Carolina Gardening: Is it too late to plant a veggie garden the first of June?, 0 by pyromomma

pyromomma wrote:
You can still get tomatoes and most of the others. Most of the big boxes and nurseries have larger plants that you can put in, certainly into large containers. And I think that for some crops (radishes and lettuce, certainly) you are to plant successive waves of them for all season.

I was going to build a raised bed this year, but stuff happened and it got too late.
So I use 18 gallon Rubbermaid tubs with 12 3/8" holes drilled in the bottom (I stack them and drill them 4 at a time) and 4 holes drilled about 1 inch up the side in case the bottom plugs to keep it well drained. I put a layer of landscape cloth or wire mesh in the bottom. foloowed by an inch or 2 of either coasrse wood mulch or styrofoam pellets (reduced the amount of dirt and gives better drainage). Then I mix 1 part Mushroom compost with 2 parts Pine Fines and 1 part cheap bedding mix. I put down about 2 inches of that mix and sprinkle a small handful of the Watersorb crystals and a good fistful of Osmocote. Mix it lightly then top off with about 5 inches or up to 2 inches from the rim with the soil mix, mixing in a bit of the osmocoat type fert. in the upper layer. By layering it that way the watersorb stuff stays low and encourages the roots to grow deeper (or so I have heard) and deos not float up to the top. We will see- I have 2 of the smaller blue tubs with Watersorb and 2 without. Planted the tomatoes with one of 3 kinds of basil on the side plus the bigger ones have a pepper plant of some sort, too - I got a bunch of seeds in a swap and they are all doing very well. Some sweet peppers and some hot peppers, too.
The nice thing about that is that when it gets really hot you can move them to where they get a little cooling off and are easier to water, or move them up by your back door once they start getting ripe so you can graze on them as you go in and out.

I have 14 'mater plants (2 per big tub and 1 each in the smaller), mostly heirlooms (got a great deal at our garden club sale for 50 cents each) plus a few that I started from seed (yellow pear tomatoes and a yellow sungold cherry tomato). The ar all going great guns. I am amazed at how fast they grow. Also have several cucumber plants and some bush beans that I just planted last week and are sprouting today.
Try it! A pack of seeds is just pennies per plant and if it works, it works!
Lorie in Cola
(photo of my little garden)