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Topic by Dooley posted 61 days ago 153 views 0 times favorited 1 reply Add to Favorites
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Dooley

2 posts in 61 days
hardiness zone 10a

61 days ago

Hello,

I built these garden boxes three weeks ago, I just came back yesterday from a two weeks absence. I’m pleased with what looks like great growth. However, I’m new to this and I would like to know from the pros, what to do as far as supporting the plants.

Here’s the link to the project. http://gardentenders.com/projects/135

View Colleen Vanderlinden's profile

Colleen Vanderlinden

12 posts in 55 days
hardiness zone 6a

55 days ago

Hi Dooley,

You’ve definitely got some awesome growth going there! As far as support, I’d suggest putting a wooden or bamboo stake near the tomato and using twine or something else to loosely tie the tomato to the stake. That will keep it from flopping over. For the cukes and the zucchinis, I like using either wire fencing (which you buy in rolls at the home center, and then support by stapling it to a couple of tall wooden stakes) or some of the premade sections of wood lattice they sell at the home centers as well. I find that they have an easier time attaching themselves to the wire, but if you’re willing to do some initial training and tying, they’ll do equally well on the wood trellis as well.

You’ve got a bit of powdery mildew going, and what looks like snail damage (and droppings). For the powdery mildew, you can use the methods outlined in this article I wrote for About.com: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/diseases/p/PowderyMildew.htm. For the snails, I would recommend sprinkling either used coffee grounds or crushed eggshells on the ground around your plants. Snails don’t like the way it feels to slide across these items, and they’ll stay away. In the case of the egg shells, sliding across the jagged edges of the crushed shells will cut them and they’ll die. If you go the eggshell route, just be sure to wash them out well with hot water before you use them in the garden—-you don’t want to attract other types of pests while you’re getting rid of your snails :-)

Good luck!

-- Colleen, inthegardenonline.com, organicgardening.about.com

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