I've been looking at the Earthtainer gardens and they look amazing! I'm not sure I'm ready for that, so I'm wondering if the Rubbermaid containers are viable by themselves as planting containers? I'm assuming they are, as long as you drill drainage holes.... I'm currently using all sorts of pots and even 2 Topsy Turvy bags for tomatoes. I have 2 bell peppers in a good-sized long windowsill type planter, Beefsteak tomato in a 5 gal paint bucket, cilantro and oregano in their own hanging pots, and squash and cucumbers in 20 gal pots (3 plants in each). I'm using straw as a top mulch. I've tried tomato plants before, but never had much luck. Some of my research is sure to pay off this year .... plus the help I'll be getting from all of you! One question - when growing tomatoes, should you trim lower branches or do any pruning whatsoever? I'll have to take some pics and try to post them tomorrow! Lisa

I would agree with Rhizo and Calistoga... this is the base of your business, the root of it so to speak, and if you want to build a good reputation for producing and selling a good, healthy product, you ultimately have to spend a little in order to make it all come together as you want it to. I would recommend doing some reading and research before embarking upon your venture. "Container Soils - Water Movement & Retention XVII" is a great place to begin. You can usually find this article on the first page of this forum. Container growing is vastly different than growing in a garden, so you'll want to address the needs of plants specifically grown in containers. Poor soil can make or break you as a nursery. When I buy plants from any source, or am mixing my own mediums, my preference is a fir bark based, gritty, larger particled, fast draining medium that won't hold a perched water table, and won't require re-potting on a yearly basis, which ultimately saves money, labor, and time. Save the organic methods for the garden... go for a more inorganic approach to container growing. You want to control what happens within those containers, including moisture, plant nutrition, light, etc... it's best to have your information firmly in hand before you begin this sort of business, or you'll fail before you ever get going. I run a small niche business selling plants, and before I begun, I made sure I had a business plan, and I made sure I knew what I was doing... from the soil up. You really don't want to flounder around without an understanding of plants or their requirements, from a more scientific angle. Tapla's article will help you get there, I believe. It helped me more than I can say. A green thumb is nothing more than applied knowledge. Happy Growing!

Ok for 2013 I got decent trees. They were big, and some do not like that. I would have preferred smaller trees myself, but I can't complain as they were in such good shape. I ordered trees from Bay Laurel in CA and Grandpa's in MI Excellent trees all of them! 4 from Bay Laurel, and 2 from Grandpa's. If you live in the East you may want to use Grandpa's. Bay Laurel has to send out by March 7th or so. But even here in MI the ground was workable. They all went back into dormancy when planted, and are now coming out. The trees from Grandpa's just came last week and are fine. I have wet clay here, and the trees from Bay laurel are on citation which grows well in wet clay! From Grandpa's the peach was on Lovell, a decent rootstock, and the cherry on Gisela, but most are not! They vary by cultivar. I was looking for Gisela. I ordered raspberries from a few places. The best was Indiana Berry, and they were cheap too! $3.25 a plant. I ordered Prelude, Encore, and Anne. Bare root. All had exceptional roots and one cane over pencil size. All are still dormant, but a bud formed on one cain the last couple of days. We had a harsh cold spring, so that didn't help in adjustment. I for sure will look for cultivars there first. I also ordered a currant and it was decent looking, bare root dormant. Stark brothers also gave me decent raspberry plants bare root too. But tell them a date, they tend to send too early!! I had to keep a blueberry bush inside, and then hardened it off, and planted just in time for a freeze, so it is struggling. Raspberries are all still dormant so no problems with the freeze.

I'm so glad some of you remember a lot of the things I do. Some of my most cherished memories are when my playmate two doors down (Ellen) and the girl our age (Mary) across the alley would play in a little lean-to playhouse built against the north side of Ellen's garage. They had a huge wooden sandbox. People don't like the tracking and what it takes to fill and maintain sandboxes, but I've got to tell you it was heaven on earth. The sandbox was under a slightly larger pergola. Over the pergola grew Concord grapes. How beautiful it was under the shade of the leaves and when the grapes hung down as we played in that sandbox. Sadly, Ellen whose parents had the sandbox died from cancer a few years back; we had been separated for years as she taught school and moved to Michigan. The other girl, we parted ways after kindergarten, and she went to the Catholic school. We made new friends and lost touch with one another. A few years ago I found her how? The internet but somebody must have given me some clue, didn't even know what her current married name was. I met her when I was 3. She lives in NC and is such a lovely person. I cannot remember the last time I saw her, before I was 10. We correspond regularly and share these precious memories. Right now I have heard that her husband is facing a terrible ordeal with cancer and his pacemaker; her health sounds good. Tears flowed from my eyes when I read that, and I need to answer soon. I didn't have a video camera, but one beautiful fall day, I walked the old neighborhood with my wide angle lens, walked up the middle of my street and back (there were low hills on both ends of that two-block long street), walked back down then around and up the alley we shared, then around and down her street, clicking all the way. I put the photos on a cd and sent them to her. She was so grateful for them. I'd never met her sister who was older and away by the time I met her, but she sent those photos to her sister, too. I'm so glad I did that. This is the same street from about the exact same spot and one of my photos from that day. The older one I took with my brownie Kodak when I was about 8. The second one was Oct 2005. My house was the one on the right that is yellow now (hard to tell the color) with a red roof and the white rails. Ellen's house was the first one on the right you can see, a grey house with red trim and grey roof. There was a small one in between that isn't visible. I presently live about 1/2 mile from there. The oddest thing is that apart from the cars, trees and a few cosmetic changes to the houses, it has changed very little. 55 years then and now.