Best For The Garden

Can anyone give me a web site that offers complete tips on vegetable gardening?

I’m in Texas close to Dallas and am starting a garden this year. I’m planting tomatoes , squash , bell peppers , cucumbers ,okra , and herbs.. The past few years I have had no luck with tomatoes at all and I’ve tried everything. I did the topsy turvy thing last year and my plants got water loged and died. Any tips for me would be great, And also does anyone know anything about having a raised garden?

Hello fellow Dallasite. Check the link for Texas A&M info. Covers everything about our area. Raised garden info is there among a bunch of other info.

I can tell you from experience, planting small tomato varieties will help you be successful. Large tomatoes take too much time to ripen before the heat in mid summer kills the plant. A really good producer with excellent taste is the Sun Gold tomato. And the Butterstick Yellow Zucchini grows well.

Soil amendment is key, so a raised bed with compost as the soil really helps as well.

What are the best vegetables to grow in a partial shaded area?

I am gardening in the south east.

As long as your garden gets at least 3-6 hours of sun a day, you will be able to grow some good vegetables. It’s a misconception among a lot of people that gardens need full sun.

Your best bet is to grow leafy vegetables if you have only partial sun/shaded areas. Consider planting
Swiss Chard, Leafy Greens such as collards, mustard greens, spinach, and kale.
You could also plant beans, beets and radishes.

how do you get a good harvest when growing indoor and whats the best seeds?

no drafts, lots of light and heat…..sesameeeee, go onto hemp websites and there are contact details for seed suppliers, usually dutch.

Where can you find lycopene best, from raw tomatoes or from already processed tomato juices/sauces?

Unlike other fruits and vegetables, where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. Lycopene in tomato paste is four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes. This is because lycopene is so insoluble in water and is so tightly bound to vegetable fiber. Thus processed tomato products such as pasteurized tomato juice, soup, sauce, and ketchup contain the highest concentrations of bioavailable lycopene. Cooking and crushing tomatoes (as in the canning process) and serving in oil-rich dishes (such as spaghetti sauce or pizza) greatly increases assimilation from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. Lycopene is fat-soluble, so the oil is said to help absorption.

We are starting a wildflower garden this year. What perennials are best to start out with?

I plan to mix seeds and perennials, but mostly perennials. What perennials will establish flowers the fastest? We live in zone 5. Also, I heard that I shouldn’t expect my new planted perennials to grow at their full beauty during the first year. Is this true?

Visit a local garden center but not a place like Home Depot, Lowe’s or Walmart. Their associates don’t usually know squat. See what plants they have. Most garden centers bring in plants that are going to grow well in the area you are in. They don’t want to see their customers buying plants and end up being disappointed and wasting their money.

And yes, it’s true you won’t get the full impact out of your plants the first year. They are busy establishing root systems and the "top" won’t grow as big as it will in later years. There are a few exceptions to that but most 1st season plants are that way. They will be much prettier the 2nd year.

Cone flowers grow quickly and usually provide you with flowers the first year. Butterflies and bees love them. And if you leave the flower heads on the plants and allow them to dry, the gold finches love the dried seeds. And your cone flowers will spread also. Butterfly bushes take a season or two to get going well but they provide some height and the hummingbirds, butterflies and bees love them also. Sedums do well in hot dry locations. Asters are another plant that does well in most locations, provides you with late summer and early fall color. They come in a variety of colors and sizes. The dwarf ones are the easiest to handle.

"Ground covers" are another plant that we don’t pay nearly enough attention to. Bugle weed and dead nettle are two that not only help cover the ground to act as living mulch but also offer a bloom show in the spring and pretty leaves the rest of the year.

Start slowly, buy good plants, take proper care of them and make sure to water during the first couple months. It takes time to develop good root systems and until the plants do, you need to supply some extra water to them. After that, most are pretty self sufficient.

what plants are best for garden ponds?

water lilies!

What are some stupid gardening tips, that are funny but probably wouldnt work?

Guess thats what i should have asked the first time.

♥ Every yime you plant a plant in the ground bury a fish with it.

What are some of the best vegetables and fruits to juice???Just bought a high quality juicer…Thanks?

Why are these certain fruits and veggies the best???…Thanks for the details…Thomas

I like a mixture of tomato, carrot, beet and celery. Add a bit of crushed garlic, pepper and a pinch of salt.

I boil the vegetable pulp that the juicer sperates and make it into a sort of a (somewhat clear) soup.

Best online seed company for flower and vegetable seeds?

Anyone have a recommendation or a company to avoid. I bought Burpee two years ago because they are local and it was a disaster.

thank you!
by "best" I mean the seeds are delivered in a timely manner and they germinate. Burpee seeds did not germinate well for me and it was not my technique.

I like Pinetree Seeds in Maine. They sell in smaller packages, more suitable for home gardens, and at low prices. I have always had good germination rates from them.

http://www.superseeds.com/

What soil is best for growing tomatoes, and peppers etc.?

I have had garden before…but the last two years I grew things in buckets, They didn’t produce like I hoped.
Any suggestions for how to get the proper blend for a good fertile soil?
I live where we have a growing season of about 5 months till it frosts in the fall.
Our springs are very chilly and it can frost even in May, and frost comes in early October sometimes.

Oh, a gardener, how nice? I check on the local Va home extension or talk to the local farmers. When I had rich soil from hauling in truck loads of horse manure my tomatoes really thrived as the rest of my garden did just as well but didn’t do as well with root crops except new potatoes, they did quite well and were fun to deal with.Now where I live and the dirt is sandy and there is much less rain I do better with drought resistant crops like jalapeno peppers,Make sure that the roots can breathe and get vermiculite for this. Get a good rich soil from your supply hardware place that is recommended for tomatoes and peppers. I think we have got to take what we can get and work with that and try to enhance what we lack by having things we love protected inside when we have a snap of cold weather. Root crops do very well where I am but any greens do well in a cold snap and I fall back on sprouting sprouts inside when I want lettuce and the lack of rain makes it difficult.