There as many techniques for fertilizing plants as there are gardeners ;-) You are realizing that by reading the info provided by various 'expert' sources as well as various opinions. More or less they are all correct ;-) If anything I would err on the side of underfertilizing so ferting with every watering is not something I would do unless the plants were very lackluster in their performance in comparison to what I thought they should be doing. For example, a heavy blooming annual may slow down it's blooming. Give it a feeding and a week later it is in full bloom again. Experiences like this, over time, will give you a sense of what, how much and how often more so than any routine, one size fits all schedule will. I think a good 'starting plan' is to mix in a little slow release fertilzer (get one that is labelled as a "complete" food meaning it has micronutrients in it instead of just N-P-K) and then use a fert mixed with water every couple weeks at half strength. From here, alter the frequency and strength and wait a couple weeks to observe how the plants respond. It's a bit more complicated in that some plants need really high fertility and others very little so knowing a bit about the plants you are growing (you can just divide them into low, normal and high) for their fert needs helps. But, this comes with time as well. No worries, err on the side of caution with ferts and everything will work out fine. Waaay easier to cause problems with over ferting than under ferting.

Yeah it is likely a bit early there yet. But the point we are making is that you are worrying yourself to death over little unimportant details like this. Most of the answers to these simple gardening questions will be quite obvious to you once you start. Like I said in another of your posts, don't make it so complicated. Gardening isn't brain surgery! ;) Have you contacted your local county extension office yet or talked with any local gardeners to find out what the planting dates are for your zone? I know that has been suggested to you before and they can tell you when to plant your cool weather veggies. And if not that then I know you have been given soil temperature charts to use for planting times too so when your soil temperature in your containers gets to 50 degrees or so starting planting things. It really is just that simple. Dave

Diane, It is a challenge to figure it out, isn't it! It is safe to say that I could grow zero brussels sprouts and my family would be delighted...so that one is easy to figure out. (I like 'em fresh but no one else cares for them. LOL) Today we were looking at fresh produce at Central Market in Fort Worth (yes, I was in hog heaven, thank you very much) and Tim sampled a tiny cup of black-eyed peas. Now, several thoughts ran through my mind. First of all, do they "have to" give away samples of black-eyed peas to get people to try them? Secondly, doesn't everyone know what blackeyed peas taste like? LOL Finally, when my dear husband looked at the bag of more-or-less freshly hulled black-eyed peas (maybe a pint of fresh peas in that bag) and saw they were $5.99, I practically purred like a kitten, thinking of all the pint bags of freshly-shelled (then frozen) black-eyed peas in our freezer.....all of which grew right here in our good old Oklahoma soil with no chemicals, etc. I felt smug and content (in a good way, NOT in a conceited 'holier-than-thou-because-we-grow-our-own" way) but more than that I felt grateful that we are able to grow our own and process/preserve them to be eaten later on. It is the most wonderful feeling in the world to be feeding your family from your own garden and to know where your food came from and how it was raised. I have a pressure canner but have only done BWB stuff this year along with tons of dehydrating and freezing. I go on canning binges....can a lot some years, less in others. With this year's recurring rains, I've put up more food for the 'off-season' than in many prior drought years, and I am really happy about that. So far, one thing I've learned is that no matter how many beans and peas I plant, we eat them all long before the next gardening season rolls around. So, I am planning on lots more next year. Yesterday I picked Roma beans from the garden...and I don't even remember which variety I have except that they are the bush form and that it was from Franchi Simenti seed, and they are so good that I know I must plant many more of them next year. I can only remember one year in recent memory....and it might have been 2004....where I put up enough beans to get us from one gardening year to the next without running out. Growing the soil is why new beds take me so long to build too. In the long run, it is worth it of course, but turning clay into great garden loam certainly involves a long commitment! And, yet, I don't know how we could have done it any differently. I have found very few (almost no) spots in Love County that have a nice, rich, humusy sandy loam that is naturally occurring. For most people here, there are three choices: very sandy soil that drains too quickly in dry years and is prone to nematodes, heavy, thick red (but highly fertile) clay like we have here, and caliche clay full of rocks. So, with those three to choose from, I'm glad we have the clay, but I also appreciate our one small band of sand that cuts across the yard. I greow pecan and fruit trees in that band of sandy soil and they love it. Got your eye on a specific brand of canner? As for jars, I collect them. hee hee I can't walk past jars or lids without wanting more......"just in case". Even if I have plenty of empty jars sitting in storage waiting to be used, I almost have a panic attack when the stores start putting the jars and lids on clearance in the fall. What if I need jars a month or two from now and can't find any? (This has never happened--I always have jars tucked away in the pantry or in a closet, but "what if?" LOL). I always thought I'd have a smaller garden as time went on and we got older, but now I'm growing enough for 2 families instead of 1, so I'm growing more. (Although, DS and his wife and their daughter don't eat as many veggies as we do, except for french fries and green beans...and salsa.) My all-time favorite dedicated kitchen garden spot was an 8' x 8' raised bed in which I planted a "Salsa Garden". It was just outside the back door and in it I had tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and cilantro. If you had a sudden urge to make salsa, everything was right there. I later planted a few rose bushes in that raised bed and enjoyed that, but I liked it better as a salsa garden. Dawn

Here are most of what I have in my garden this year. Each name on the list is at least a slightly different strain, though the names may be similar, and represents 1 to 6 plants. My biggest problem is I have so many different types of tomatoes growing from crosses going back over a decade, in some cases, that I just don't have room for all of them. MOST of the crosses I have aren't even represented in this year's crop, because I can only work on a few dozen every year. Obviously, some of those I list here are also commercial hybrids, OP varieties or Heirlooms. I grow them either because I LIKE them, and I want something standard, or I want something to compare to what I am growing, to see how mine stack up. I generally do it that way every year. One problem I find in growing out the crosses is that sometimes you will go along with a 'new' strain that looks promising, growing it for several years, and then the next year it changes (as you bring out recessive traits) and takes a step back in color, size, flavor, or some other characteristic, and I need to go back to seeds from a previous year and try to again bring out the traits I liked. As you can see, among other things, this year I am emphasizing some EARLY strains and some cherry tomatoes, trying to see how they stack up. 4th of July Amber Sweet (a cherry I am developing) Andalusia H 4B1-2 (From tomatoes I got in Spain) ARGG Black Krim X Galinas red S4-G (in development) Black Krim X Galinas (Red H) (in development) Black Krim X Galinas Red 3B5-6 Black Magic (in development) Box Car Willie Brandy X Polish M5-S Brandy X Polish F3A H Brandy X Stupice Brandywine Cherry Brandywine OTV Brandywine X Kotlas Brandywine X Polish H. PL 5A3-4 Brandywine X Polish PL 5A7-8 Brandywine X Stupice Capitan H Cherokee Chocolate Cherokee Green Cherry Master (in development) Comandante Zero (in development) Dulcinea Med Red (in development) Dulcita Small Red F4 (Smaller seeds than Dulcinea) H 4A7-8 Early Goliath Early Wonder Galinas X Black Krim Yellow (in development) Galinas X Black Krim Yellow (strain #5) Garden H 4B5-6 Green Zebra Isis Candy Islas Canarias (from tomatoes I got in Spain) Kotlas Little Lucky Lucky Cross Lucky Cross Pink Marianas Cross F4 Lg Red Cherry Marianna's Peace More Capitan 1 5B5-6 New Black Plums (F3 growout) New Yellow Cherry Oh My Pink Heck (Medium) (in development) Orange H (in development) Orange Meaty medium sized tomato from Mariann's Peace and Jaune Flamme cross. Purple Russian Racimo de Espana (another one from Spain) RED Beef F3 Red H (in development) Red Large Beefy (in development) Rescue H 5B3-4 Rose Quartz Small Black Cherry (from 2010 cross) Sunfire? H Super Sweet 100s Super Sweet Yellow Pear (in development) Super Sweet Yellow Pear F3A (from 2012) Super Sweet Yellow Pear F3B (from 2012) Sweet Orange Golf Ball (from crosses I made) Sweet Yellow Gold F4 (From Galinas x Black Krim H 4A5-6) Yellow H (in development)