I've enjoyed reading the posts. I use to save all my leaves and compost them. I quit because my lawn was looking bad. Now I just mow the leaves until chopped fine and leave them on my lawn.
Coffee grounds are good, egg shells are good. I know some folks who go by Starbucks and pick up their coffee grounds every day. I know others that go by a restaurant and get their egg shells. If I didn't live so far out in the country, I might do it myself.
My formula for tomatoes are to set them out, give them a couple of weeks to get over the shock of transplanting and then put a heaping tablespoon of MiracleGro, divided into three shallow holes at the edge of my cages. I rake the soil over the top to prevent the sun from evaporating the fertilizer. This lets the roots grow to the fertilizer and so far, I've never seen one burned. Fertilize will make the foliage more lush but that is a sign of a good healthy plant. I did trim a lot of foliage off of mine this year but it was the first time. I did it in order to see the tomatoes as they began to turn. The reason for this was, that I had so many tomatoes cramed in such a tight place that I wanted to pick them with the first blush so the others would have more room. It worked because the tomatoes have increased in size with each picking. So far, I've picked around 1,000 pounds off of 47 plants. After the next picking (tomorrow evening) they will slow down drastically. A bonus with the early taking of tomatoes is that it extended the harvest time because the plants were growing the tomatoes bigger.
My formula, regular watering and a good wheel barrow makes for tomatoes.
If I sound like I'm bragging, I'm not. I've just been blessed by the Good Lord with a great gardening year.
