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Garden advice please!
- This topic has 23 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 6 months ago by
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I am new at gardening this year. I plan to start with a simple patio raised bed. I would like to grow tomatoes in a container as well. What kind of tomatoes are good and easy to grow? There are soooo many varieties, my head is spinning! 🙂
I thought I would start simple with a tomato plant with a lettuce or spinach. My girls would like to do strawberries, but I heard those are not easy. I am so confused, and looking online for answers is frankly giving me a headache!
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
I, too, would like a couple of suggestions for beginners. We had an area last year that was about 2 ft. by 3.5 ft., but it was behind the house and really only got full sun from about 1 p.m on. We had 2 brussels sprout plants that grew okay but never really formed sprouts; 2 green pepper plants that only grew a couple of peppers that were smaller than golf balls; 2 cucumber plants, one of which shriveled after growing just a foot tall and one that grew 6 ft. tall but only blossomed into 3 or 4 tiny “pickles” before shriveling; and 2 cherry tomato plants that grew tall, leafy, and lovely but only gave us 5 or 6 cherry tomatoes.
Help! Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
@simple home, Big Boy, Better Boy, Beef Steak, or Rutgers are all decent tomatoes. The first ones are larger type tomatoes than the last one, but all are good. Rutgers is an heirloom, so you could save seeds from that if you so desired. For some fun Mr. Stripey has always done very well for us.
As far as lettuce and spinach go, you really want to try a “salad bowl” mix for that, probably or single leaf varieties not head lettuce. I would suggest using a long rectangular box for that so that you are able to get a larger harvest. Also keep in mind that both lettuce and spinach are cool weather crops, and some varieties will bolt very quickly, but in my experience all bolt at some point with the heat. Also, the ones that don’t bolt as fast tend to develop a very strong flavor in the heat, so do keep all of that in mind.
@sue_mom23, the reason the plants grew so tall is that they were searching for sunlight… they were what you’d call “leggy”. You need to find an area that will get morning sun and afternoon sun. If you have to deal with shade, the late afternoon and evening shade doesn’t seem to bother the veggies as much as the lack of AM/ afternoon sun.
As for the tomatoes, if you have several blossoms but aren’t getting tomatoes from them, they aren’t “setting” tomatoes for you. You can get a spray that helps that. Sometimes if you manually polinate the plants that can help, too.
Did that help? 🙂
Thanks Blue j! I hope I can be successful with tomatoes. I am very intimidated due to my lack of green thumb. 🙂
If anyone knows about strawberries, let me know. Or any other fun fruit? Also, Does anyone have a favorite garden blog or book for beginners that I could use as a resource?
Thanks again!
Simple home: I haven’t found strawberries to be difficult. Do you plan to start your plants from seed or buy from a greenhouse?
The important thing with them when transplanting is the depth. Because they are perennials, you need to make sure the crown of the plant is neither too deep (it will rot) or too high (it will dry out). But we have had great success with strawberries. And very tasty!
Gaeleen
Sue mom 23, to me it sounds as though your space was a bit small for all you tried to grow (one brussels sprouts plant could likely take up the whole area). And as bluej mentioned, all of the plants you grew need full sun. As far as few fruits growing – do you have flowers around to attract bees?
Beets and lettuce do nicely in part shade.
Gaeleen,
I am thinking I better buy from the green house to start. When you say “crown” of the plant, do you mean the very top part? Also, could I do strawberries in a container instead of a larger bed?
I am sorry for my ignorance of gardening. My sweet grandpa used to garden when I was a kid and I loved to shell peas with him, but that is the only experience I have had with a real garden. :). If he was still living I could have asked him these things.
Don’t apologize! I admire anyone who is willing to learn new and useful things. Going with someone on their path is usually easier than trying to carve out your own, so ask away.
The crown is the thick part of the plant where the roots meet the stems.
Strawberries have shallow roots and can certainly be grown in a container, though I have not done it. This page looks to me like it covers the basics of everything:
http://howtogardenguide.com/2009/02/27/strawberries-in-containers/
It’s not very detailed though, so if you need more information I can try and help.
Gaeleen
“Let’s Get Growing” by Crow Miller is our favorite gardening books — it includes details of growing both vegetables and fruits organically. I found this at the library a several years ago, and then bought a copy used on ebay. My advice would be to definitely start small, used raised beds (fewer weed problems), and don’t give up. It’s really great to pick fresh lettuce, spinach and tomatoes for an organic salad grown in your own back yard.
@simple home, Congratulations on starting gardening! It’s a wonderful, tasty, and educational experience. We love our garden and have worked up to about 2,400 square feet of totally organic vegetable garden, plus berries, grapes, and fruit trees.
You’re right, there are many varieties of tomatoes. When you grow them in a container you’ll probably want to stick to smaller varieties as they grow better in a constrained space. Containers usually dry out quickly so you need to keep up on the watering. Sometimes the labels on seeds and plants will list disease resistance, e.g. “VFN”. The more letters the more diseases the plant is resistant to and will probably be easier to grow.
For small spaces, I recommend the book Square Foot Gardening. It should be available at most libraries.
@sue_mom23, If your tomato plants are tall but spindly, then they are probably reaching for the light as blue j suggested. However, if they are lush and leafy then they probably have too much nitrogen, which causes leaf growth but not fruit. If you used a nitrogen fertilizer you would want to back off on that or use something more balanced like good ol’ compost.
Gaeleen, thanks for your carved path! 🙂
Robin, I need an organic resource and your recommended one sounds great. Thank you!
Doug, I cant believe your garden is as big as my house! What a blessing! I have heard of Square Foot Gardening, i will check it out. Thanks for helping me….I feel very blessed to have this group.
I am new to gardening this year as well. I have found Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening to be a wonderful resource. I ordered it from Amazon for a good price. It is a very large book and covers a wide range of topics in a very specific way, if that makes sense. So far I have read about composting, raised beds, herbs, houseplants, starting seeds, and saving seeds.
I highly recommend it!
I use raised beds, and the square foot gardening method. I also use a lot of pots, and have great success with them. I would recommend getting a good book, and just go for it – I use heirloom seeds so that I can save seeds from year to year and know they are not GM, I also use organic seed where I can and try my best to use only organic fertiliser and pesticide. If I can I don’t use pesticide at all -I hand pick the bugs off – here is a tip for you – look under the leaves, the pests love to be under things – you will likely not see them on the top of the leaves but nestling underneath. Slugs and caterpillars do their damage in the night so I set out at dusk and pick them off. Good luck, gardening is a lot of trial and error, but well worth the effort. I have found it much easier to garden in Europe and England than here – because of climate and bugs – but I have a beautiful perrenial flower garden and now veg as well – so it can be done – I cannot garden much in the height of the summer because the heat and humidity make me ill – so I have to just do maintenance through the summer – but it works. Linda
I’m bumping up this thread because, 1) it was interesting reading, informative, and 2) I wanted to ask a couple of you a question or two!
@Linda, I just received a 4×4 square foot frame to use, yay! When you say you pick off the bugs at dusk, what do you then do with them? If you just fling them aside, I imagine they will return to the plants.
@simplehome, since this thread is two years old, I have to ask–how did your tomatoes turn out? Did you grow them last year as well? We love tomatoes, so I hope mine grow this year.
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