A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 Answers To Weezie's Questions

Made a new post to answer your questions.

A. Fertilizer
I bought two different pellet kinds--one for the veggies and one for the plants. Both are Vigoro.
All Purpose plant Food 12-5-7
Cultivate into soil to a depth of 6-8 inches before planting. Spread evenly over soil surface, below and away from branches and trunk/stem every 3 months through growing season.
Tomato and Vegetable Food 12-10-5
Work into top 1-3 inches of soil at planting. Apply evenly along base of plants every three months during growing season.
I used them when I planted. I haven't reapplied.

B. Kind of soil
I don't know how to name it. It's dark, it sticks together. I guess it's clay, but I've only ever heard of red clay and mine isn't red. It's just dirt colored! I've dug things into it--mushroom compost, the fallen leaves and mulch from last year, grass clippings. This year it was easier to dig in than last year--it broke apart more easily and was looser. But it's still not very loose or crumbly--nothing like the potting soil I bought for the container plants, which is the only comparison I have.

C. Mulch
Last year's fallen leaves and some type of bark mulch that I bought by the bag from Home Depot, plus grass clippings.

D. Pesticides
I don't use any, except once I made a mixture of joy and water for some problem I now can't remember, which didn't seem to do anything.

Coniditions:
A. Are veggies in the shade too??
(most veg's need at least 6 hours full sun)
Because of all the trees, all of my garden plots get about 3 - 4 hours of morning sun, some of which is intermittent and then a little more dappled or partial sun after that. For that reason I've planted mostly partial shade plants.

The veggies are planted in a plot behind and against the back of the house--3 x 6 approx. It's the sunniest spot available. It gets afternoon sun for about 3-4 hours, then it gets dappled and intermittent sun for a couple hours after that. I was going to dig a plot in the lawn, but with so many trees, I couldn't find a place that got any better sun except for all the way at the bottom of the yard where it's slightly better, but we have almost an acre and I don't know how I'd get water to it and it's very sloped there and the ground is rock hard.

We'll find you something to grow for veggies.
Maybe radishes and carrots, Beans?
Like those?

Don't care for radishes. Carrots and any kind of beans would be a hit.

Thanks Weezie, for you interest, and help.

Ronni

Anytime Ronni,
I know how frustrating it can be and then you post a question and nobody responds!!
It's hard enough to go to the efforts you do and then no results.... I have been there.
I still say to myself, what the heck are you doing, I could have other things done, and cleaned and not spending so much time in the garden and oh, to have something turn out is an unmeasurable pleasure.

You know you sound like you're doing everything right, amending the soil sounds right on the money....
The type of fertilizer I'm not firmiliar with but numbers seem to be right. (I personally use Shultz 10-60-10, high middle number for flowering and root growth, because I use compost and cowmanuer in the dirt. So I don't need high nitrogen numbers.)
Or a high acid fertilizer just for tomatoes.

The flower drop on your veggies:

Blossoms will also dry up and fall off if plants do not receive enough water, if they're getting excessive nitrogen and receive too much shade. So, that maybe a bit of the problem for that. The shade..........
Plus, if you've put all those ingredients into your dirt, you may not need to put such a high number in on your fertilizer also....
Because you've got the better stuff in your dirt....

I'm not a big bean gardener, although I did grow them one year, and I had a riot doing so. I had green, yellow, and purple.... They were huge, it was the year I companion planted and I really believe I should live on a farm because I tried to shove too much into too small of an area.
but the beans were fun, and carrots are too. But you do need deep penitration for the carrots. Maybe those baby carrots just pick them early.
You could grow peas and lettuce later as it cools, they like cool and a bit of shade. Maybe someone with a wider vegetable background can help you with shade and or fast growing veg's.
I grow tomatoes, 3 kinds of peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, acorn, butternut, pumpkins, lettuce, (leaf and romaine) and sunflowers..... I love radishes, sliced paper thin and salt....
I have been trying something from QVC called "Spray~n~Grow" it's a micronutrient for the plant, not a fertilizer, they say to think of it as a vitamin for your plant. I have just ordered my second bottle of it.
I got my veggie garden in late, (I'm still planting) but have been spraying them in their pots with this and now that I finally have most of them in the ground and they are adapting very well and are filling out within days of planting. Before it would be a while before you'd see growth??? I have only found good results with this, and it's more for the flowers, not the green growth....


I'm not sure, this year I added a bit of peatmoss in the dirt to give it a bit more acidity that the tomato plants like and good water retentions as long as it stays moist.


Anyone else out there with some thoughts on what Ronni can put into the ground?????????

Hope some of this has helped....
Hang in there Ronni!!
Weezie

Ronni,
Are the grass clippings on top of the mulch?
Weezie

Hi Weezie,

I'll respond to you long post in a bit. (Thank you for it though) Wanted to answer the question about if the grass clippings were on top of the mulch. I put them around the veggies, there was no mulch at all there prior. I mulched with grass coz I didn't have any other, and the veggies had already started to do badly, so I figured it couldn't hurt.

Last year I bark mulched all the plants, (no grass clippings at all) then this year when I started planting, that bark mulch pretty much got dug into the soil. I mulched with bark or grass when I was about half done with everything I wanted to plant. Some areas of my flower gardens have grass mulch, other areas bark mulch. There was some overlap I guess, but where I mulched with bark, I didn't mulch with grass. Unless you count the mulch that got dug in from last year, there was no grass clippings on top of the mulch.

Ronni

Ronni,
Sometimes when there is grass clippings on top of dirt, it hardens and dries up and acts as a sheeting over the dirt and doesn't allow water to penetrate into the ground. And that maybe your problem with the falling flowers because of dry conditions. Also sometimes when the grass is decomposting it is stealing nitrogen from your dirt and may also play a factor in flower droppping and leaf curlings??????
Try an experiment, pull back the grass and do like I did with a pop bottle or milk jug or even a funnel, to get the water into the ground and below.... Another just pull back the grass and just water regular there.
Experiment a bit....
Weezie

Hi Weezie,

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I don't know anything really about fertilizer, and all the different numbers and chemicals. I just read labels like crazy, and usually opt for something that's an all-around, all-purpost product which circumvents my ignorance, and also doesn't cost as much as buying individual nutrients.

I think you're right about the shade. I just don't have enough sun, period! I don't know about better stuff in my dirt though. Even though I've dug things into the dirt, it still seems to be so sticky and hard. Lots of earthworms though!

I just discovered an old gentleman down the street who apparently has a huge vegetable garden in the back of his house. He has a small apartment in the basement of his house that he rents out, and one of my son's friends rented it, and gave us as a reference. Mr Jones (the old gentleman) had occasion to call us several days ago, and I discovered then all about his garden. He invited me down and I think I'll go visit today. I'll likely get some good tips from him, and if his garden's as big as he says, I'm sure he has lots of extra vegetables and he might sell me some. If I can't grow my own, the next best thing would be to buy homegown from him, yes?

Plus as a novice gardener, it would be nice to have a mentor on my own block. Not that you all haven't been absolutely wonderful :-) but someone right in my own neighborhood with the same growing conditions as mine would be a help.

Thanks again for all your advice and encouragement. If it weren't for this forum, I'd probably have given up and let the garden fend for itself!

Ronni

Weezie, good idea. I'll experiment. I certainly can't do any more damage than already exists! About the grass clippings--there's no reason I can't dig the clippings into the soil when I'm done with the plants, right? The clippings are good for making better soil arent they?

Ronni