Hazel, how exciting to hear about your plants! It's a fun and rewarding time of year, isn't it? I have decided not to worry so much about doing every little thing just so, Dawn is right, plants know what to do. SO. . . when did you plant your beans? You planted them from seed? What kind of beans did you plant? I have not planted mine yet but I'm thinking I need to get on the ball and do it. My habit has been to plant later rather than earlier and I think this year I want to go ahead and get my seeds in the ground. It's been a warm and extremely dry season so far. I'm sure the colder temps are behind us. I just want RAIN!! My carrots and beets are still very small but at least they have a start. Everything I started indoors, under the grow light I made, I have been very disappointed with. (I'll do my homework for next year) I started my squash and cukes too early and I'm just going to plant seeds next week. My tomatoes are just pitiful. I think I'll keep trying and transplant next month and have a back up plan with plants from a nursery. Here in Enid, my selection is a joke, BUT actually last year I bought a cherry tomato plant, variety unknown, that just did marvelous and produced till the frost did it's number on it. My peas that I planted from seeds look great, about 3" tall now. Oh how I hope I get a good crop, I do love my peas! My asparagus is doing superb, almost all of the 18 or so plants have sprouted and are now covered with soil and hay. Dawn, you have so much experience and give great advice, so here is a question for you. What kind of Espoma do you use? I had no idea there were so many to choose from! I also have been adding organic material to my soil for the past couple of years and it's looking good, I would like to simplify things and get a basic fertilizer, if that is what can be done. I have had the OSU extension center do soil sample tests on different parts of my garden for a couple of years and my pH is good, just needs a bit of potassium and phosphorus, which I have added. Thanks all!

I am in no way seasoned in gardening.. However, I, too, decided last year that I wanted desperately to have *some sort* of garden at my house. I wasn't necessarily looking for massive production... obviously, I wanted to get veggies harvested but I just wanted to dip my foot in and see what I could do as a novice. I started collecting 5 gallon buckets from anywhere that was giving them away (I knew I needed food grade so I checked with places like bakeries in grocery stores, donut shops, restaurants, etc.). I went this route because I was renting and didn't think I'd be able to make any landscape changes. Ultimately, I grew cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, okra, 2 different bell peppers, strawberries, herbs, and sugar baby melons. Everything grew and I got harvests on all of the plants, except the melons. They DID form melons, but they didn't get any bigger than a golf ball. From this experience, I learned that I cannot crowd the very limited space (as someone new to gardening my thought was "I'm going to push this as much as I can!" But that gave me less fruit from the plants than otherwise if there was only 1 plant per container) My point is... if you can get some containers or buckets you CAN start a garden and plant a wide variety of plants, but some things will produce better than others. Where I got a TON of cherry tomatoes, I only got about 6 squash fruits. For me, this was great the first year because I had never, ever even attempted to grow things outside of Aloe. EDIT: I'll also add that I plopped the buckets down in the mulch that was on my property so it wouldn't kill off any grass. And I did start from seedlings that I had purchased. If I remember correctly, I didn't start planting until sometime in May. Everything grew and produced until well into October.

The website below should help both with your questions above and your other post about fertilizing organically. The "containers" section has extensive info on container types/sizes, vegetables that are well-suited to containers, specific fertilizing guidelines, etc. http://www.grow-it-organically.com/

Thank you all for the advice! Daniela, what lovely roses. Thank you for the pictures. They certainly don’t seem to be suffering from closeness. They’re beautiful! Marlorena, I hope you don’t mind me “stalking” some of your old posts. I would be crazy happy if I could get my garden to look half as good as yours. :) Getting plenty of ideas. amanda, yes, companions are wonderful! Lots of salvia here, too, and nepetas, lilies, creeping phlox, caryopteris, lamb’s ears, artemisia.... They are the glue that holds the garden together. :) I’m thinking I’ll give the peonies their space, and push the boundaries on the roses a little. The peonies have had more foliar issues than the roses lately.