when you think of it, growing something is just a plant (or seed), good dirt, a container to hold the dirt and plant, sufficient water and sun. Where things go wrong are usually neglect, critters, disease or weather.

Watch/read your plants - they usually tell you when something is wrong - and act accordingly.

Each year is so different, and even the most experienced, "best" gardeners have rough seasons (last year was my worst in 22 years living here)...weather related, which triggered diseases.

good luck! I am just getting mine planted.

a few years ago, I would have thought you were crazy. I don't have to travel anymore, though, so now I can come home and actually do things like grow a garden. My dad has always grown vegetables, and it is now something we do together. I can tell he is proud when he walks over and looks at our work .

It really is a good thing to bring people together.

The garlic that survived the winter is uncurling, starting to look better, even if only about half made it through. My snow peas are a few inches high, the cucumbers have just broken the surface, and I only got pumpkin seeds into the ground a couple of days ago. Some of the sunflowers are 4-5 inches high already, though, and I've got strawberries flowering (and spreading out into areas I normally mow). And I still haven't gotten the beans in yet.

Going with dad out to a garden supplier type this morning; he wants to pick up some pre-started tomatoes and peppers and whatnot for the bed he put in.

I learned a cool tip from NRaleighLiberal, which I will repeat here. You can put tomatoes and eggplant (peppers, too) in those plain 'ole blacks pots that come from the nursery and given some compost, they will do very well. The roots love that warmth that's absorbed into the driveway.

Now this being NJ, we are known for our asphalt, even though our slogan is "The Garden State." I have a large area of asphalt and have been happily growing peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes under these circumstances, even though I have 14 raised beds in another part of my property

So congrats on your garden, Aerows! Let us know how the lettuce is doing.


Cher

and that you are having time to spend with your father doing something that he loves too.

I don't believe in green thumbs. I believe that everyone can do just as well if they don't neglect their plants...although some years, everyone will do just as crappy. Conditions can be brutal. I don't know how people make a living farming without ulcers.

I was trying to grow lettuce and something dug it all up. I think it was armadillos, but I can't be sure. It sure dug big holes, though, that's why dad suggested and helped me switch them to pots. I even have an icky old bell pepper plant growing just for him (and even though I don't like it's fruits - my least favorite food of any sort - it is doing well LOL).

I always plant it in window boxes because of critters. I am hoping that we are finally safe from heavy frost, but I am not close to ready to put in anything else. Calling for 36 degrees tonight.

And as to those bell peppers----yummy, I love them. I eat them like apples. I put them in so many foods. I stuff them. But fresh and raw is best!

Then one morning I went out to look at it and all of the ones forming heads had been dug around and left wilting there .

That's why I'm doing pots. I may get another box and try again with the lettuce. I have my hands full right now, though, with what I have. I REALLY wanted to grow some lettuce though.