Yes, i would like to get some super sweet cherry tomatoes, but butternut squash has been my main crop in the limited space we have. They need little care, and squirrels often take a bite out of the big tomatoes, yet they leave squash alone for the most part, and it is so hard that the most they get if they do bite it are only small pieces.
What is your favorite fertilizer?
Hubby has drastically reduced the bushy tailed - plant stealing critters with his air gun. Pots on my patio don’t get visited too often as they are right by the patio door, and the dog used to bark at them all the time. I’m usually home, and hear them walking in the leaves that I leave around the area, so I peck on the window or something to scare them away.
Your question regarding fertilizer - my favorite is free, and the mix depends on what was planted the year before, whether or not there was a winter cover crop. I use compost, grass clippings, and cover crops such as hairy vetch, clover, rye. Rye is good for the areas where I will plant corn, but I don’t always get around to it.
If we are going to buy something to get nitrogen, cottonseed meal or alfalfa meal is about the cheapest as we can get that from the local feed store.
I also keep on hand, bone meal, Epsom Salts, blood meal, Dyna-Grow 7-9-5, and whatever miracle gro type powder Walmart has on sale at the end of the season. I don’t usually add fertilizer to my raised beds - just the plants in buckets.
For the raised beds, they get the cover crop turned under and worked in several weeks before planting, compost is added, as well as decomposed leaves and grass clippings. I sometimes add some of the slow release granules when I transplant various plants, but not usually when I plant the seeds out doors.
The tomatoes in buckets get some blenderized eggshells, and I wait to see how they develop. Usually they’ll get some bonemeal, espom salts, later on, or a Miracle Gro that has a higher phosphorus to nitrogen ratio.
The Dyna Gro is a liquid that comes in a small container size, and so it doesn’t take up much storage space, and it just takes 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. per gallon of water for maintenance of indoor plants. So it’s used mainly in the winter time.
Hubby often gets free manure, and grass clippings for his gardens, but doesn’t share the manure, though he will share the grass clippings.
Below are some links for further info on fertilizer, which people might find interesting.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/homemade-organic-fertilizer-zmaz06jjzraw
http://www.motherearthliving.com/Gardening/organic-fertilizer-soil-amendments-ze0z1206zmel
http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/a-menu-of-organic-fertilizers