Plan to plant some of the veggie garden today. I probably won't put my tomatoes and peppers into the main garden for another week. However I have earthboxes this year (yeah!!) and will be using several for tomatoes, one for hot peppers, and one for mild peppers that I plan to plant today. Marie - how many peppers do you do to a box? What else have you put in your earthboxes this year? Sandy

You could add some fresh compost to the trough and, if you eat it, grow some mesclun varieties for salads. And peas for shoots and pods. Again, if you eat them, perhaps some chard seedlings - either plain or with the coloured stems. Montia perfoliata/winter purslane is another possible. With your temperatures still high and your ground warm - putting in some baby carrots could be an option. They'll stay in the ground over winter and won't be bothered by frosts. In spring, refresh your trough with about an inch of new compost if you are planting into a soil-based medium and you have worms working in the trough. (They'll be busy and visible in early spring.) For old potting mix - it often loses its structure over winter so a deeper replacement might be needed.

Hmmm...both of those opinions are at odds with what I have found in the past. HOWEVER, in the past, I either let all plants do their thing (with a small amount of fiddling), or did the 1-stem thing with more fiddling on all plants last year (and did get fewer and considerably larger fruits)...so, the effects that I saw may have been caused by weather conditions, etc. For my multiple plants, I will experiment...will pluck fruits from some, leave all fruits on others, see what happens, and report back in a few months. Would still like to hear other opinions if anyone else has any thoughts!

Well, peat moss has a number of issues. First, unless it has been adjusted for pH, it is fairly acidic - more so than almost any vegetable prefers. When it is included in commercial seed starter mixtures, it is usually balanced with lime. Secondly, it has moisture issues. Especially if it had been wet previously, then allowed to dry out, rewetting can be difficult. It becomes mildly hydrophobic. Once wet, it can compact and actually have too much water retention. If the vermiculite you used was a very small grade (size,) then you have lots of water retention, but little oxygen. People who mix their own often use the irregular granules of perlite to supply air pockets. If you wish to make your own, you can replace, or 'dilute' the amount of peat with coir. That will lessen the affects of the pH issues. It's a lot more difficult to balance the pH of peat at home than it is for processing plants that have good meters. If you search 'seed starter' you can find a recipe with a better balance of ingredients than just peat and vermiculite. 'Sterilized' compost, and perlite (or some other granular addition,) in proper measure, are common ingredients.