New here, and trying to develop my green thumb!

Greetings, all!

I'm new here - and pretty new to gardening. I've tried growing things in the past, but never with any luck. The garden I tried (for three years running) as a kid never made it past late April. I've killed cacti. The apple tree I tried to grow from seed as a kid fell victim to root rot before it was an inch tall. I have about the brownest thumb known to humans. If it's green, I kill it.

Until this season. This season, I got a hair up my butt to grow my own herbs - I use a lot of them - to try and save money. That herb garden started in early March - both as part of a windowsill herb kit and a 12-pod Jiffy seed kit to grow the other herbs not included in the kit. Everything sprouted, and spouted strong, within a week. That weekend, the herb garden expanded into herbs and Jalapenos. Once again, everything sprouted like weeds. The weekend after that, the pepper garden expanded to include more jalapenos, along with serranos and cayennes. Plans were also formed to soon include tomatoes and strawberries. This past weekend, two transplant habanero pepper plants were added, along with three varieties of tomatoes and strawberries.

The final list of what I'm growing this year:

Herbs:

Basil (both sweet and Italian flat leaf)
Oregano
Parsley
Thyme
Rosemary (one bush from a cutting and three (and maybe more) from seed)
Cilantro

Peppers (5-7 plants each, unless otherwise noted):

Jalapeno
Serrano
Cayenne
Orange Habanero (only two plants)

Tomatoes:

Rutgers (heirloom)
Roma (heirloom)
Sweet 100 Cherry (hybrid)

Strawberries:

12 plants of generic Mid-Atlantic everbearing strawberries

Everything is container grown (I rent, so even though I have a decent back yard, I cannot do anything that would uproot or kill the grass). I find myself seeking out cheap plastic containers as often as I can, and have gone through at least 98 quarts of potting soil so far.

The tomatoes are all in a topsy turvy planter, the peppers are all in a single 2' x 8" windowsill planter (to be transplanted into 3-4 3'x8" planters once they get a bit more mature and have been properly thinned), the herbs are all in either a single 2'x8" planter or their own pots.

The strawberries are currently in two 3' x 8" planter boxes (they were pretty ugly when I bought them, so I'm nursing them back to health - after only two days, they've made a BIG improvement - even the one that was almost completely wilted has made a recovery).

The potting soil that I've used for everything (I'm not going organic yet - right now, I'm just hoping to have a successful crop) is Miracle Gro Moisture Control Potting Soil. Everything has been growing like crazy in it. If this season is successful, next season I plan on trying some of the organic mixes.

I'm open to any advice, suggestions, etc that anyone may have. I'm still a novice, and have learned enough online and from friends to be dangerous, but not nearly enough to be an expert.

It sounds like you are off to a good start.

The first trick is to learn how to ask specific questions. I have a 180 page book about growing giant tomatoes. It would be possible, I suppose, to write a book of equal length on each of the things you are growing.

Most of the generic advice for veggies you already know. Use good soil. Don't let things freeze or dry out. Isolate plants with diseases. A surprising thing, though, is the magic concoctions people spray on plants. Messenger (replaced by something else) to encourage growth and resistance to disease. Dried milk powder to encourage beneficial microflora. Mycorrhyzae to improve root effectiveness. Neem oil to drive away pests and prevent disease. Sea Kelp, Miracle Grow, and so on.

Herbs are not so needy as vegetables, I think. Most herbs I've grown (apart from basil) seem to be really happy in really crappy soil - kinda loose, kinda dry, kinda devoid of organic materials.

I don't know why I'm writing all this. Not sure I could grow a tomato in a perfectly controlled greenhouse. But I have three sage plants, some rosemary and thyme. No parsley.

I kill things so take this with a bag of salt but as far as peppers go I've found the less I try to help them the better they grow. You may need to bring the habaneros inside in the fall because it usually takes them 150 to 180 days to produce. The peppers you listed generally suffer if the nights aren't at least in the 50's so putting them out too early usually either kills them or stunts their growth temporarily so bring them inside if you think it's going to get chilly. I'm sure you know over watering any plant is bad but sometimes pepper plants will wilt if it's a really sunny hot afternoon so don't immediately assume they need water without sticking your finger in the soil to see if that's actually the case.

I am trying Jalapenos too and am also just starting out, mine are sprouting very very slowly, I planted them in February and they are still very small in their seed starters. I have found they seem to like the soil a little dryer, I have heard that also helps them produce a hotter flavor, along with hot temperatures. My jalepeno looked a little wilted today, so I am hoping it perks up by the time I come home.

I started my jalapenos from seed about two months ago. Mine grew fairly quickly. I haven't done anything except water them. They're also planted in Miracle-Grow Moisture Control Potting Soil (so they're not exactly organic).

At the same time, I just had another rosemary plant sprout after nearly a month in the seed pod (I'm saving all of my non-sprouting pods until the sprouted pods are ready to transplant - just when I think they're garbage, they often surprise me with a sprout).

As for peppers liking their soil dryer, from what I understand, they like to be well-watered early on while they're growing their main stem/bushy leaves. Once they start producing peppers, they like to be a bit dryer, particularly once the peppers are close to ripe (a process known as droughting them). Some people think this makes them hotter. Others don't. Stick with your personal experience on this.

After two months, both indoors and outdoors (peppers love hot and moist weather), my jalapenos are going strong.

wow those peppers look great! I guess I will start some new seeds and try again. I probably fudged it up trying to dry them out too early!

I am so jealous of your jalepenos. They look lovely! I am unable to grow them in my climate (too cold).

When my husband and I were first dating (and I was head over heels in love with him), I told him that I make my own salsa. He looked amazed and jokingly said, "Will you marry me?".

Let me tell you, even though I was laughing along with him, it was at that moment when I knew I loved him! For a very brief moment, I actually thought he was serious! I would have said yes on the spot!

Moral: the way to a man's heart truly is through his stomach! :)

Here is my little garden! We live in a city so our backyard is teeny!

Thank you to each and every one of you for your kind comments!

At this point, my jalapenos, while still doing very well, are the smallest of my plants. The birds ate the rest of my plants (except two serranno pepper plants). To replace the eaten plants, I bought two mature cayenne plants (the birds wiped out all of my cayennes), and one serranno plant (I still have two serranno seedlings going strong), and one Chile Red (a Mexican variety, that is supposedly "hot" - I'm assuming they're around serranno hot). I also added two Thai Dragon pepper plants to the collection. The jalapenos are still going strong, and looking really good. One of the Thai Dragons bloomed three days ago (picture in attachments).

In other news, all three tomato plants are blooming like mad, and the strawberries are producing more flowers than I'll know what to do with. Ten plants originally, but I haven't been cutting runners, so we're more like 16-18 plants now. Roughly 16 flowers that have been fertilized and dropped their petals and are growing fruit. Additionally, there's at least 30+ more flowers blooming now, with three times that on the way with new buds. I'm hoping for a huge crop of strawberries over the next 30-45 days. I am keeping them all very well watered!

18-24" is normal for a most jalapeno plants so don't expect them to get very big. I've had 12-18" jalapeno plants growing in pots that still produced a fair amount of 2-3" peppers so don't worry too much if they look small.