I wanted to thank everyone for their kind advice on my first post.

I’ve got my plants in the ground, and I figured I’d give updates on my progress so I can get more guidance and contribute to the content available here on Lemmy.

From the back of the bed by my chain link fence, I’ve got two pairs of two varieties of cucumber, with some lettuce planted in the back corner. I intend to train those cucumbers onto the fence to ensure they didn’t take over the bed.

In the middle, I’ve got one each of rosemary, dill, African basil, sweet basil, and peppermint.

On the front, I’ve got some determinate and semi-determinate tomatoes to include one Celebrity, two Roma, and one Green Zebra plants.

I’ve lined the front and left side with Marigolds, transplanting six plants and seeding some more in the spaces in between.

I’ve also got an indeterminate Whopper tomato plant in a big planter a short way to the left of the bed, and a container with onion starts.

I realize that my depth will likely not be enough for the larger plants, but I’m trying, nonetheless. I’m particularly hoping the determinate tomatoes might work out.

I’ve got pictures of most everything, but I wasn’t sure if it would be obnoxious to post them all.

I watered daily the first week with a can, then deeply watered at the end of the week with a new wand I bought for my hose. The next week, I backed off to ensure I didn’t over-water, but I made sure to do the finger test daily to ensure the soil was staying moist.

With rain over the last few days, my tomatoes have started to flower, though they haven’t gotten much taller. The marigold seeds have broken ground, along with the lettuce and, surprisingly, my onions, with I had started much later.

I’m considering what I need to do next. Two weeks in, I’m thinking some fertilizer is in order. I’m also wondering whether I need to do some sort of spray or something for pests. A few of my cucumbers seem like something is eating the leaves.

I did prune some tomato leaves that were dragging on the ground. I’ve heard it’s important to do that to avoid fungal issues.

One issue I’m concerned about is that there’s a lot of shade in the morning. However, the bed does get full sun in the afternoon for 6-8 hours. I’m hoping the early shade will offset the brutal summer sun here in South Carolina. It gets terribly hot and the UV seems high here, and I’ve seen at least one gardener I follow on YouTube just to the northeast of me who recommends shade cloth for tomatoes and cucumbers as temperatures rise

What do you guys think so far? Would you like some more pictures?

  • dgdft@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    18 hours ago
    • I don’t want to spoil your fun with the mint, but the runners above ground aren’t the ones to worry about. Mint likes to spread through its roots… a lot. Best kept in a container ;).
    • Most pests are visible to the eye, but there are a few exceptions like spider mites. You’ll typically know you have them by other obvious signs though. A loupe can be helpful for insect ID, but isn’t crucial.
    • You can mostly ignore the nutrition from that compost. You’d have to do some math to know the impact of that fertilized garden soil, but it’s likely quite modest. Feel free to use 1/2 - 3/4 the recommended amount of granular for the first month or two if you want to be conservative.
    • High NPK numbers aren’t necessarily good or bad, but they are more concentrated and can be more liable to burn things, depending on their form factor and nutrient release pattern.
    • As for lettuce/onion seedlings, ideally you till some fertilizer into the bed while you’re prepping it. You could give them some liquid fertilizer at half-strength to make up the difference - but yeah, they’ll still do fine if you just sidedress in a couple of weeks. Both those plants really like higher-nitrogen feeds, so you might want to think about getting a different fertilizer for them down the road.

    All that being said, don’t feel obliged to follow any of this if you don’t want to. You’ve definitely set yourself up to get something edible and tasty, so don’t sweat the details if it starts getting in the way of your fun. Hope it helps and happy gardening!