Lots of good info thanks yall. I used to use grass as mulch when I had a small yard with a bagger now I dont have a bagger mower. I used pine straw last year to help keep weeds down it worked pretty good a lot better than having nothing. I really like the tomato teepee thing Im going to try that out.
I use cages made out of roll of concrete reinforcing mesh. They last for years, I'm probably 15 yrs into the mine right now. If you cut off the bottom row you get nice spikes to shove it into the ground. They are good for caging or staking up just about anything and are vastly superior to the 3 ring cages you can buy at a garden store. You can even make a straight piece and hold up a row of peas or beans.
I was wondering on how they hold up. Seems they are rusty right of. I tried fencing doing the same thing, but found it didn't work unless I also used a metal stake to hold the rings upright. One windy storm around here and anything that isn't pinned to the ground takes a hike.
Mine have always stood up pretty well. especially if you get a tomato plant onto two of them as it gets bigger. Reinforcing mesh is much heavier than green garden fencing. You get a row of 6" spikes to stick in the ground if you cut off the bottom horizontal ring. They are rusty from the first day, you are correct about that. The spikes legs are the first to go, when they rot out you just cut off another row and have a shorter cage. Like I said I'm 15 yrs into mine and some are still have not been cut down.
I do the same thing and love it! Good strong cages and they really allow tomatoes to grow tall and stay supported
We're getting a load of mushroom mulch this year, used chicken manure in the past and that worked great for fertilizer. This mushroom mulch is supposed to be amazing though. It's from mushroom farms and they have to change out their soil every few years to keep growing mushrooms in the raised beds. My uncle uses it and says its the best fertilizer he has ever used.
I've got lettuce, peppers and some experimental petunias started. peppers are a bit early but if they get too far along ( they generally haven't for me under gro-cfl ) I can slow them down in the cool greenhouse.
Will be starting our seeds soon, last year we had a lot of seedling casualties so we will be starting way more than needed.
Are yall saying that I should start seedlings now? Inside the house I guess? Ive never planted from seed weve always just gone to the Lowes or a local nursery and get stuff thats already started.
That's a perfectly acceptable way to do it. You should be able to find plants that are timed and prime for putting out in your area that way as well. I'm not buying 50+ pepper plants at Lowes. I will buy 6 cauliflower plants there. They won't have the Big Mama roma tomatoes I like. They don't have leaf lettuce now - that I'll be putting out in a small 10x10 greenhouse in several weeks for early lettuce. I've also started 72 Wave petunia fuseables - Lowes won't have fuseables. You can save a few bucks starting your own seeds - but it really isn't worth it for a small garden. But it can be a fun thing to try, too. 2 cfl tube gro lights and heating pads will cost me about 15/20 bucks a month to keep plugged in so I have to start enough to justify the expense.
Check out your hardiness zone, Matt. It will give you a rough estimate when you can start seeds and move plants outdoors. I have a small garden and start most from seeds. I find starting seeds to be a rush and highly addictive. Great fun.
I like growing things that aren't sold in the greenhouses, so I start some from seeds and buy others in greenhouses. Will be starting some early tomatoes too.
a seed starting calculator can come in handy you just need to know your hardiness zone last frost date http://www.johnnyseeds.com/e-pdgseedstart.aspx they can come in handy for sowing direct and when to put plants out too I had a better one bookmarked but must have deleted it by mistake.
Tomatoes can be slowed down a little if their growing temp is cooled down some, but I wouldn't go under 60 f because you risk interrupting their growth, and ultimately their fruit production and increase their susceptibility to disease. They need a lot of good light and be transplanted to larger pots. Those grown under lights need to be transitioned to natural light or the first sunlight will literally burn them up. Unless you have greenhouse conditions, you can grow 6 to 8 in seedlings, stated inside 6 to 8 weeks before you set them out in the open. You can change all of this by putting up a cold frame or hoop house. I have had tomatoes turning red the first of June, this is the normal date to set seedling out in this area. Growing spindly plants seldom is anything positive. If you don't start your own, please Bo to a local grower. Those imported plants may bring guest to your garden and other plants which may prove very hard to get rid of. ( bugs and disease ). Peppers can be started a couple weeks earlier. Celery has to be stared about now. Squash and cucumbers can be 4 to 6 weeks, but to be honest, your best crop from those is by direct seeding. They catch up go the transplanted ones most of the time.
in the cool greenhouse. I have a hobby greenhouse that is not heated . I have several shade cloths too. Concur being real careful if you started tomatoes too soon - I've moved some out to the greenhouse and/or direct to the garden from under CFL lights and sunburnt them and lost all the starting early advantage . Pot bounds will spend a lot of time growing roots and doing nothing topside too .
Getting all our sucks in a row for this season. Got 3 - 72 packs of seed starter disks with green house lid case thing. One pack for tomatoes and tomatillos, one for peppers, and one for the rest of stuff that will do well being start indoors-- like eggplant, kohlrabi and... Can't think of anything else right now. Needs to figure out what we still need to order in. Probably this week yet we will start mapping out the garden using our garden minder app for the iPad. From the we print out screen shots of each section and color them in to represent different varieties and matte onto a large piece of cardboard. That becomes our map and record.
