I plant both in ground and in pots. I have about 10 pepper plants in the ground, and about 25 in pots. I like pots because the plants seem to grow faster. I believe the roots stay warmer early on and this aids in the growing process while the plants are still young.I also like pots because you can move your plants around. We had a lot of rain this spring. I was able to take my young seedlings and put them on our covered porch. This kept them from getting over watered. I use three different kinds of fertilizer. I use Miracle grow, Alaska fish fertilizer, and when I pot up, I put Osmocote in my pots. I also use dolomitic lime, blood meal, and bone meal in my pots. I hope that helps you out. If I can help you in anyway just let me know. Tim

Is there any way that you could work your gardening into doing some gardening on school grounds. I know from experience at our school that the cleaner and nicer the school is the less trash and vandelism. I would look into maybe doing either container gardening or finding an area to spruce up. I am hoping to do more of this this summer at our school. Stacie

there really is not a lot of easily found information about permaculture or the things we have been alluding to in this thread. Skooby's videos were great because it was a bunch of information all in one easy place. since i finished the videos, i have looked for more of the same, but there really is no good source i have yet found. i have ordered a few books through the library, but don't have them yet. much of what i found on the web is not much more informative than this thread. it is like you have to know what they are talking about to understand. i think this is because permaculture is not so much a technique so much as it is a philosophy. there are several techniques that are permaculture, but permaculture cannot be defined by them. an example would be forest gardens are permaculture but permaculture is not forest gardening per se. from what i gather permaculture is about sustainable agriculture (and living) and self sufficiency as individuals and communities. it uses systems to create easier, healthier and more efficient and sustainable food production. some people take this as going off-the-grid and becoming hunter gatherers, while for others it is just gardening a little differently and using natural systems rather than artificial means to keep aid in production. as much as i would like to go off-the-grid and live in a forest, it is not practical for me. but i do grow a large portion of my own food in a very small area. i plant plants that have edible parts before those that do not and rather than practice monoculture by planting in rows of one species i mix them up as little forest systems where companion plants help each other perform better. i want to add a few chickens, bees, solar power and a cistern to have a little more self sustainability, but i started with a forest garden. the thing that i liked the most about the videos were a few gardening techniques that filled in the gaps in application for what i already practice and believed. they are: plants work better in systems of many species. gardens can have multiple layers like a forest to maximize production per square foot. animals, insects and flowers are as important as the fruiting plants for a healthy and productive system. nothing needs to imported into a system including fertilizer. nothing should be exported from it. raised beds. mulch. less water. micro climate creation with ponds, hardscape and shade. biodiversity in species as well as varieties. last saturday i prepared a few beds for production with a technique i saw in the videos. you prepare the soil for the last time. i mixed in a bunch of compost from the dump. then you mound the beds. my bed was already part of a terrace. it takes the run-off from part of my house, garage and driveway. so i created a swell (channel) to pull that water through the bed to spread and store the moisture. i then covered the mounded areas to be planted with cardboard (this was the new technique i learned) and then mulched heavily on top with more compost (chipped wood and yard waste) from the dump. i will be planting heavily with everything from artichokes to zucchini and will research which plants work best in systems and put them together. i will mix in flowers. the result should look like a riot of texture and color like an english flower garden, but much of it will be food. i will probably produce several hundred dollars and months worth of food in just a few hundred square feet and without tilling, poisoning, fertilizing or exporting any waste and using much less water to boot. not going to change the world, but it helpsi think that is the essence of permaculture. it is a true think global act local sort of movement. i have not found any how to books or websites. most of my searches ended with come sort of commercial design service or class. i hope the books i reserved are more of the how to and hands on sort of info. if anybody has any recommendations i would welcome some advice. would also like to here more about what others have done alone these lines. wikipedia has a good article tha links to a "companion plant" spread sheet i found useful.

I've brougjt this post back for two reasons. One look on YouTube for Detergent Day videos. This guy has 20 some vids about detergents. .start on the first video. So funny. Second Jean first told us about this guy anf there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about and miss Jean. We met in this forum and became friends outside of here. Something happened I'm not sure what and we lost contact. Jean was hilariously funny and could put a smile on everyone's face. Jean if your reading...please come back. I'm sorry and I miss you.