Best thing I did this year for my garden....

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

I laid out a drip-tape irrigation system for my raised beds. Haven't had a chance to try it out until yesterday due to all of our rain, but with our current heat wave, I think it tops everything for my best idea this year.

What has been your best gardening move so far this year?

[TightenUp]

start containers plants cause my garden is jam packed with disease

[kath]

Getting a garden seat with wheels.Well, that's the best thing I did for me in the garden this year, I guess. Expanding the garden size by 1/3 would have to be the best thing we did for the garden because now I've got more room between plants and in the walkways.

[mrsmimiwhite]

we call ours a butt buggy

[b54red]

Started using UltraSorb to start nearly all of my seeds. It is so easy to use and the results have been phenomenal.

Grafting some tomatoes to see if they will help with my fusarium problem. It is a bit too early to tell but if it works it will be the best thing ever for growing heirlooms in my soil.

Bought a nice supply of liquid fertilizers from Urban Farms. I'm not sure how well they are working as it is early yet but things are looking good and they are the easiest fertilizers I have ever applied. Just pour some in a hose end sprayer with an adjustable ratio control set to a tablespoon to a gallon and just walk around watering and fertilizing at the same time. No muss no fuss.

Bill

[Steve Magruder]

I'm still fairly new to tomato growing, but here's the new ideas that's working for me this year so far:

1) Using this approach (plus mulch on top) for the bed. My plants are thriving on hot days, likely due to this approach. It's been a minor heat wave here lately, and fruits are multiplying like crazy on my tomato plants, less so on the peppers (but they're still healthy).

2) Testing the Ultimato staking system on a few plants -- I like it's flexibility. Of course, I'll find out soon if they can support a plant full of big juicy tomatoes.

3) Getting serious with fungal disease. I'm using Daconil to great benefit. Update: #1 helped with this too, along with clipping off low stems.

4) I started with the best ever soil, although I'm still not organic. I found some "magic soil" from somebody else's garden (that they gave away!) to mix with Miracle-Gro Garden Soil, and my plants are loving it.

5) Trying out several heirlooms I've never grown or eaten before. I'm excited to see them ripen, and see me eat them.

6) I have my first really serious dedicated garden plot, in a good spot for expansion next year.

7) Using chicken wire to keep pests off the young plants, and it's helping keep pests off the maturing plants as well. I've not had any fruits bitten into yet.

[Crandrew]

-preventative measures concerning disease.
-Plant more than I need
-Plant in waves so that replacements can be used for the ones hit with disease early.
-Mass seedlings per cup
-no more round tomatoe cages only 8ft bamboo and some twine.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Goat manure.

[janezee]

Join Tomatoville!

j

[Deborah]

Planting green onion root ends so I never have to buy green onions again !

[jerryinfla]

Amended my Florida sand with huge quantities of spent mushroom substrate.

[duderubble]

I've posted several times that since I moved to Missouri I've have a terrible time with my garden. I knew that the clay/gravel/boulder mix that masquerades as soil would not do for anything, so the first year I built two 4 x 12 raised beds. These I had filled with a mix of "topsoil" and horse manure from the local nursery. No one has bulk compost. Turns out "topsoil" is a loosely used term around here too. The first year I got virtually nothing, I chalked it up to the manure being too hot (nitrogen hot). The second year I threw a couple bags of "composted manure" on top and hoped for the best, and got crap and a lot of weeds. Ditto third year.

This year I bought 20 bags of composted cow manure per bed, weed whacked the remaining weeds down to nubs, spread a 3 inch layer of manure, laid down weed barrier and hardwood mulch. Viola! Magic. My tomatoes look like they did in the rich farm soil of Illinois. I'm going to say it was the top dressing with composted manure, but the weed barrier has been important too. Now the tomatoes are so thick (overplanted because I was so sure they would do nothing again) the weeds couldn't survive the lack of light anyway.

[zabby17]

Get the first ones in the ground in good time!

I've got green fruit on two Stupices, a Kimberly, and a Manyel already and will probably have something ripe by, if not the Canadian fireworks day (July 1), the American one.

Obviously the unusually early spring and warm weather was the major factor, but in some previous warm springs I've been unable to get organized enough to take advantage.

Z

[Jeannine Anne]

Put the whole garden into foot high raised timber beds.

XX Jeannine

[duderubble]

Jeanine, what did you use to fill your beds?