My dad has been growing plants for a couple of seasons now and has been telling me all about it. I've grown pretty interested in it and am hoping to get a little advice for myself. I want to start off with tomatoes, and maybe a few herbs. Maybe some kind of peppers. I live on post, Ft Campbell, Zone 7A. I know it's too late to start with a seed but my dad recommended buying a few plants with considerable length on them and transplanting them into a container (which he has provided a few for myself.) My question is.......what should I do? I want to start a new hobby but don't know where to begin.
Your Dad said what I would have said. Find a plant at a garden center, might be too late for tomatoes, but all sorts of herbs are still available. Stick it in a pot of soil, water, make sure it is getting the right amount of sunlight and watch it grow. There should still be pepper plants available too since they are hot weather plants. Plants should come with an instruction tag to let you know how large it will get, how much sun, the botanical name, etc. And you can always just ask here and you will be inundated with information, we like to talk about plants Rosemary is a super easy Herb to grow and goes great with tomatoes in cooking. You can also use the bare stems has skewers when grilling, it gives meat and veggies a great flavor.
Don't get discouraged when you have failures, sometimes it's just a bad plant that didn't have a chance. I have lost a Blue Girl Rose, a Tansy and a Foxglove so far this growing season and it's just the first day of summer
I am definitely willing to embrace the fact that not every plant will survive. It's a learning process that I can't wait to conquer.
I lost many of my turnips this season, contemplating if I should bother trying to plant again since they can grow even in the fall here, but not certain if I should or not. You can always start an indoor herb garden any time of the year as long as your place has decent temperatures and you get some sun That's what I did when i first started planting.
Hi there! I see that no one has warned you yet but BE CAREFUL!!! Gardening is addicting!!! You have come to the right place! There is so much good advice and so many good ideas that you can't go wrong. If a plant fails, well, try a different one. The possibilities are endless
Welcome Dodson. What is your last frost date for the season? I have heard of people putting in their gardens on the 4th of July up here and still getting a nice return. I still have people buying plants to put in, so yes you need plants at this point. Look for shorter maturity days on the label. Don't try any plants that take 80-90 days to get fruit. A lot of the hybrids are ready in a shorter length of time than the heirlooms (not all, but the majority I have seen) Try something like Early Girl, Big Beef, Better Boy, Celebrity. Those are mostly 60-75 days. Make sure your container is BIG, at least a 5 gallon bucket size for a full size tomato. You can try a container called and "Earth Box", too. You will need to google it and find the information. If you use a bucket or similar, if you can make big holes in the bottom so the roots can actually grow down into the ground (plan not to move it) it will do even better. You will need to stake it or support it somehow. Otherwise your tomato will be all over the ground. Fill your bucket/container with potting mix NOT potting soil. Add fertilizer, too. Something like osmocote (the one for vegetables if you can find it) is a great addition as it is slow release and if you aren't always able to take care of it yourself and someone else is watering it and uses plain water it still get fed. Otherwise, plan to use something like miracle grow or similar for vegetables. Keep asking we will keep answering.
How about the average frost date of the Fall? count the days of maturity of the variety you are able to purchase and count the days left on the calender until the Fall frost date. that will help to determine if you have enough time to hopefully get a crop. BTW, I do have celebrity left in flats out by the greenhouse. If you need some PM me your address and I will send you a few.
Dodson, you mentioned herbs and tomatoes. I understand that Basil is a good herb to have near tomatoes. For what it's worth, I always set a couple of Marigolds near my tomato plants. They supposedly keep pests away.
Dodson... I forgot about the few dwarf varieties I have out in the greenhouse. I was watering this morning and I thought about you. I have some leftover tomatoes from a project, that I don't need. They aren't (most of them, anyway) released to the public, so they wont be familiar to you. I have a green when ripe one, a big beautiful yellow one and maybe something else. You may get a surprise when you have ripe fruit. You may need to post a picture and ask me what it is, I had a few volunteers and I won't know what they are until they ripen. You are welcome to them, you just need to PM your address. These tomatoes are being developed specifically for container gardening. They will need a cage or a stake, but grow shorter or smaller than most garden varieties.
Since you are on base,, do you have an area for flowers ? Lettuce comes in many different colors and shapes. Maybe you could work those in with the flowers. I had a romaine type this year and when it got older it looked like a mini Christmas tree. ?They will bolt quickly in summer heat but you can still get lots of salad greens before it does if you keep it picked.
