<p>Latest news flash from my quite modest container garden.</p>
<p>Seedlings; Golden Bell Pepper, Banana Pepper, Cherry Tomato and Basil so far so good. Only a few weeks old. Lately, I planted the following seeds; Casper Eggplant, Listada di Gandia Eggplant, Rutgers Tomato, Jubilee Tomato, Okra, Lemon Cucumber. I waited a bit longer this year because of the long dreadful winter and because in the recent past the winds of April wreaked havoc on my pots and seedlings.</p>
<p>What do you all have in your gardens? Any suggestions for fertilizer?</p>
<p>Volunteer cilantro from last year’s cilantro, which I let go to seed accidentally. Heirloom tomatoes protected by waterwalls. Sungold cherry tomatoes, which always produce madly for me. Lettuces. Bok choy. My daughter planted kale, which is thriving. </p>
<p>Will bump the other thread too-- cherry tomatoes are going gangbusters. Basil is coming back and replaced the dill, which didnt survive the cold, with mint.</p>
<p>My oregano and parsley doing well, but basil didn’t survive. I have to investigate if can grow tomatoes. My pineapples doing well. I replanted all the babies.</p>
<p>Have already harvested radishes and some lettuce. Pulled out the scallions - got too weedy in that area and couldn’t distinguish the two! Peas were doing well and starting to climb but I suspect a bunny may have found them (chicken wire around peas next year). Several varieties of tomatoes planted - grape, the orange little ones, some better boys. Green, hot banana and jalapeño peppers. Carrots. A couple beets. A little kale. Basil, oregano, cilantro, parsley. I think that’s it!</p>
<p>This is all at my community garden space. Gardening is required to be organic. Used some Epsom salt whe n planting the peppers and tomatoes - was recommended to me. Haven’t used anything else yet.</p>
<p>I have 4 volunteer tomato plants in the front yard came from my compost. It looks one of them is heirloom tomato or Mortgage Lifter and the rest who knows. I’ll wait until the neighbors complain about growing vegetables in the front yard because I remove them. Right now they still look attractive.</p>
<p>I’ve always liked gardening, but haven’t planted a vegetable garden since I moved to my current house 6 years ago. This year, my dad, an avid gardener, turned 80. I was in charge of “garden themed” favors for his party. Many seed packets were leftover from this project, and I didn’t want to waste them, so I decided that this is the year to start planting vegetables again. Had trees pruned to bring more sun into my very shady yard. Made an 8X16 raised bed. Had to put in peat/sand/soil to cut the clay. Needed chicken-wire to keep out rabbits. It certainly would be cheaper to just buy the vegetables, but I hope to get years of “enjoyment” out of this garden. Finally planted last weekend. After only 4 days lettuce, radishes, and spinach sprouted. We have 8 people home this summer and I made everyone in charge of 2 rows. There are brussels sprouts and okra, broccoli, cucumbers, beans, peas, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, chard, pumpkins and watermelons. This garden is very crowded–we’ll see what happens. I have the tomatoes and peppers, so I predict that “my” rows will do well! If nothing else, I still have my roses. (About 50 rose bushes in my yard, and they are awesome right now.)</p>
<p>If you already have an old bag of epsom salt in medicine cabinet, throw a tablespoon of it in ground when you first plant veggies/tomatoes…wouldn’t go out and buy special though. </p>
<p>Atomom, was just talking to a neighbor - she said the same think about the cost of filling her large new raised bed - but it’s a cheap hobby compared to most, will get you outside , yield food and be good for years to come.</p>
<p>Hey, you tomato growers who have used the trench method when re-planting seedlings… do you think the trench method will work with other nightshade vegetables, specifically eggplants? Will new roots grow from buried branches on eggplant seedlings like they do on tomato seedlings?</p>
<p>Put in a sweet red pepper plant, a cherry tomato plant and a regular tomato plant among my roses and perennials along the back of our pool enclosure of our Florida home of nearly two years. They all have growing fruits and blossoms! Much too hot here for me to spend the time I did up north outside to garden. Wet/dry, hot/cool, poor soil…as well. Epsom salts have needed minerals if your soil is deficient- read the gardening books/websites.</p>
<p>ps- miss the ability to quickly edit/correct spelling without an edit showing up.</p>
<p>I always feel like my tomatoes are terribly expensive, until I realize how much BETTER they taste than even the best organic heirloom tomatoes at Whole Foods, the ones that cost $6/pound when you can find them at all. I absolutely adore tomatoes and normally eat two or so pounds a day when my plants are producing, then freeze as much as I can. This year my frozen tomatoes lasted well into March. (To freeze, I chunk them up and then freeze the chunks. I puree the chunks and use them as base for various soups during the winter.) I probably spend about $200 to produce around a hundred pounds of heirloom tomatoes… </p>
<p>We mostly have our raised bed (4x4) vegetable beds planted, still have some seed I want to try. We have tomatoes, peppers and green onions in the main beds, then in large a shady raised bed have cucumbers and zucchini. </p>
<p>Hopefully this year will work out a lot better, we did our heirloom tomatoes peppers and onions from seeds, grew our own seedlings indoors for the first time, they seem to be doing okay, if a bit slow. One thing I did this year was I bought a small tiller/cultivator (I have the honda one, it was cheaper then the Sears model), and it really worked wonders, allowed me to work in hummous/compost mix and really aerate it, was worth the cost. </p>
<p>The only sad note in doing yard work was how many of our rose bushes and other ornamentals died this winter, it really wiped out about 45% of our shrubs, testament to how brutal this winter was. I was going to plant our vegetable beds in early may, but waited until mid may to plant because the weather still was so lousy. On the other hand, the roses that have survived and the newly planted ones love all the rain, they flourish when it is like that.</p>
<p>Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. It is a factory-made inorganic salt, just like other fertilizers, e.g., nitrates used in Miracle Gro. So how can this be OK for use in truly “organic garden”? </p>