The convenience of planter gardening

My mom and grandma inspired my love of plants long ago when I was a child, and I loved helping them in the garden. When I got my own home, I started out with a few houseplants in simple indoor planters. Soon, I was planting my own vegetable garden, and decorating my home's entry with outdoor planters full of annual flowers. Most recently, we added a window box planter to dress up our plain old garage window, and it is full of red carnations, white Wave petunias, and blue morning glory vines.

No matter how small a space you have outside, you can grow your own flowers, vegetables, and herbs by using containers. Garden planters come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors, including decorative planters and high end planters so you can achieve any look you have in mind for your yard.

Your planter should have a wide opening, and a drainage hole or tray in the bottom. The size of your container depends on what you'll be growing. For example, deep rooted vegetables need a deeper planter. Setting the container on bricks or blocks will allow better drainage. You'll also need to fertilize frequently as the starter soil will soon be depleted of nutrients with frequent watering. Since plants in containers dry out more quickly than plants directly in the ground, I have had good success using polymer moisture crystals in my flower containers. The crystals absorb up to 300 times their own weight, soaking up excess water from around the roots so plants don't get too much water, and then it releases the water back to the plant's roots as the soil dries out.

So if you thought you couldn't have a garden because of limited space, or maybe you think you have a brown thumb, give container gardening a try.

Tips for healthy pepper plants

I love growing my own peppers, both sweet and hot varieties. And did you know that yellow and red bell peppers have a higher Vitamin C content than green peppers? If you're adding pepper plants to your vegetable garden, here are a few tips that can help you maintain healthy plants and get the best yield.

Put your pepper plants in when night time temperatures are no longer below 50 to 55 degrees, as they don't do well in cold wet soil, and cannot tolerate frost. Raised planting beds work well for peppers, as the soil warms sooner and keeps the soil well drained. Pepper plants love the heat, and black plastic mulch is helpful at keeping the plants and soil warm. My personal favorite is aluminum foil covering the soil around each plant. It not only keeps the soil warm, but bounces the sun's rays back up onto the plant, increasing the yield.

Start with good fertile soil, and keep the plants moist throughout the growing season. Hot and dry winds and dry soil can prevent the plants from setting fruit. Pepper plants also appreciate a side dressed fertilizer after the first peppers are set.

If your garden plants are set upon by pests, the following sight provides help for dealing with it naturally:
Natural & Organic Pest Control Solutions for the Garden

Tips for growing better tomatoes

With the danger of front nearing it's end in most parts of the United States, it's time to start planting tomatoes in your garden. A good rule of thumb is when the night temperatures no longer go below 55 degrees, and full leaves have emerged on native trees.

Tomatoes can be grown in a standard garden, raised beds, patio containers or even hanging containers, as long as the plants will receive a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight per day. If space is an issue, consider tomato cages or towers for the plants to climb on.

Soil :
Get your plants off to a good start with healthy soil filled with bacteria, fungus, earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms. Compost is an excellent soil amendment. It's a good idea to test your soil's ph before amending the soil. Cheap "do-it-yourself" ph test kits are available at your garden center. Tomatoes grow best with a ph of 6.5, but will tolerate a range of 5.8 to 7. If your soil tests too acidic, it can be normalized by adding lime, or if too alkaline add some agricultural sulfur.

Location:
Select a different location in your garden from the previous year's tomato plants. This will keep your soil from becoming depleted and also helps reduce the chance of disease and insect problems. Also avoid planting tomatoes where your potato plants were the previous year, as potato blight diseases can linger in the soil and will affect your tomato plants as well.

Planting:
Place the tomato plants in the ground deeper than they come in the pot. I have had great success digging a furrow and laying the plant horizontally, burying it up to it's first true leaves. For example if the plant is 6 inches tall, leave only 3 inches of the plant above the ground. By doing this, the plant will product more roots as the soil is warmer nearer the surface. When the plants are about 3 feet tall, remove leaves from the bottom 1 foot of the plant to avoid fungus problems. Tomatoes grow in harmony with marigolds, parsley, chives, garlic, onions, carrots and peppers.

Watering & Fertilizing:
Water new plants deeply and water on a regular basis while plants are young and more fragile. A fertilizer should be applied once a month. A good natural fertilizer is dried composted manure mixed with bone meal.

Mulching:
Your plants will benefit from mulch to conserve moisture, hold the ground heat in the soil, and help control insect and fungal diseases. My personal favorite mulch is grass clippings (non-chemically treated grass only), but there are many good mulching materials available.

I'll be putting my tomato plants in during the long Memorial Day weekend. Good luck with your tomato plants, and I wish you a great harvest!

Onions for your vegetable garden

Have you ever tried to grow onions in your vegetable garden. You can have a bumper crop of onions by following a few easy steps.

Onions can be started from seed inside, or you can purchase onion sets and plant when the weather warms. CLICK HERE for a zone by zone planting guide. For best results, they need full sun, should be kept moist, and benefit from a raised planting bed. For more information on raised planting beds, see the bottom of this post.

Onions are edible at any stage of their growth, and are ripe and ready for storage when 1/4 to 1/2 of the tops have fallen over and the bulbs have a papery skin. Let the onions cure in a warm, well ventilated area out of the weather for a week or so, then store them in a cool and dry place. Ideal temperature for storing is 32 degrees, but don't allow them to freeze.

For more detailed information on onions, CLICK HERE.

Raised Beds
A raised bed is useful for any vegetable that grows underground, such as potatoes, carrots, and radishes. A raised bed can be accomplished very easily by raking soil from either side of the row to form a raised area, leaving a trench on either side. It's best to add organic matter such as compost to the soil (ratio of 1/2 soil to 1/2 compost). The bed should be approximately 6 to 8 inches high, and a foot or so wide, depending on what you are planting. For example, for my onion plants, I made my raised bed 1 foot wide, and planted 3 rows of onions across the bed. The loosened soil of a raised bed makes it easier for the plants to grow, and will warm sooner, allowing an earlier planting time.