13 Do’s & Do Not’s of Growing Tomatoes

http://gardeningjones.com/blog/2013/05/05/dos-donts-of-growing-tomatoes/

5 May 2013, by gj

Don’t
Purchase seedlings that have flowers on them. You may think you are getting a head start, but really what the plants need to do first is establish their roots, not produce babies. Let them get settled in.

Do
If you started your own plants and they are budding, pinch those flowers off. Really, you’ll get more fruit in the long run.

The tomatoes are ready, is the soil?

Don’t
Over fertilize. It’s fine to give your plants some good healthy compost, but take it easy on the fertilizer. Too much will grow wonderful bushy and green, albeit unproductive, plants. Same goes for your peppers by the way.

Do
Give them a bit of Epsom salts. They love that stuff. If they don’t need it, it won’t hurt. It is good to have it as a preventative measure to help grow healthier plants.

Do
Plant your transplants very deep. ‘Up to their necks’ is what the farmers say. This way they will grow a great root system, as mentioned above. The better the roots, the more productive the plants will then be.

Ready to rumble.

Don’t
Water from above, if you can help it. This can cause soil to splash up on the stems, making them more prone to disease. Try to use a soaker hose whenever possible with tomatoes.

Do
Mulch, especially if you are watering from above. This helps prevent that soil splash just mentioned, as well as holds the moisture your tomatoes may need.

Do
Put in the stakes you are going to use for support at the same time you plant. You don’t want to go back later and start damaging those roots you both worked so hard for.

Do
Know what type of tomato you are growing. If it’s a ‘determinate’ type, it may suddenly stop producing. Learn more by following the link at the end of this post.

Don’t
Stress it. Are you feeling over run with tomatoes? Are you concerned about fruit flies in your kitchen? Simply wash some of those tomatoes off and toss them in the freezer. When you have time, thaw to use. A bonus: the skins will slip right off after defrosting.

Happy in their cloched bed.

Do
Enjoy a variety if you have the room. Roma and plum tomatoes are best for preserving, slicing types for fresh eating, and of course cherry tomatoes for snacking. Plant tomatoes based on how you intend to use them.

Don’t
plant them outside before the soil temperature is 50F. How warm the soil has become is a function of how close the sun is, the depth, and how much sunshine the area gets. Surface soil can feel warm but 6 inches down it can still be quite cold. Some gardeners plant their tomatoes out when the overnight lows are consistently above 50F. Not the same thing, but close.

Tomatoes under glass.

Do
speed up the process by covering the area with black plastic, and turning the soil over every so often. If you plant early, keep those heat loving tomatoes warm through the use of cloches.
In a pinch, canning jars will do the trick, just don’t let the plants get fried. That’s for the green fruit.

Raised Garden Beds with Corrugated Tin

http://www.finegardening.com/item/8756/and-the-winner-of-aprils-photo-challenge-is

http://ext.homedepot.com/community/blog/meet-the-material-corrugated-sheet-metal-at-home-depot/

TIPS FOR A RAISED-BED VEGETABLE GARDEN

Raised-bed gardening is a great way to grow vegetables -- especially if the garden soil is poor or compacted or has poor drainage. And there's no bending over to pull weeds or harvest vegetables.

Raised beds take very little space, and can be built right over a concrete patio. Drainage in a raised bed is superior to that in an in-ground garden bed. A 12"-deep bed provides ample room for most vegetable roots.

The soil in raised beds warms up more quickly in spring so planting can be done earlier. And if the bed is narrow, 3' or less, there will be no need to step on the soil and thus it prevents compaction. It's much easier for roots to grow in loose soil.

Don't build a raised bed on a wooden deck: when the bed is full of soil and water, its weight could cause structural damage.

If the raised bed sits directly on the soil, line the planting bed with hardware cloth or chicken wire at building time to prevent visits from burrowing animals such as gophers and moles.

The bed may be made of wood, stone, brick, cinder blocks or any other material from which you can build a base at least 12" deep. Choose a location that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight each day. Almost any type of vegetables can be grown in raised beds. Exceptions are potatoes, whose roots need a lot of room, and corn, which would grow so high that harvesting would be difficult.

Here's how to plant a raised bed:

1. Fill the bed with good-quality potting soil or compost, and rake the surface smooth and level. Remove any rocks or debris.

2. Plants in raised beds may be spaced a little closer together because fertilizer and manure can be concentrated in the small gardening area.

3. Plant lettuce by poking holes in the soil with your finger at 6" intervals, and sprinkle a few seeds into each hole. Once the seeds germinate, thin to one seedling per hole.

4. You can also broadcast seeds over the surface of the raised bed. If you plant carrots, apply fine-textured potting soil over the top of the seeds. Carrots will attract some species of butterflies to your raised beds.

5. Cucumbers may be planted along the edge of the raised bed, where they can trail over the side. Cucumbers will grow right on top of your patio.

6. Water the garden well immediately after planting.

http://www.diynetwork.com/outdoors/tips-for-a-raised-bed-vegetable-garden/index.html

Raised Garden Beds: How to Build

Raised garden beds are fairly easy to construct and even easier to maintain. Here is advice on how to build raised garden beds for your backyard.

Benefits of a Raised Garden

• Ideal for smaller spaces (versus a conventional row garden)
• Great for rocky, poor, or abused soil
• Produces a higher yield for the area, thanks to better drainage and deep rooting
• Allows for a longer growing season, since you can work the soil more quickly in the spring in frost-hardened regions
• Makes gardening easier; for example, intensive planting creates shade mulch to keep the weeds down

Raised Beds Video

Here is a fantastic video on How to Use Raised Beds in Your Garden. Click picture below to watch video.

After you finish watching it, click here to try out the online Almanac Garden Planner which has a special raised bed feature.

Construction Tips

Materials

• Many people are concerned about the safely of their wood frame. First, rest assured that CCA pressure-treated wood is banned as it was leaching Arsenic.
• To ensure that the wood lasts, there are several options:
  1) Regular pressure-treated lumber sold today has a mixture of chemicals applied to prevent the moist soil and weather from rotting it. Although pressure-treated wood is certified as safe for organic growing, some people have reservations about using it and there are various eco-friendly alternatives.
  2) More expensive woods such as cedar contain natural oils which prevent rotting and make them much more durable. They are more expensive to buy but they will last many more years.
  3) Choosing thicker boards can make the wood last longer. For example two-inch thick locally-sourced larch should last ten years, even without treatment.
• You could also use concrete blocks or bricks. Remember that concrete will increase the pH in soil over time.
• Some people use railroad ties, however, we would advise against this. Though the very old ones may be fine, newer ties use creosote-treated timber which is toxic.

Planning and Design

• Consider a location that's level and has the right amount of sunlight.
• In terms of bed size, 4 feet is a common width. Lumber is often cut in 4-feet increments, and you also want to be able to access the garden without stepping into the bed.
• Length isn't as important. Plots are often 4 feet wide by 8 feet long or 4 feet wide by 12 feet long.
• The depth of the bed can vary. Six inches is a minimum. Plants need at least a 6- to 12-inch rooting zone, so 12 inches is ideal.
• Before you establish the bed, break up and loosen the soil with a garden fork so that it's not compacted. Go about 6 to 8 inches deep. For improved rooting, some gardeners like to remove the top layer (about a spade's depth), dig down another layer, and then return the top layer and mix the soil layers together.

Building the Bed

We'll speak to timber-built beds in this article since lumber is the most common material used.

• To support timber beds, place wooden stakes at ever corner (and every few feet for long beds). Place on the inside of the bed so that the stakes are less visible.
• Drive the stakes about 60% (2 feet) into the ground and leave the rest of the stakes exposed above ground.
• Ensure that the stakes are level so that they're in the ground at the same height, or you'll have uneven beds.
• Set the lowest boards a couple inches below ground level. Check that they are level.
• Use galvanized nails (or screws) to fix the boards to the stakes.
• Then add any additional rows of boards, fixing them to the stakes, too.

Soil for Raised Beds

• Fill the beds with a mix of topsoil, compost, and other organic material, such as manure, to give your plants a nutrient-rich environment.
• Note that the soil in a raised bed will dry out more quickly. During the spring and fall, this is fine, but during the summer, add straw, mulch, or hay on top of the soil.
• Frequent watering will be critical with raised beds, especially in the early stages of plant growth. Otherwise, raised beds need little maintenance.

Plants for Raised Beds

Almost any crop can be grown in a raised bed. Vegetables are most common, but fruits and even shrubs and trees can be planted, too. Remember that some plants will hang over the edge, so try to think about where you are planting what.

Here's one of many plot plans to consider, courtesy of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

http://www.almanac.com/content/raised-garden-beds-how-build

14 Simple Gardening Tips and Tricks

From using leftover coffee beans to preventing dirt from getting underneath fingernails, master gardener Paul James shares his top 14 tips and shortcuts to make spring gardening a breeze.

Here, the latest tips and tricks from Paul James, host of Gardening by the Yard:

1. To remove the salt deposits that form on clay pots, combine equal parts white vinegar, rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle. Apply the mixture to the pot and scrub with a plastic brush. Let the pot dry before you plant anything in it.

2. To prevent accumulating dirt under your fingernails while you work in the garden, draw your fingernails across a bar of soap and you'll effectively seal the undersides of your nails so dirt can't collect beneath them. Then, after you've finished in the garden, use a nailbrush to remove the soap and your nails will be sparkling clean.

3. To prevent the line on your string trimmer from jamming or breaking, treat with a spray vegetable oil before installing it in the trimmer.

4. Turn a long-handled tool into a measuring stick! Lay a long-handled garden tool on the ground, and next to it place a tape measure. Using a permanent marker, write inch and foot marks on the handle. When you need to space plants a certain distance apart (from just an inch to several feet) you'll already have a measuring device in your hand.

5. To have garden twine handy when you need it, just stick a ball of twine in a small clay pot, pull the end of the twine through the drainage hole, and set the pot upside down in the garden. Do that, and you'll never go looking for twine again.

6. Little clay pots make great cloches for protecting young plants from sudden, overnight frosts and freezes.

7. To turn a clay pot into a hose guide, just stab a roughly one-foot length of steel reinforcing bar into the ground at the corner of a bed and slip two clay pots over it: one facing down, the other facing up. The guides will prevent damage to your plants as you drag the hose along the bed.

8. To create perfectly natural markers, write the names of plants (using a permanent marker) on the flat faces of stones of various sizes and place them at or near the base of your plants.

9. Got aphids? You can control them with a strong blast of water from the hose or with insecticidal soap. But here's another suggestion, one that's a lot more fun; get some tape! Wrap a wide strip of tape around your hand, sticky side out, and pat the leaves of plants infested with aphids. Concentrate on the undersides of leaves, because that's where the little buggers like to hide.

10. The next time you boil or steam vegetables, don't pour the water down the drain, use it to water potted patio plants, and you'll be amazed at how the plants respond to the "vegetable soup."

11. Use leftover tea and coffee grounds to acidify the soil of acid-loving plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, gardenias and even blueberries. A light sprinkling of about one-quarter of an inch applied once a month will keep the pH of the soil on the acidic side.

12. Use chamomile tea to control damping-off fungus, which often attacks young seedlings quite suddenly. Just add a spot of tea to the soil around the base of seedlings once a week or use it as a foliar spray.

13. If you need an instant table for tea service, look no farther than your collection of clay pots and saucers. Just flip a good-sized pot over, and top it off with a large saucer. And when you've had your share of tea, fill the saucer with water, and your "table" is now a birdbath.

14. The quickest way in the world to dry herbs: just lay a sheet of newspaper on the seat of your car, arrange the herbs in a single layer, then roll up the windows and close the doors. Your herbs will be quickly dried to perfection. What's more, your car will smell great.

http://www.hgtv.com/gardening/14-simple-gardening-tips-and-tricks/index.html?soc=sharingfb

What Can You Grow In Mini Raised Garden Beds?

What Can You Grow In Mini Raised Garden Beds?

Anything you'd like!

http://www.artandappetite.com/category/home_decor/

Raised Garden Bed Plans

How to Build a Raised Bed

A simple way to build raised bed frames.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/how-to-build-a-raised-bed

When it came time to build new raised beds for the Organic Gardening Test Garden last spring, the executive director of the Rodale Institute, where our test garden is located, recommended a simple design. Mark Smallwood—“Coach,” as he’s known around the Institute—showed us how to build a raised bed using four pieces of untreated framing lumber, with not a scrap of waste. Each bed requires:

• Three 2-by-12 boards, 8 feet long
• One 2-by-4 board, 8 feet long
• 21/2-inch galvanized deck screws (approximately 28 screws)
   

When purchasing lumber, inspect it for straightness. Straighter boards will result in tighter corners. Cut one of the 2-by-12 boards in half to make two 4-foot lengths; these will be the two end pieces.

Cut the 2-by-4 board into one 4-foot length, to serve as a center brace, and four 1-foot lengths for corner supports. The two uncut boards will become the sides of the raised bed.

After drilling pilot holes, attach one of the side boards to an end board with three evenly spaced screws.

Place one of the corner supports in the angle between the boards and attach it to the side board with three screws. Repeat for the remaining three corners.

Attach the center brace to join the two sides at their midpoints. Use a square to position the brace at a right angle to the sides (5). The brace prevents the sides from bowing outward when the bed is filled with soil.

The finished bed measures 4 feet by 8 feet—a size that makes seed sowing, weeding, and harvesting easy—and raises the planting level by almost a foot. The wood can be stained, if desired. We liked Coach’s raised beds so much, we built 10 of them for the garden. —Doug Hall

Why Garden in Raised Beds?

• The soil can be liberally supplemented with compost and other organic amendments, creating a rich and porous root zone that nurtures plants.
• The bed sides act as an edging, helping to keep out weeds and turfgrass.
• Many gardeners, including those of restricted mobility, find that the slightly higher soil level facilitates maintenance.
• The elevated soil of raised beds drains quickly and doesn’t become waterlogged, and it warms up earlier in spring. (Although those two characteristics are beneficial in cool, rainy climates, gardeners in hot, dry regions may consider them to be negatives.)