My garden looks awful!

I have never had much luck gardening since I have been in South Texas but this year I was gonna beat it. I did the lasagna garden and bought 5 earthboxes. I figured if my lasagna garden didn't do as well as I hoped at least I would have the earthboxes to fall back on. Well it all looks bad. The only thing that seems to be doing ok is one tomato plant I planted in the lasagna garden and a green bean I started from seed.

Here are some pictures. What is going on? The first is my green bell peppers planted in my earthbox about 4 weeks ago. I think they have grown an inch at the most. I used potting soil from Lowe's. I think it is called earth's best or something like that. It was cheap but it didn't list any fertilizers on it. I used a granulated dry fertilizer down the middle like the instructions said. I have the white side of the soil cover up because I figured the weather here would be much like south FL. Maybe I should have had the black side up.

Here is a close up of those pepper plants.

Oh, and thanks for taking time to read about my garden woes :)

Next are the pitiful tomatoes. I planted 4 in earthboxes and one in the ground. The one in the ground looks pretty good. The 4 in boxes don't look sick I don't think but they just aren't growing well. The one in the ground, from the same 6-pack is twice as big. The leaves on the earthbox tomatoes do look a bit reddish green IRL. BTW, my garden is shaded in the early morning but then gets a good 7 or so hours of full sun.

Laura

Here are the jalepenos, red and yellow bell peppers and a habenero (the habenero is the reason never to go shopping w/o your glasses, I thought it said jalepeno!).

They appear to have grown taller but just don't look real healthy. Yellowing on the leaves. Trailing on the leaves from some pest I assume.

Now that I think of it maybe I should have put all these in the container gardening forum. Sorry!

Laura

In the lasagna garden I have these zucchini. They have bloomed but are quite small and the leaves look awful. I have grown zucchini before and usually they are like monsters taking over everything if you aren't careful. I planted these about 4 weeks ago. I don't know if I need to just dig it all up and wait till fall or what. I am discouraged! I work my tush off building the garden and garden boxes all by myself!

That is shredded paper around them. At first I had cedar mulch but it made a great place for little green caterpillars to hide. I cleared an area around the plant and the soil dried out too fast so I added the paper to see if that helped.

Bare with me if you can. I have one more. My cucumber. I had two. I already pulled one out because from mid stem to leaves turned yellow and wilted. I add the red mulch hoping maybe it would do something positive for this sorry little plant. I trimmed off a lot of dried brown leaves and this is what was left. Again, I planted this at least 4 weeks ago. I am so dissappointed!

Laura

Hi Laura-What is a Lasagna Garden?
-Juli

Hi Juli,

Here is a link showing pictures http://www.bconnex.net/~carolw/lasagna1.html

Basically instead of tilling and digging you layer. You don't even need to remove the sod for a new garden. Layer with thick layer of wet newspaper then peat moss, compost, dried leaves, grass clippings, etc. Keep doing that until it is 12-14 inches deep. You can plant right away or let it 'cook' for a few weeks.

There is a book out about it. Sounded like a good idea at the time :)

I don't think they look all that bad. The plants you have chosen all like it hot, so maybe as the weather gets even warmer, they will do well for you. Don't forget to fertilize if those in the earthboxes are growing in soilless mix. I'm betting all the plants will take off and surprise you soon.

"Sounded like a good idea at the time"

gotta be concerned when I hear that since it was that reasoning that resulted in two marriages.

I wonder if the plants in your lasagna garden are too wet from all those mulch layers? That yellowing looks a little like a waterlogged seedling to me.

Look for Tplant's postings for great information about the Earthboxes. Again, I'm wondering if the cheaper potting mix you used is simply staying too wet.

Good luck, and I hope your garden improves!

That is what I was thinking Critter, maybe too moist. I live in Texas too, and it hasn't gotten hot yet on a consistant basis. My garden is coming up slower than usual too. Be patient and give those guys some sunlight.

i love my earth boxes, this is my first year of useing them, heres my tomatoes in it

Those tomatoes look great Starfly! My earthbox plants are starting to take off although the bell peppers haven't taken. They have been in the bxes for over 2 months now and haven't grown more than an inch. I *think* when I did my bell peppers I accidently added the hydrated lime called for in the tomatoes. Not sure if that could be the cause of the lack of growth or not.

Laura