New to gardening but loving it so far!

[Josh Jones]

My name is Joshua Jones. I'm married with 3 kids, 9, 6, and 8mo. We decided to try gardening to not only be more healthy but to also reduce food costs. Our kids eat a lot and seem to like most veggies so we decided to try it out. We are growing Cherokee purple, solar fire, Russian black cherry and yellow pear tomatoes, sweet cherry, red, yellow and mexi bell, cayenne, jalapeño, sweet banana and hot banana peppers, Japanese white and black beauty eggplants, Georgi a collard greens, black seeded Simpson lettuce and Scarlet Nantes carrots. So far things seem to be growing good and I'm just looking to expand my knowledge and grow as healthy a garden as possible. I attached a few pics keep in mind this is our first try at gardening and we will pretty things up as we go!

 

[Lostvalleyguy]

I see you have tomato baskets. A piece of advice if I may: Before the plants outgrow the baskets (and they usually do), get a sturdy pole or something (about 6 feet tall) to attach the plants to once they grow over the top. It is better to do it sooner rather than later as you may have to pound the post into the ground and you want to do it near to the plant without damaging the roots.

Your growing season is well ahead of ours. Good luck, the garden looks great!

 

[Rosyrain]

Gardening is most fun when you are new at it because you get to watch the fruits of your labor unfold and grow before your very eyes. It is especially rewarding when you get to eat what you grew yourself. Good luck and have fun with it!

 

[headfullofbees]

Welcome.

Food awareness is very good for kids.
They are much more likely to eat something that they and daddy/mummy have grown.

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome aboard! Great to have you here

 

[Pat]

Welcome to the group, you are off to a good start.

My I suggest you make little ditches along side your plants and mound soil around the bottom of the stems to hold the water in, the flat ground will let the water run off, the ditch after a rain will help hold the water. Have fun you are well ahead of me in the growing cycle, it is still cool at night here.

 

[Josh Jones]

Welcome to the group, you are off to a good start.

My I suggest you make little ditches along side your plants and mound soil around the bottom of the stems to hold the water in, the flat ground will let the water run off, the ditch after a rain will help hold the water. Have fun you are well ahead of me in the growing cycle, it is still cool at night here.

Thanks for the advice, we do plan to irrigate some but we have had rain the last 4-5 days. I also didn't like the cages, my wife wanted to use them, I figure a good stake is plenty. I took the cage off the Cherokee purple it was on but we do have one solar fire which is a determinate so should we leave the cage on it seeing that it is a lot bushier?

 

[Josh Jones]

I bought the cages but should have just used the free bamboo that grows on side of our house lol. Which is what I'm using now pepper plants and eggplant has them too. Like I said we are new and pretty much learning as we go

 

[firelily99]

Everything thing that you have planted looks nice and green and healthy. Love meeting new gardeners and seeing the joy they have when their first produce gets picked. Keep it up, you are doing great.

 

[Josh Jones]

Lol thanks everything seems to be doing great so far and yea my kids love it most. School is over now but they were anxious to help right after school everyday. In definitely can't wait to pick some peppers and eggplant though!

 

[Trellum]

Awesome, I wish you a lot of success! It really looks like you are getting everything right tho. Your plants seem to be doing so well! I truly hope you are growing everythin organically, it would be awesome to produce all those veggies organically! GMO-free would also be nice, hehehe!

 

[Josh Jones]

We are going organic. I haven't even really fertilized too much yet. Trying to find a couple good organic fertilizers then I should be set. I'm always searching for organic pest control too even though we haven't had too much a problem.

 

[Ruth B]

Welcome. I agree, your stuff looks GREAT! It's a learn as you go, and we all are always learning, not matter how long we have been gardening.

One thing I recommend is companion gardening. It helps with pests, and some things just naturally do better together, and some things don't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

 

[revolvingtoast]

Welcome. Those pictures look absolutely great.

Kudos for getting your kids involved, for so many reasons. Gardening has so many benefits and it's great that they'll always associate it with having fun with the people they love most. You're giving them skills for lifelong physical and mental health. Be proud!

 

[Josh Jones]

Welcome. I agree, your stuff looks GREAT! It's a learn as you go, and we all are always learning, not matter how long we have been gardening.

One thing I recommend is companion gardening. It helps with pests, and some things just naturally do better together, and some things don't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

We didn't plan the garden at all lol. That's one thing I wish we did do, but we bought a few plant and just kept buying and adding lol. Next grow season we will definitely have a better layout