Gardening

[Tennesseer]

Saw this article this morning.

Farmer busts common plant-growing myth that many home gardeners still believe: ‘You may have saved our peppers’

Baking soda is a miracle worker with DIY hacks and solutions to fix almost any household problem, but according to one TikToker, its superpowers extend to your garden too.

In a viral TikTok video, Noah Young (@theshilohfarm) busted common baking soda myths and shared three genius ways it can actually benefit your tomatoes and ensure a bountiful harvest.

The scoop
Some believe adding baking soda to your tomatoes will make them sweeter and kill weeds, but Young is here to set the record straight. While those tips are myths, Young has three baking soda techniques that actually work.

“Here’s three reasons we use baking soda on our tomatoes,” Young explained.

His first tip is to apply a solution of baking soda and water on your tomato plants to prevent blight, a plant disease caused by bacteria or fungi.

Plants like tomatoes, potatoes, and apples are susceptible to blight, which can induce withering, browning, or dying of parts or the entire plant. This baking soda solution will increase the surface acidity of the plants, killing and preventing blight.

Young’s next baking soda hack will protect your plants from pests. He sprinkles baking soda over his plants, which kills common pests like aphids, snails, and slugs that will feast on your crops.

His third and final tip addresses powdery mildew, a fungal disease that will contaminate your plants and impact their growth, quality, and yield. Young creates a tonic with one tablespoon of baking soda, half a teaspoon of dish soap, and a gallon of water, and sprays the solution on his plants.

Rest of article here: Farmer busts common plant-growing myth that many home gardeners still believe: ‘You may have saved our peppers’

[ken a.k.a OMK]

Good article Tennesseer but I disagree with this statement because baking soda is a strong base, not acid.

This baking soda solution will increase the surface acidity of the plants, killing and preventing blight

[Tennesseer]

Aug 5, 2023 11:17:49 GMT -5 ken a.k.a OMK said:

Good article Tennesseer but I disagree with this statement because baking soda is a strong base, not acid.

This baking soda solution will increase the surface acidity of the plants, killing and preventing blight

As I don't grow veggies, if someone wants to try it out, they can get back to us.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

He was correct on using it but it increases the alkalinity, not acidly, and kills spores that cause all the diseases. Mix it with a little vegetable oil of dish detergent to help it stick to the leaves. Better than chemicals because it doesn't affect eating the crop.

[happyhoix]

Aug 3, 2023 18:00:50 GMT -5 MarionTh230 said:

I have a black snake that apparently likes watermelon plants. 2 years in a row now he's been hanging out with the watermelon. 

Well, now I know what I’m never ever growing. 

[happyhoix]

Aug 4, 2023 15:57:52 GMT -5 MarionTh230 said:

I won't let DH buy plants.  We start seeds around here!  He has been keeping a close eye on the seedlings.  If we can find time before it gets too terribly hot tomorrow, I'll let him plant the next swath in his summer bed.

You’re a much better gardener than I am!!! Most of my plants grown from seeds remain puny their whole lives (except for the cukes and cantaloupes). I would never have tomatoes if I didn’t buy the plants at the nursery. Once, I bought some tulip bulbs that looked cool in the catalog (the #1 worst reason to buy a plant) and not a single one of the 6 bulbs I got sprouted. Rotted right in the ground.

Then there was that time I bought some begonia tubers and planted them in pots. I got the bright idea that I wasn’t fertilizing my plants enough and started adding fertilizer every time I watered them with my watering can. After a few weeks, when they sprouted, they had the most bizarre shaped leaves - kind of like long thin stalks with circular leaves at the top (like Dr Seuss plants). Not at all like begonias. I finally realized I was poisoning them with too much fertilizer, flushed them out with tons of fresh water, and just watered with only water after that - they mustered regular leaves and even some flowers, but remained dismal the rest of the season.

Some of us just don’t have green thumbs. Doesn’t stop me from trying - when I retire in a couple years we’re going to relocate to a house with a smaller yard and I’m going to get some of those waist high planters and maybe a small green house, and limit myself to that and pots. I think if I have a smaller garden spaces and more time I can do better.

[MarionTh230]

I am taking a break and sulking. I just found out DH whacked half of one of my gardenias a couple weeks ago when he was clearing the fence line. 4 or 5 huge branches. I'm so mad I could whack him in the head with that pole saw right about now.

[weltschmerz]

Aug 5, 2023 11:56:20 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Aug 4, 2023 15:57:52 GMT -5 MarionTh230 said:

I won't let DH buy plants.  We start seeds around here!  He has been keeping a close eye on the seedlings.  If we can find time before it gets too terribly hot tomorrow, I'll let him plant the next swath in his summer bed.

You’re a much better gardener than I am!!! Most of my plants grown from seeds remain puny their whole lives (except for the cukes and cantaloupes). I would never have tomatoes if I didn’t buy the plants at the nursery. Once, I bought some tulip bulbs that looked cool in the catalog (the #1 worst reason to buy a plant) and not a single one of the 6 bulbs I got sprouted. Rotted right in the ground.

Then there was that time I bought some begonia tubers and planted them in pots. I got the bright idea that I wasn’t fertilizing my plants enough and started adding fertilizer every time I watered them with my watering can. After a few weeks, when they sprouted, they had the most bizarre shaped leaves - kind of like long thin stalks with circular leaves at the top (like Dr Seuss plants). Not at all like begonias. I finally realized I was poisoning them with too much fertilizer, flushed them out with tons of fresh water, and just watered with only water after that - they mustered regular leaves and even some flowers, but remained dismal the rest of the season.

Some of us just don’t have green thumbs. Doesn’t stop me from trying - when I retire in a couple years we’re going to relocate to a house with a smaller yard and I’m going to get some of those waist high planters and maybe a small green house, and limit myself to that and pots. I think if I have a smaller garden spaces and more time I can do better.

No, no, no!   I fertilize my plants twice in the summer and that's it.

[happyhoix]

Aug 5, 2023 14:29:52 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Aug 5, 2023 11:56:20 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

You’re a much better gardener than I am!!! Most of my plants grown from seeds remain puny their whole lives (except for the cukes and cantaloupes). I would never have tomatoes if I didn’t buy the plants at the nursery. Once, I bought some tulip bulbs that looked cool in the catalog (the #1 worst reason to buy a plant) and not a single one of the 6 bulbs I got sprouted. Rotted right in the ground.

Then there was that time I bought some begonia tubers and planted them in pots. I got the bright idea that I wasn’t fertilizing my plants enough and started adding fertilizer every time I watered them with my watering can. After a few weeks, when they sprouted, they had the most bizarre shaped leaves - kind of like long thin stalks with circular leaves at the top (like Dr Seuss plants). Not at all like begonias. I finally realized I was poisoning them with too much fertilizer, flushed them out with tons of fresh water, and just watered with only water after that - they mustered regular leaves and even some flowers, but remained dismal the rest of the season.

Some of us just don’t have green thumbs. Doesn’t stop me from trying - when I retire in a couple years we’re going to relocate to a house with a smaller yard and I’m going to get some of those waist high planters and maybe a small green house, and limit myself to that and pots. I think if I have a smaller garden spaces and more time I can do better.

No, no, no!   I fertilize my plants twice in the summer and that's it.

Well you tell me that now 😁

Where were you when I was torturing that poor poor begonia.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 5, 2023 14:37:55 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Aug 5, 2023 14:29:52 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

No, no, no!   I fertilize my plants twice in the summer and that's it.

Well you tell me that now 😁

Where were you when I was torturing that poor poor begonia.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

Just trimmed some Crepe Myrtle branches that were hitting the garage and some Beech tree branches that were almost touching the ground. Found milkweed aphids on my butterfly weed. You can rub them off between your finger and thumb but they stain your skin orange. Might pour some alcohol on them.
ETA also found milkweed beetles. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Aug 5, 2023 13:15:06 GMT -5 MarionTh230 said:

I am taking a break and sulking. I just found out DH whacked half of one of my gardenias a couple weeks ago when he was clearing the fence line. 4 or 5 huge branches. I'm so mad I could whack him in the head with that pole saw right about now.

You have earned the break and the sulking!
My husband cut down my irisis that were along a fence line during a mowing session. 
It was 14 years ago, and I'm still upset about it. 

[happyhoix]

Aug 6, 2023 11:36:19 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Aug 5, 2023 13:15:06 GMT -5 MarionTh230 said:

I am taking a break and sulking. I just found out DH whacked half of one of my gardenias a couple weeks ago when he was clearing the fence line. 4 or 5 huge branches. I'm so mad I could whack him in the head with that pole saw right about now.

You have earned the break and the sulking!
My husband cut down my irisis that were along a fence line during a mowing session. 
It was 14 years ago, and I'm still upset about it. 

My husband ran his riding lawn mower right up into the corner of my raised bed. Hooked a tire right up into the corner of it. Squished a tomato and tore up the corner of the planter. 

The man had two acres of space. Nothing around the raised beds at all. He wasn’t even trying to drive on a curve - it was a straight shot right past the bed. Just hung a right directly into the corner, and got it stuck there. 

I still get mad every time I weed that raised bed. 

[NoNamePerson]

Aug 5, 2023 14:37:55 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Aug 5, 2023 14:29:52 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

No, no, no!   I fertilize my plants twice in the summer and that's it.

Well you tell me that now 😁

Where were you when I was torturing that poor poor begonia.

I use Osmocote fertilizer. I am the laziest gardening here! It’s kinda like that cooking thing where you set it and forget it.   

[MarionTh230]

Aug 6, 2023 8:59:50 GMT -5 ken a.k.a OMK said:

Just trimmed some Crepe Myrtle branches that were hitting the garage and some Beech tree branches that were almost touching the ground. Found milkweed aphids on my butterfly weed. You can rub them off between your finger and thumb but they stain your skin orange. Might pour some alcohol on them.
ETA also found milkweed beetles. 

Oh no!  Are there any ways to treat them that don't affect the monarchs?  Probably not?  That freaking blows big time 

[MarionTh230]

I am still upset about the gardenia.  Half the freaking bush is gone.  It looks terrible.  I'm trying to be optimistic because it is an old and mature and established bush.  Realistically, I am 99.99% sure it will survive the whacking.  But, still, it looks like crap now.  Anyways.

There are things happening in the summer bed.  I think one more round of planting this weekend will fill it?  DH asked for a bell pepper and an heirloom tomato.  Those are two of the seedlings going in this weekend.  I don't have high hopes.  Even being this far south with an extended growing season, the chances of those two plants making harvest are quite slim.  But, that's what he wanted so I germinated the seeds and grew the seedlings.  I didn't argue too much with him because I figured the best way to do this was to let him learn by experience.  Which means, there will be failures sometimes.  I am sort of walking this fine line between giving him the best advice I have versus letting him figure it out himself.  It's tricky.

I put my first round of tomatoes in pots in February.  I pulled those and put a second round in late June/early July?  Before the 4th of July.  That's about right for down here.  I was a little early in February which put me a little early in for the replant.  But, planting a mid-August round of tomatoes (and peppers) is dicey down here.  Late July is really the more reasonable cutoff.  I have done late re-plantings before in pots, but, I can cheat with pots.  If we get some early season cold weather, I can cover the plants and/or move them inside if they are in pots.  Being in the raised bed, the best I can do for DH is cover them if it goes that way.  So be it.  It was one seed each and both germinated so one pepper and one tomato plant isn't exactly worth the argument.

It is hotter than ever.  I didn't think the heat could get worse, but it did.  I can't do anything with my existing plants because it's so hot.  My flowering plants that appreciate the heat aren't even flowering.  That is the first year that has ever happened in the 12 years we have been in this house.  It's bad.  Needless to day, DH's fall bed didn't get finished last weekend like was originally planned.

DH is still babysitting seedlings.  I had germinated everything with an 8/15 drop dead planting date in mind.  Not real clear on how much longer some of these seedlings can go without being planted.  Worse case scenario, I'll just have him direct sow before or around September 1st.  Again, he needs the experience so rolling with whatever weather Mother Nature throws at us is part of that experience.  

I have two bell pepper plants in pots.  One is because I always have a bell pepper.  I picked a variety that thrives in pots and gives me the peppers I want with the yield that suits my cooking needs.  I typically end up with the right amount of peppers from that plant for cooking.  The second one is because DH wanted "bigger" bell peppers.  Ok, fine.  I've been growing that second plant for him for a couple of years now.  DH does all my picking of the ripe fruits.  Apparently it is quite difficult to see all those green bell peppers in those lush green plants.  I told him he was a bad farmer!  I sent him back 3 times to finish picking all the peppers he missed.  It was entertaining.  As much as I fuss and complain about the work, DH really does pitch in and he does enjoy growing things.  

Maybe my mood will improve if the temps ever move out of the 90's and the heat indices go below 100.  May have to wait until October for that at the rate we are going though.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 6, 2023 15:04:40 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Aug 6, 2023 11:36:19 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

You have earned the break and the sulking!
My husband cut down my irisis that were along a fence line during a mowing session. 
It was 14 years ago, and I'm still upset about it. 

My husband ran his riding lawn mower right up into the corner of my raised bed. Hooked a tire right up into the corner of it. Squished a tomato and tore up the corner of the planter. 

The man had two acres of space. Nothing around the raised beds at all. He wasn’t even trying to drive on a curve - it was a straight shot right past the bed. Just hung a right directly into the corner, and got it stuck there. 

I still get mad every time I weed that raised bed. 

I think I might have all of you beat. I never knew what an iris was until my second year here and I saw these beautiful, white, delicate looking flowers blooming, and I didn’t know what they were. Even after I learned that they were irises, it took some more months for me to be sitting in my bed one night and realize that the big ass painting I bought before I even noticed what was blooming in one of my flowerbeds….. just because I just had to have it because the flower was so pretty to me, and had hung it in a few places in my house until I hung it in my bedroom, where it’s been since then, was the same darn flower I had become so enthralled with in one of my flower beds. Talk about a DUH moment lol.

So guess what happened this spring. Mister sprayed some stuff in that flowerbed and killed all the flowers. I was upset that he killed the daylilies and salvia I’d planted a couple years before, but I actually wanted to cry because he’d killed the irises that were already there before we moved in. There were a couple outside of that flowerbed, on Mr. T’s property that were a maroon color when they bloomed, and Mr. T had already killed those. I was very, very upset when I realized Mister had killed MINE by just spraying herbicides indiscriminately in that flowerbed. Like I said, I was upset enough that he killed the stuff I’d bought and planted myself, but I was beyond upset about the irises.

He is already on notice that I will be hitting his pockets and expecting him to do the work to replace what he killed!

[finnime]

That's a crime. I love irises.

[happyhoix]

Aug 10, 2023 19:17:29 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

Aug 6, 2023 15:04:40 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

My husband ran his riding lawn mower right up into the corner of my raised bed. Hooked a tire right up into the corner of it. Squished a tomato and tore up the corner of the planter. 

The man had two acres of space. Nothing around the raised beds at all. He wasn’t even trying to drive on a curve - it was a straight shot right past the bed. Just hung a right directly into the corner, and got it stuck there. 

I still get mad every time I weed that raised bed. 

I think I might have all of you beat. I never knew what an iris was until my second year here and I saw these beautiful, white, delicate looking flowers blooming, and I didn’t know what they were. Even after I learned that they were irises, it took some more months for me to be sitting in my bed one night and realize that the big ass painting I bought before I even noticed what was blooming in one of my flowerbeds….. just because I just had to have it because the flower was so pretty to me, and had hung it in a few places in my house until I hung it in my bedroom, where it’s been since then, was the same darn flower I had become so enthralled with in one of my flower beds. Talk about a DUH moment lol.

So guess what happened this spring. Mister sprayed some stuff in that flowerbed and killed all the flowers. I was upset that he killed the daylilies and salvia I’d planted a couple years before, but I actually wanted to cry because he’d killed the irises that were already there before we moved in. There were a couple outside of that flowerbed, on Mr. T’s property that were a maroon color when they bloomed, and Mr. T had already killed those. I was very, very upset when I realized Mister had killed MINE by just spraying herbicides indiscriminately in that flowerbed. Like I said, I was upset enough that he killed the stuff I’d bought and planted myself, but I was beyond upset about the irises.

He is already on notice that I will be hitting his pockets and expecting him to do the work to replace what he killed!

Oh dear. I think he did win the Worst Gardeners Husband award.

Is there stuff growing there now or are you going to have to replace the soil?

[happyhoix]

I have a circular compost bin. A tomato is growing out of a crack in the side. It’s in the shade, growing upside down, and is far more green and verdant than the tomatoes I bought and planted in the raised beds.

I think the heat has been brutal on my raised beds, which are in direct sunlight most of the day. The cuke leaves have turned white.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 12, 2023 12:48:34 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Aug 10, 2023 19:17:29 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

I think I might have all of you beat. I never knew what an iris was until my second year here and I saw these beautiful, white, delicate looking flowers blooming, and I didn’t know what they were. Even after I learned that they were irises, it took some more months for me to be sitting in my bed one night and realize that the big ass painting I bought before I even noticed what was blooming in one of my flowerbeds….. just because I just had to have it because the flower was so pretty to me, and had hung it in a few places in my house until I hung it in my bedroom, where it’s been since then, was the same darn flower I had become so enthralled with in one of my flower beds. Talk about a DUH moment lol.

So guess what happened this spring. Mister sprayed some stuff in that flowerbed and killed all the flowers. I was upset that he killed the daylilies and salvia I’d planted a couple years before, but I actually wanted to cry because he’d killed the irises that were already there before we moved in. There were a couple outside of that flowerbed, on Mr. T’s property that were a maroon color when they bloomed, and Mr. T had already killed those. I was very, very upset when I realized Mister had killed MINE by just spraying herbicides indiscriminately in that flowerbed. Like I said, I was upset enough that he killed the stuff I’d bought and planted myself, but I was beyond upset about the irises.

He is already on notice that I will be hitting his pockets and expecting him to do the work to replace what he killed!

Oh dear. I think he did win the Worst Gardeners Husband award.

Is there stuff growing there now or are you going to have to replace the soil?

That’s the bed DS cam and cleaned out, so there is nothing growing there now, except for a crape myrtle tree. Besides that one tree, it is a blank slate now, and  I have to figure out what to do with it.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 12, 2023 12:52:16 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I have a circular compost bin. A tomato is growing out of a crack in the side. It’s in the shade, growing upside down, and is far more green and verdant than the tomatoes I bought and planted in the raised beds.

I think the heat has been brutal on my raised beds, which are in direct sunlight most of the day. The cuke leaves have turned white.

From what I’ve been reading in gardening groups on FB, it seems like the unexpected volunteers fare better than the planned crops.

[Pink Cashmere]

My tomato plants have cooties now. It went from zero to 60 in a matter of days. There are a bunch of new babies growing, but I’m almost over those plants anyway. 

Mister picked 8 tomatoes off of them for me today, that were starting to turn red. I have what feels like a million tomatoes in my kitchen right now. In reality, it’s a few dozen, in various stages of ripening. I’m off work tomorrow, so I will do something with the ripe ones tomorrow, and freeze them one way or another. I will dice the Better Boys, and I guess roast the Romas, and maybe go ahead and make them into tomato sauce. Maybe. 

I am still all over the place with wanting to try to grow something this fall. The only thing I know for sure that I’m going to try is turnip greens. Everything I’ve read says I need to start them around this time, but I saw a FB post today in a gardening group that lives in the same part of the state I live in, and they said that if I want to grow them just for the greens and not the turnips themselves, to wait until next month to plant them, to reduce the chances of bugs nibbling on the leaves. I just want the leaves, to cook turnip greens. I remember my Grandmother use to cook turnips when I was a child, but I don’t remember liking them, and Mister said he doesn’t like them, so I just want the leaves. 

It gets really confusing to me, trying to figure out what to do and when to do it.

[MarionTh230]

The problem with fall plantings is trying to guess first frost and freeze dates. Greens are usually pretty cold hardy which helps. Bugs do like them very much. If I was planting greens down here where I'm at, I would wait. The bugs are still very bad here and they'd likely get devoured by insects too easily. And knowing how our weather goes, I would still feel like I'm in a comfortable window to harvest even by waiting. But, I'm further south than you so there is that.

Determining when to plant isn't confusing. It's a flat out guessing game! Average frost and freeze dates help, but as the weather patterns become more extreme and unpredictable it really is nothing more than guessing.

[Pink Cashmere]

Aug 13, 2023 21:04:13 GMT -5 MarionTh230 said:

The problem with fall plantings is trying to guess first frost and freeze dates. Greens are usually pretty cold hardy which helps. Bugs do like them very much. If I was planting greens down here where I'm at, I would wait. The bugs are still very bad here and they'd likely get devoured by insects too easily. And knowing how our weather goes, I would still feel like I'm in a comfortable window to harvest even by waiting. But, I'm further south than you so there is that.

Determining when to plant isn't confusing. It's a flat out guessing game! Average frost and freeze dates help, but as the weather patterns become more extreme and unpredictable it really is nothing more than guessing.

I’ve not yet dealt with bugs like the horror stories I’ve seen in the FB gardening groups I’m in. But bugs have definitely gotten to my tomatoes, which is one of the reasons why so many of them have been so ugly this year. I was so focused on how the squirrels ate all my perfect, pretty tomatoes last year, that the bugs crept up on me this year. I’m just considering that a learning lesson.

Trying to avoid bug issues is why I tried to grow my lettuce and spinach inside, but then I had gnats from the plants I kept and tried to keep alive from Mister’s Mom’s funeral, and I ended up just throwing the lettuce and spinach, and soil away. Those plants also have powdery or downy mildew, something white and powdery on their leaves, and I don’t really want to those plants too, but I don’t want that to spread to my other houseplants. One of my houseplants is a corn plant that I’ve managed to keep alive for about 12 years now, I’d rather get rid of the newer plants than risk that one, or even the others I have, but it’s kind of a sensitive situation regarding throwing the newer plants away. I’ve been trying to treat them, but so far, it doesn’t seem to be working. 

Gardening seems to have become more difficult even for experienced gardeners lately, because of changes in weather patterns and whatnot. I see a lot of posts in the FB groups I am in, from experienced gardeners talking about that. I have always had a black thumb to start with, so I guess if I don’t get credit for anything else, I should get credit for being persistent because I keep trying, even though I don’t have much luck or many skills lol.

[happyhoix]

Aug 13, 2023 20:36:01 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

My tomato plants have cooties now. It went from zero to 60 in a matter of days. There are a bunch of new babies growing, but I’m almost over those plants anyway. 

Mister picked 8 tomatoes off of them for me today, that were starting to turn red. I have what feels like a million tomatoes in my kitchen right now. In reality, it’s a few dozen, in various stages of ripening. I’m off work tomorrow, so I will do something with the ripe ones tomorrow, and freeze them one way or another. I will dice the Better Boys, and I guess roast the Romas, and maybe go ahead and make them into tomato sauce. Maybe. 

I am still all over the place with wanting to try to grow something this fall. The only thing I know for sure that I’m going to try is turnip greens. Everything I’ve read says I need to start them around this time, but I saw a FB post today in a gardening group that lives in the same part of the state I live in, and they said that if I want to grow them just for the greens and not the turnips themselves, to wait until next month to plant them, to reduce the chances of bugs nibbling on the leaves. I just want the leaves, to cook turnip greens. I remember my Grandmother use to cook turnips when I was a child, but I don’t remember liking them, and Mister said he doesn’t like them, so I just want the leaves. 

It gets really confusing to me, trying to figure out what to do and when to do it.

In my area, they plant pansies and ornamental cabbage in the fall. They overwinter well - but that’s in my area.

[Pink Cashmere]

So what do you all do with your garden beds after the season is done? My tomatoes are in a large container. Once I pull the plants, do I just let it sit as is until next year when I add more soil and compost for spring planting? 

[weltschmerz]

Aug 14, 2023 14:17:27 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

So what do you all do with your garden beds after the season is done? My tomatoes are in a large container. Once I pull the plants, do I just let it sit as is until next year when I add more soil and compost for spring planting? 

I don't have beds, but I do have containers and window boxes. I let the soil sit until spring, and then I add a  lot of sheep manure.
My plants seem to like it.

[Tennesseer]

Aug 14, 2023 14:17:27 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

So what do you all do with your garden beds after the season is done? My tomatoes are in a large container. Once I pull the plants, do I just let it sit as is until next year when I add more soil and compost for spring planting? 

You might want to put a couple inches of mulch over the bare soil. Over winter, the mulch will block weeds and add some nutrients to the soil too.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Brought these in from my cutting beds.
The zucchini is flourishing. I’m about to go make bread with it.
We’re on our third cuCumber.
I have a whole bunch of green tomatoes—hoping they turn red soon.
We have picked two green bell peppers and two more are almost ready.