Agreed, paper layer unnecessary. As long as you pull little weeds when you first see them, you shouldn't have weeds in such copious amounts that you need to smother them. I'm sure the prior corn farming operation had very few weeds going to seed in the field. They spray as much and as many chemicals as necessary to make sure of that. So you're starting with as clean of a slate as possible. Birds & wind will bring weed seeds, but it's a lot easier to spend a minute here, a minute there, then wait until it's "time to do some weeding." The leaf mulch will do a lot for preventing weeds from being able to start growing at all. I find it a lot easier to push aside where you want to plant than to try to not cover plants with leaf/mulch. Some prefer the opposite though. Consider what you would prefer before you start. If you're going to do a bark mulch, I would do it on top of the leaves. It will keep them from blowing or washing away, and that's what the worms and microbes are going to eat first anyway.

hi, Although I'm not a tomato expert ( more like a complete newbie) I think I can answer some of your questions. Do russet mites over-winter? I THINK they over-winter on left over tomato debris or any other member of the nightshade family including bindweed petunias peppers eggplant nightshade and more. Sulfur spray will treat your problem however you have to start early. According to the texas extension service you should apply the sulfur as soon as the plants are big early june for your zone? and then reapply if you see any bulging of the stem at the base. Once you start to see the leaf symptoms it's to late. Does my setup look OK? As long as you get 6-12 hours of direct sun light and the soil PH is between 6.5 & 7.1 your fine How much water for "Jiffy Greenhouses"? the trick is to never let the "soil" dry out but don't let it be water logged I know this sounds hard but i would just let the surface dry out in between waterings. WARNING Things can dry out very fast in those greenhouses if they are put outside even in the shade. Potting mix or soil? I just want to warn you of a big problem that you could be getting yourself in to. That is to much nitrogen, Tomato's will just grow a lot of leaves with to much nitrogen. Dry grass clippings aren't a problem but fresh clippings are very high in nitrogen if your grass clippings are dry I would till them in as soon asap. Coffee grounds have something like a 30-1 nitrogen to carbon ratio I added 1 tablespoon of grounds to each planting area in the fall, If i were you though I would leave them out. eggshells are wonderful because they contain calcium but they take a long time to break down. Crush some up asap and apply them to your soil to give them max decomposing time. composted Manure can be high in nitrogen and contain weed seeds you may want to use some other type of compost. Ok now to answer your question I wouldn't put anything in the planting hole just take the plant out of it's pot and plant it in to your prepared soil. Alternatively you could build a Square Foot Garden (SFG) which is a raised bed no bigger then 4'x4'x6" filled with 1/3 peat moss 1/3 blended compost (from many things) 1/3 perlite or vermiculite. for more info SFG check out the fourm on this website or send me a PM. (thats somthing i know a little about) Sorry if i rambaled a bit It's just very important to get your soil just right Everything else look OK?/advice Ok well first things first Don't worry to much! last year was my first year growing anything edible I think I read everything that had ever been written about vegetables (ok maybe not But I read ton of stuff) I looked at every imaginable pest and disease and came up with ways to treat them organically. I didn't get any ripe tomatoes last year and it wasn't because of some pest or disease it was for some very simple reasons that I didn't even dream of being a problem. 1) sunlight: I thought I had enough sunlight Cause I had on a sunny day first checked the time it first got sun (7:00) then at about 11:00 I looked a gain and it was sunny and I checked the time it last got sun which was 6:00 It turnedout that becuse of tall trees houses and other obstructions those were the only time it got sun giving the sight about three hours of sun. 2) start date: I started about 2 weeks late I recomend you count back 6 weeks from your last frost date for your seed starting date and then transplant them 2 weeks after your last frost date. (the last week you should put your tomatoes in a shaded area outside during the day) 3) spacing: I planted 5 plants inside one tomato cageabout 6" apart. this didn't turn out to be a problem because 2of the plants were killed by verticillium wilt and a cherry tomato plant was shaded out by my two beefmaster plants. The beef master plants got to about 6ft which was tall enough to get 5.5 hours of sun on the toppart of the plant and they burst in to bloom in september but frost took care of my baby tomatoes. The reason I just went in to such detail about why MY tomatoes failed last year is becuase it makes the point that although there are more tricks for gorwing tomatoes than I could count, sucsess comes down to these basic rules. Sun: 6-12 hours start date: 6 weeks before last frost transplant date 8 weeks after start date with one week of hardening off spacing: about a foot apart water: from seed to harvest keep evenly moist but not wet fertilizer: only a little 5-5-5 after planting (tomato fertilizer is fine) sea kelp after first burst of flowers and sea kelp at the end of summer ( fish emulsion and geen sand will work too) Soil: not to rich (in my oppinon SFG is the way to go) I really hope this helps!

Thank you Gila for the offer! Unfortunately, I live in Forked River so Matawan is a little too far to get to for me. But thankyou anyway! John, I was thinking about maybe placing an order, and I will make a desicion in the next week or so. Did you get yours yet? Here is the link to that "Blue Tomato!" Just scroll to the very bottom of the page. http://selectedplants.com./varieties.htm I just thought they were really interesting! Christy

I have never been impressed with the bagged topsoil or compost from the big box stores. Read the ingredients panel (on the back, near the bottom, usually) and see what "may" be included; pretty vague. There are some brands carried by nurseries that are better. I checked out a bag of commercial "raised bed mix" today and found it "may contain" topsoil, composted manure, peat moss, coir, etc. All these are fine, but by the soft feel of the contents and light weight of the bag, I suspect there's a good deal of peat moss in there. Peat moss is not a great amendment for the garden for several reasons, which I won't delve into here. Loose topsoil, compost, or mushroom compost from a reputable nursery is great, if you have a way to transport it, or need enough to warrant delivery, which you will pay for. You can always mix up your own if you have home-made compost and topsoil. Roses and perennials are a long-term investment - they take a while to get established - usually three years to really get going ("first year they sleep, second they creep, third they leap" is the old saying) so it is worth the effort to prepare the bed well the first time around. Annuals are just here for the one season, so if you don't get it right the first season, you can always fix it the next.