What about fertilizing ? I was told to put down the required amount, I think it was miracle grow time release type, my garden is fair at best, I bought select garden dirt that pretty much looked like mulch, it is about 12 inches deep and has good drainage, should I be fertilizing more ?

No, probably watering more...Can you take pictures and post them?

I always use fertilizer. The mulch could still be composting which will take up the nitrogen.

The place I bought the garden fill from did mention to put nitrogen down and then after 30 days use whatever fertilizer you want, would some more miracle grow be a good choice ?

Anything with all three numbers will do. The first number is nitrogen. We always put more than needed in there anyway.

Well, the cucumbers are doing great. Got to do a little pickling this weekend and the vines are loaded with little 1" to 1 1/2" cucumbers so later this week will be a busy time. Jalapenos are looking great and I picked enough to can this weekend too. The bell peppers are doing nicely as well. Picked a couple of good sized ones this weekend. Odd story. I "thought" I had purchased red and yellow bell peppers. I have 1 bush that produced a purple bell pepper. Never seen antyhing like it so I looked them up. Yep, they exist. I guess someone put the plant in the wrong container. Oh well. But my roma tomatoes are ticking me off. I had blooms like crazy and about 20 little ping pong ball size tomatoes growing. Then I noticed the bottoms were turning brown and looked to be rotting. Hmmm. I ended up picking most of them off, some still looked okay. I researched a bit and the thing I read said it could be from uneven watering, letting the soil get too try then too wet instead of a consistent moisture content. I water about every 4 days unless we get rain so that seemed odd. It also mentioned having a ph imbalance, sorry not a chemist so I'm not sure how to check that. Could also be too much nitrogen and mentioned using fertilizer with more phospherous. These are growing in big pots (tubs) and I used a gardening soil from the nursery and mixed in some cow manure. Have sprayed with Miracle grow once, about a month ago. Maybe the manure had too much nitrogen but it hasn't seemd to bother the other plants, just my tomatoes.

Sounds like you have blossom end rot on your tomatoes. Not much you can do this year. You need a source of calcium. I put lime in there for that before I plant. It seems to work.

You might get some good tomatoes later.

Yep, that's what it looks like. I'm just going to let them do their thing and see if it can work thru it at some point.

With all the heat we've been experiencing recently, it is time to start watering early in the morning or late in the evening...You will also need to increase the watering time to help keep the plants from burning up...

Got another newbie question. When do you pick your cucumbers? I've got a few that are close to 10" long but don't look ready yet. Do I wait until it looks ready or will it get tough if I wait too long? Should I pick them at a certain size or does it not matter? Thanks again for everyone's help.

It honestly depends on the kind of cucumbers you planted...I'd assume 10" is plenty ready (I pick some at 6" to 8" and another variety at 10" to 12")...Some can get bigger and not be too seedy (the seeds get harder the larger the cucumber gets)...I'd pick one now and then let one or 2 grow to the size you would consider 'ready' and see which one is better...

Here's the latest addition to the garden.

I had to figure out a way to get the chickens from the coop to the side of my house so that they couldn't get to the garden.



Got some bamboo from a friend.


75% of this wood came out of someone's trash.


Put a little gate to close them up at night.

Crafty. I like it.

Very nice indeed...

Here is what I harvested today...



11 zucchini squash, 2 yellow squash, 4 cucumbers, 1 Cubanelle and 1 Gypsy pepper.

Good job on the early harvest! I'm getting banana peppers, tomatoes and blackberries right now and everything else is looking good. I found a mulberry tree about 3 blocks away and asked if they minded me harvesting them(side of the house).....been there 3x so far and they're awesome my 3 yr old is painted purple.

Thank the Lord for my water well.

Went out to water the garden yesterday evening and my potatoes looked llike a hurricane had moved through, almost all the leaves were gone, they were full of bugs, I put dust on them, will they be ok ?

I had a green worm attack on my potatoes too. I dusted em right away. We shall see...

I just built my wife a nice flower bed in the front yard. How do I keep my labs out of it? It's in the shade with fresh tilled dirt so they want to lay in it. They have mashed all of her newly planted flowers and dug.

How can i keep them out?????

Cayenne pepper will work on some dogs...I have a Shih Tzu that loves to eat the flowers off of marigolds and zinnias..

Seems like Wal Mart use to carry a powder you could sprinkle in. Anyone know if it works?

Another question. Just picked up a soaker hose.

I want to use it on squash, tomatoes and corn. How long (in minutes or hours) do I leave it for each species? Getting pretty dry.