My 2014 garden as of June 10th

[Balr14]

I planted everything from small plants purchased from local garden centers, after Mother's Day. But, the weather here has been awful; lots of wind, rain and cold temperatures (50s and 60s), even some hail. I think we has seen 3 days in the 70s. So, my plants are way behind what they looked like last year at this time. The lettuce doesn't seem to mind at all, though.

I had a lot of problems with rabbits eating my lettuce last year, so all of the lettuce is in the container carts this year.

[Brandon558]

Container cart is a idea.....very mobile if need be. Everything looks good and healthy!

[Fiishergurl]

What a beautiful garden!! Love it!

Ginny

[Dewayne mater]

Show room quality! Dang beautiful garden. Nary a hint of disease. Well done.

Dewayne Mater

[Karla]

Awesome!

[ginger2778]

Thats a lot of earthboxes. Don't you just love them? I am up to 43 now.I always say they are not idiot proof, but they are idiot resistant! Your garden is beautiful BTW. Nematodes? What nematodes?
How many do you have?

Marsha

[ricman]

Very nice!!! I am a huge fan of container gardening. Keep us posted on your progress.

Rick

[JamesL]

Nicely done!

[jmsieglaff]

Looking good! What varieties of tomatoes are you growing? What part of WI are you in?

[Balr14]

I attribute my success to blind luck. My mother gave me 2 Earth boxes for my birthday over 10 years ago (they are the two green ones). They sat in my garage unused for years, until about 6 years ago... I figured what the hell, lets see how these things work. So, I bought some tomato plants for one container, some pepper plants for the other and some potting soil mix. The containers were terribly overcrowded, but stuff grew.... lots of stuff! So I have been adding Earth boxes over the years and learning enough to get by. I now have 18 Earth boxes, 12 for tomatoes and 6 for lettuce, peppers and herbs. I have tried other containers, including a number of DIY designs. They don't seem to work as well and only last a couple years.

No Nematodes, no pests, no diseases ever. I've never sprayed or treated any plant. I just feed them a tablespoon of Miracle Grow through the tube once a week and add occasional Tomato Grow or something. I fill the reservoirs every other day now; when it's gets warmer it will be every day. On the rare really warm days in July and August, I may have to fill the reservoirs twice. I lost 2 Green Zebras about 3 years ago and have a grafted Black Krim that looks like crap now. That's been the extent of my problems.

I think the combination of Earthboxes and the heat and sun on my patio are giving me yields that far exceeds what would be normal. My neighbor plants a conventional in-ground garden and my plants dwarf hers. Plus, her tomato plants are done in September and mine usually last until at least mid-November. She usually gets 300 - 400 tomatoes. Last year I got over 5000. I was taking them to farmers markets to sell on weekends because I couldn't get rid of them and we were out of room in the freezer. I have been growing mostly heirlooms and cherry tomatoes. This year I'm doing some new hybrids (for me) and other cherries. It should be interesting.

I live in Germantown, which is a suburb of Milwaukee. Here's a tomato list:

Health Kick Roma
San Marzano
Amish Paste
Purple Cherokee
Black Krim
Green Zebra
Red Sugar Berry
Yellow Sugar Berry
Yellow Pear
Tomato Chela
Black Cherry
White Cherry
Sweet 100
Golden Jubilee
German Johnson
Sun Gold
Grafted Mr Stripy
Grape
Patio
Sweet Million
German Queen
Indigo Rose
Old German

[KarenO]

everything looks lovely. Very nice garden!
Karen

[Balr14]

Thanks for all of the nice words! It got way up to 69 today! The plants are going nuts!

Lake Michigan is much colder this year than normal and they say it will effect our temperatures for at least another 3 or 4 months.

[emma818436]

that is a beautiful garden. now if only my garden was that pretty...

[lexusnexus]

Beautiful plants. The lettuce looks yummy!

Dan

[Balr14]

I got the date wrong in my thread title, it should be June 8th. Anyway, it's been cold (50s - 60s) and rainy here all week... today is the first time the sun has come out. So, the tomatoes haven't done much, but the lettuce plants seem to love it. I've already pulled about 8 lettuce plants and the rest fill in the space immediately. These pictures are with the plants pulled from the earlier pictures.

1. summertime head with some butter crunch and a dinosaur kale.
2. summertime and Paris Island romain
3. Raisa
4. One Arugula in with some peppers... I learned not to put arugula in with lettuce.
5. next crop of lettuce... should be ready to plant in a week or so.
6. My herb garden... what am I going to do with all of that cilantro?