Here is what is inside the berries.
Posted on 05/07/2010 6:30:17 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. There are many Freepers from all over the Good Ol’ USA that are willing and eager to help.
I thought a little primer on fertilizers might come in handy this time of year especially to those of you just starting out.
What do the numbers mean?
Every bag or container of commercial fertilizer has a three number code that tells you the percentage that that particular fertilizer has of the "Big Three" nutrients used by plants.
The big three nutrients are, in the order listed on the container:
A bag of fertilizer labeled as 13-13-13 will have equal percentages of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium for a total of 39%; the rest is filler.
Ideally a soil test is needed to determine how much of these nutriments your soil needs.
Also the type of vegetables or plants you are growing may require different percentages of these nutriments to grow or produce successfully. Know your plants needs.
And remember small amounts will go a long way. Don't over fertilize. Too much at one time or too often can overwhelm plant systems and cause problems.
I think the most likely reason companies hide the composition is that you can get “Brand X” fertilizer of the same composition for much less. That is why companies like Miracle Gro try to differentiate themselves by adding “special ingrediants”....
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I noticed that Costco has a nice greenhouse ( 6’ x 8’) delivered to your door for $699. I can’t afford it this year, and (even if I could) I don’t dare ask my husband to assemble it for me. He keeps complaining that he has too many other projects to spend time on mine. And he’s right. But, he never does his other projects. I learned a long time ago that he LIKES unfinished projects laying around. We’ve been married 51 years, so I’m not about to change him now.
LOL about leaving room for walking. I almost got my rows too close together again this year. I have several tomato plants that already grew past the row and had to tie them up with cloth.
I love green mangoes (just before they start ripening) peel slice the flesh off the seed and cut it up like a french fry and sprinkled with a coarse salt and hot pepper flakes or ground cayenne.
When we lived in Hawaii I would pick the mangoes and bring them home and my mother would make mango pies. Yum!
Lovely garden but so depressing to us gardeners here at the bottom end of the Pacific Northwest where our winters are cool and damp and our summers are dry and cool. A writer once said that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer on Humboldt Bay...
That’s very reasonable, especially delivered to your door.
My hubby loves to help with my gardening projects. He likes to eat :)
It’s also MUCH quieter outside. We’ve got 3 kids under 5. It can get loud and rowdy inside.
And you’re right about changing them. We’ve only been married 7 years but I stopped about 6.5 years ago with most of the ‘change’ stuff *chuckle*.
Here is what is inside the berries.
Your garden is beautiful! I wish my peppers (and tomatoes) looked that good right now.
Maybe If I hadn’t run over them...
This photo is the garden after I broke up the ground with the farm tractor and disk (only takes 3 passes, LOL), double tilled the soil with the little tractor and 4 ft. tiller, and began rowing up.
This is a shot of the completed workup, after I rolled the top of the beds to give myself a nice planting area.
Here I've begun laying down the landscape fabric and installing the trellis. I think I mentioned before that this year only tomatoes, peppers and strawberries are going on the fabric because I simply won't go to the expense to do more. I ended up with 4 full rows of fabric and 8 short rows. I've now installed another row of trellis (for a total of 10 this year).
Ok, that’s neat. I’ve got something to look forward to then.
Does asparagus cross? If I planted 2 different varieties would it make hybrid seeds?
Just idly wondering. Since I’m sure I dont’ have *enough* projects to keep me busy or anything.
How much slope are you talking about? If it is just a few degrees per 25 feet or so, you can just stack two or three blocks of cut stone or something similar every few feet. If you are on a steep slope, you may have to build a retaining wall with a concrete base.
That is beautiful ... great work!
Thanks. Here in the Texas hill country we’ve been fortunate this spring — the weather has been very cooperative, not too hot with more than average rainfall.
Dang, that’s a massive garden! What you growing?
Your garden is just beautiful. I know how hard that is to accomplish in TX, which I found unforgiving in the Houston area in my 10 years there!
Impressive!
When I’m all growed up I want a garden just like that LOL.
What are you going to trellis? And what kind of strawberries will you plant?
How did you get my dream garden? It sounds lovely!
I have a little cherry tomato and some bell peppers already and we have one strawberry that is turning red. Can’t wait for the billion others to ripen!
Ditto...two thumbs up; WAY up for Algoflash...been using it for years. The tomato formula is great for most veggies.
I don’t know if different varieties cross. We only had one variety during the years I grew up.
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