This is our TENTH ANNIVERSARY!! Wow, time really flies. The date for the Spring 2014 Plant Swap is April 26th. 10am SET UP STARTS and browse....11AM swap OFFICIALLY begins...immediately afterwards...LUNCH! Bring ALL your extra plants, if it grows, it will go! Including Houseplants! Also any garden related items, Hoses, Garden Art, Tools, Containers, Etc. We are having it at Park Circle in North Charleston, by the Gazebo. There are picnic tables, bathrooms and LOTS of room for kids to play and even more room for plants, parking and food. Pretty much everybody in Charleston is familiar with Park Circle....there are numerous ways to get to it, depending on which way you are coming. If you want or need directions, e-mail me, TheCitrusGuy@netzero.com I will get it and respond ASAP. The way we swap will be the basic Free For All. I will say go, everybody will grab ONE (1) plant and take it to their hiding area. After everybody has a plant, we repeat the process. Nice and Simple! We like to do a Pot Luck style picnic and encourage everybody to stick around and participate afterwards, if you so desire. There will be plates and napkins and such, Please bring your own drinks and a covered dish for as many as you can. The socializing is as much fun as the swap itself, please try to give yourself enough time to stay and enjoy yourself! If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. Happy Growing Folks!

Hi all. Kind of new to the forum but I've been enjoying and using the tips. Thanks! My cheap containers: scrap plywood [free from a friend] screwed together into a 4'* 2' box to use for a raised bed; flea market galvanized tin containers, various shapes and sizes, drilled holes for drainage, most expensive one was $5 for a good size one; old bureau, recycled into a potting bench, used the leftover drawers to make a flat for bunching onions, added an unused window screen on the bottom so I could use it on the deck; tires from my mechanic [free, he was happy to get rid of them since they charge him to dispose], used to make a composter and planters; freecycled white plastic barrel, cut into 8" slices for raised bed, planted peas in them; flea market wire fencing [$5 for 50'] made a cage for planting potatoes out of 10'[about 3' diameter]. My neighbor never recycles anything so I've managed to get all kinds of pots from her, she finally got sick of me taking stuff out of her trash and now saves them for me!

EG, When I empty out the 'Tainers, I get bottom water that is the color of tea, as well as it has a sulfur dioxide odor to it. While probably not harmful to the tomato plants, my judgement is to purge it completely and refill the 'Tainer with fresh water come about July 15. I am going to put a small piece of stocking over the inlet tube to prevent large particles from being sucked up into the impeller and possibly jamming it up. This is too good a tool to have break. Raybo

I had a similar experience last year with my peppers. They did miserably in the raised bed, and really well in the containers. Tomatoes in containers also out performed my raised bed ones. I was using MG potting mix in the containers . But I had the opposite experience with cucs. They did better in the raised bed. My tomatillos also did amazing in the raised bed. I realized this year (before starting my Year 2 veggie garden) that the reason for this inconsistency was 1) watering, 2) fertilizing and 3) my raised beds were new (triple mix, mannure, top soil).4) planting temps I was over watering everything. Basically not letting soil dry out a bit. Which caused a lot of problems. I didn't think I needed to fertilize the raised beds, because I figured the manure and organic granular fertilizer was enough. I didn't realize these things take time to break down and become available for plants. I planted my peppers/tomatoes in the raised bed too soon and they were stunted. I also used SFG method and cramped the tomatoes in the raised bed way too closely, resulting in some bacterial and fungal issues. So there was a lot of learning from Year 1 to Year 2 for me. My conclusion last year was that containers were better than the raised bed and my plan was to max out on containers this year. After some research and thanks to the helpful folks on this board, I was able to properly time my planting and water when needed. So far, I am having excellent growth and yields from both the raised beds and the containers. My plan is to move over exclusively to raised beds next year.