepped pretty close to the line of tacky with my latest purchase but I dont really care.;)</p>
<p>I bought a gazing globe andd wind chimes.
They are very nice large pentatonic windchimes.
Do you think they will be too annoying?</p>
<p>“You guys are funny. Upside seeds and tomato plants screaming to be let out.”</p>
<p>It’s not so funny if you’re a tomato. The poor Giant Belgium tomato thought she was in Mozambique.</p>
<p>Tomorrow I start “hatching” my tomato (8 varieties), pepper, eggplant, and rudbeckia seeds. I have considered waiting one more week, but I’m depending on global warming. </p>
<p>If big strawberries upset you, try Tristars. Smallish, but really sweet, and they bear all season.</p>
<p>I think spring will never come. And I will never be able to garden…grrrr…last weekend was just a tease.</p>
<p>Mini - I love tristar strawberries. I planted them last year along with “earliglow”. The earliglows were indeed, early, and they were also the sweetest, most flavorful strawberries I’ve ever tasted. The tristars weren’t as impressive at first, but they did bear all summer and got tastier as the months progressed. </p>
<p>I feel very lucky to live near one of the big USDA testing areas (Beltsville, MD) and they developed both of those varieties of strawberries, along with many others, just a few miles from where I live. When you all go in search of new strawberry plants, read all the labeling provided by your local nursery and maybe you can find some local beauties too!</p>
<p>P.S. I’m under doctor’s orders not to do anything strenuous so I did a little “light” weeding yesterday and I’m paying for it in one strangely sore hip ligament. Let the gardening aches begin!</p>
<p>Greenwitch, I’m right there with you. Earlier in the week I did some more raking/pruning and my upper back/shoulder paid for it. Then Thursday, because I am a glutton for punishment, I worked in the gardens again, pulling out all the euonymous (I absolutely hate it and have been dying to get rid of any and all traces of it.) My moist heating pad is getting quite the workout. </p>
<p>I’m sending DH out to rake up the lawn thatch today. I will only supervise. :)</p>