I set up a new bed for vegetables along a fence.

Whenever I purchase potted plants I look for the pots that have more than one plant in them. Why buy one when you can get two for the price of one? Buy good quality seeds. For the price you pay you are almost guaranteed to get results. Think of the money you'd have to shell out if you bought the vegetable fresh. That is what keeps me from whining!

Oooooo...a raised bed! I would LOVE to have that kind of spot, that is so convenient. I do something different in my gardens to conserve watering. Every year in the spring, I save my 2 liter plastic pop bottles. When it's time to plant my tomatoes, etc, I throw away the cap and cut off the bottom rounded part of the bottle. This makes like a giant funnel. When I plant the plants, I put the funnel in the hole first (leaving about an inch above ground) and then put the plants around it. When it's time to water, I aim the hose right into the funnel part until it's filled up. No more soaking the ground and letting the water run for time on end. Doing it this way lets the water get right to the roots where it's needed, and it's not laying on top to evaporate. I also add my fertilizers into the hole. We have droughts here sometimes, and the summers we had them people were always amazed at how lush my plants were despite 'no rains.' This method lets me recycle and raise really healthy plants! Another thing I do is square foot gardening. If you're not familiar with it, a web search explains it better than I ever could lol. You can fit more plants into an area doing it this way. I've been doing it that way since the 70's, as well as using my giant funnel idea. I can't wait for it to warm up enough so I can get out there and get my garden going! I can't wait to see all the responses others will share here. Happy gardening GardenGerty :-)

I just bought some tomato and green pepper plants today. I did not plant them yet, probably will wait untill first part of May. When do you plant your tomato plants.

I have no tips as this is my first garden but do you know why my corn hasn't sprouted after 10-12 days?! I planted peas in peat pots and two of them are up but the bush beans and corn haven't shown my any growth! Any ideas?

I have been trying my luck with seeds. I think thats a frugal as I can get with my garden. Will see if they grow, I ussually have better like with buying the tomato plants.

Do you use your own compost? Having a compost heap or container for all your vegetable peelings and weeds etc. is a good way of increasing the goodness of the soil that you grow things in, so you end up getting more from the plants that you grow.

Good luck with your plants. I love the fresh veggies, too bad they only can be grown here for a short time.

Well, this year, we're doing alot of things the old fashioned way -- we've always done it the old fashioned way, for the most part, but this year we've got to do alot without machines...like a good amount of things we can't afford a tiller for, we've gotta dig it buy hand. Also, our soil is not the best and highly clay-y...which means we have to bust our butts with as much compost as possible, and we've been scavenging for materials (especially stuffs like manure) this year. We'll be saving the seeds of all our stuffs, all through the year as our plants give us food. Of the stuff we like, we'll keep it, and of the stuff we don't we'll sell the seeds to those who want them...and use the money from that to try something new next year. This year, ALL our seeds in the starter boxes came up (minus some flowers, but they were old seeds anyways), so we've actually had a little too good of luck. Although we're technically a farm with a little over an acre -- we're gonna have a tough time taking care of ALL of them, so we've been giving away some, trading some for other stuffs we need, and selling as many as we can. It's only been a small chunk, but it makes me feel better -- especially knowing that the people who recieve our extras won't have to spend insane money and feel strained at their need of them this year because of us (we did fifty sents a potted plant, this year, which seemed reasonable as we only paid a dollar a packet ourselves). We've made a little over twenty bucks so far, and as I said this is only a little chunk, you can see my own desperation to share the luck around ^_^' I'm not complaining, mind, I'd rather have intense luck than no luck at all. We've junebugs infesting our soil, and that might be our dose of bad luck this year. To get rid of them, as we're digging, I'm gonna have to make my own mixture to kill them. I was gonna make hot sauce/garlicy water and pour it through the dug up earth. I just hope my efforts work. We've been cutting up milk jugs to make lables for our plants, and using plastic spoons and stuffs for lables, and cutting up water bottles and poking holes through yogurt containers and folding up newspaper to make pots -- as we've been in desperate need of them. It's been interesting, these past few months, the last bit of this spring and into the summer and fall shall be even more fun, I reckon. Good luck with your tomatoes, Gerty!

Yes, when you cut off the side shoots to prune your tomato plants, don't throw the suckers away, but rather stick them in a glass of water on a warm and sunny window sill. They will root in about 4 days and then you can put them in soil (or hydroponic solution) in a partially shaded location for about 5 weeks and they will be ready to plant. If you are gardening in dirt you don't want to leave the rooted cuttings in water too long or the roots will adapt for water instead of soil. Tomato plants reproduce from cuttings faster than from seed anyway. When we bought our first AeroGarden we bought the tomator seed kit and they advised us to cut the smaller plants off and discard them, leaving one strong plant in each hole. Instead I carefully removed the grow plugs, opened them up and took the extra plants out to replant in another AeroGarden. That way I got 9 plants instead of 3 and they all grew and produced tomatoes. One of the plants, grown from seed in August of 2008 is still producing, but I'll have to kill it off in a couple weeks because we can't take it with when we migrate to our summer place. Good luck with your tomatoes!

HMMM tips - if you havent put dirt in already if you lay old newspapers out in layers under the dirt it weeds and grass have trouble growing THROUGH the dirt and you have to weed less. Keep your pots to reuse for replanting next year. If you have extras of certain plants you started sometimes friends are willing to trade for extras they have. One year i had about 60 tomatoes and i only wanted 10 but they were old seeds so i wasnt sure if they would grow. Aphids - keep em away with a spray bottle of water with dishsoap. You can make your own peat pots with eggshells, egg cartons (paper), newspaper or tp rolls You can start geraniums and citronella plants from cuttings. (citronella are awesome for keeping mosquitoes away. Attaching ribbon to a stake so it blows will keep critters out of the garden (or pinwheels!) Salt between rocks for paths keeps weeds from growing. If its gonna freeze cover your plants with blankets, buckets, tarps, etc.

Whenever I buy scallions, leeks or other green onions, I always plant the little bit of root at the bottom, that would normally get thrown out. Now I never have to buy them. Surprisingly they even stayed green all winter.

Woa..it is great. I have an asparagus seed that I will grow it soon. But, my luck with seed is not to good. Happy gardening. BR.b

I'll tell you how I start my tomato plants and they grow huge. I have to use a fence that I make round so they can grow up it. I take a 50 pound bag of potting soil and a 50 pound bag of black cow manure. I mix them 50/50 in a bucket and then dig a hole with post hole diggers about a foot deep and 8 or 10 inches in diameter. I then plant my tomato plants completely in the mix with only the tip of the plant sticking out of the ground. It will take a week for the transplant shock to wear off but then they will seem to grow inches a day. After a couple of weeks I will mix miracle grow once a week for my plants too. I also let my cucumbers grow up a fence. It makes so much better cuke.

I´m in autumn now and there´s not much I can plant. I read your posts full of envy. But this year I´m experimenting with potatoes. We have mild winters where I live so I planted grown potatoes to see what would happen. I will not lose anything (butr my dreams) if nothing happens. About ideas: I have a potted herb garden where I get herbs year around.

I not but mine dad is having experience of gardening as they doing something or other and utilizing their retirement time like that and we and others got various types of vegetables but not tomato, its ginger and lemon and some few more, whose name i not remember rite now but i also enjoy with them and understand the thing that 'regular water' to seed is necessary to grow.

I tried to start most of my vegetable plants from seed this year, but most of them didn't grow :( Every tomato seed sprouted, but none of the cucumber, zucchini, or broccoli. So now I have to buy starter plants from the greenhouses again, no money-saving this year. Oh well, I guess if they turn out and produce well, it's still cheaper than buying the veggies in the grocery store would be! And gardening is just a great hobby, it provides exercise and relieves stress!

i really hate gardening but my hubby does and so does my 12 year old daughter. last year we planted tomatoes and i really like them to plant herbs so i can have fresh herbs on my summer foods. yummy!

It has to be something wrong with your soil. Did you know you could take a soil sample to (I think) the department of agriculture and they will test it for free? You sure can! It takes about a month to get the results back but when you do, you'll know what you need to add to your soil. I found this out from an old friend and farmer and hubby did this for the first time but we're still waiting for the results. For now we just put miracle grow soil into the ground and put the plants that we've grown inside in the ground and hope for the best until our results come back. Good luck!!

I also love gardening. In fact, I have many tomatoes and bell peppers in my garden. I love to take care of them and when there are fruits, I am more happy to pick them. I plant vegetables becuase it helps me save money especially now that the prices of vegetables have increased.

You could also start plants from plants. If you clip off one of the leaves at the base you can place the bottom of the base in some water in a jar and hold the rest of the leaf up between 2 popsicle which you may have to weigh down. they should sprout some roots, and then you will have another tomato plant started.