I am soooooo excited to listen to this podcast on the way to work tomorrow! This topic is thrilling to me. If you can't tell, I am passionate about this concept

Enjoyed hearing what veggies to start with in a beginner's garden. I loved the red tuteur! I just may have to have a red one!

Trish, you did a nice job on the tuteur!

Love listening to you guys talk about gardening! I'm excited too because when you mentioned leaf lettuce, that is the one thing I tried this year that I had never tried before. My husband swears the rabbits are going to get to it before I can harvest any, but I hope they leave some for me. It is in the raised bed around our flagpole with some green onions, so if I see any rabbits I may have to put up a fence. It won't be attractive, but at least I'll have my lettuce.

Also have zucchini seeds, just need to get it in the ground soon. And tomatoes are next to the patio, but I forgot to get sweet pepper plants. I will have to get some. Wish I had a tiller again so we could have a real, dedicated garden spot.

Y'alls excitement about growing your own food is contagious! Great podcast! I'm not having to grow on the scale that you are...Only 2 mouths here, compared to your 9! But I must agree...There is nothing better than being able to walk out your door, and 'pick' dinner. After listening this morning, I went out to my own 'little tomato patch' and was able to pick my first of the season! And there are many more that are close to ready! Two of the biggest little 'Juliet' tomatoes I've seen!


Thanks for all of your great work! ATP is the best!

Vickie,

Sounds like you are off to a great start! You won't need a tiller by building raised beds

I'm such an enabler

BTW- I didn't build the tuteur, 2 of my children (with a little help from Dave) did

Sandi- they asked me what colors and I chose red and blue. Love them both! To be honest, yellow was my first choice, but that wasn't an option at the time

I already feel behind! our tomatoes are doing great, but I'm far behind on squash and melons...and we're still working on our perimeter beds where the beans and herbs will go. Ack!

I agree, by far the best things to put up are tomatoes! We've been hoarding, I think three jars, of tomatoes that we put away two years ago (last year we put tomatoes in too late since we built the garden too late, so nothing was really put away), but there's nothing like opening up a jar of tomatoes and getting that wonderful smell!

Also, I think a yearly tomato podcast is totally worth it! :)

Also, glad to hear that chard will go through the summer!

Cruciferous vegetables are easy to grow in the spring or fall garden, and they are great to have on hand because they fight cancer.

http://cancer.about.com/od/foo...

@Misti I hear your anxiousness. I had a friend start some tomato seeds for me almost a month ago, and I got them yesterday, and they are only about two inches! Looks like I will be buying some of my own this year. I was really excited about Japanese Black Trifele and Kellog's breakfast (which I got from the Whitinger seed company). I will buy some KB locally.

What happened to the KB seeds? They should be gigantic plants by now.

@dave, I don't know! I think my friend over-watered them, and I saw the soil he used, and it was a bag that said, "Garden Soil". I Totally thought he knew what he was doing But, lesson learned. Last year I visited his garden and it looked very productive and healthy. He started all of his seeds himself.

Good thing the seeds last a couple years. Any tips to speed them up? I am thinking some compost tea and liquid kelp.

I started black cherry toms about two weeks ago, and they are bigger and more robust than the others.

The soil you use to start seeds is very important. We always use brand new soilless potting soil straight, as is. Once the seedlings emerge we do water with diluted compost tea.

That bagged garden soil is about the very last thing you'd ever want to use to start seeds in.

I know I know!! I use burped organic seed starting mix. The only reason I had him do it was because I have limited space.