Here are some of my other photos for your info:

What I tried to grow:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30979426&l=e69be243ac&id=59700229

Seedlings:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30984612&l=bf7ac26adc&id=59700229

Spring planting:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=31069081&id=59700229

Potatoes that later died:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31069084&l=91025b5039&id=59700229

My new raised bed for fall garden (snap peas, mustard, spinach):
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31177780&l=53f73978d9&id=59700229

Hi Ryan, sounds like you have been a busy fella! Experience is the best teacher, you know, but there are lots of seasoned gardeners on here who can be tons of help.

I would just like to mention that if you could post your pictures in your message it would be a great help and much easier for us to see your handy work. You already have the hard part done, now you just need to add the following: img src="insert your link here" but be sure to add the html brackets at the beginning and end respectively of your total string. Hope this helps, and happy gardening!

Tanya

Hi Ryan

First of all I am not a writer but if I was and if I was writing a book on gardening it would be titled "Lazy Assed Gardening". (is it one word or two? see, I told you I wasn't a writer).

Some plants absolutely require the richest of soils whereas other plants prefer things a bit weak and gravelly. Some plants cannot survive any weeds anywhere near them yet others mix and mingle without a problem. Over time you will be able to figure out whats going on - its different from year to year and different in different people's gardens.

Not only will you have to learn to read your plants but you will have to learn to plan ahead and stick to a schedule. There is a bit of wiggle room but the most successful gardeners are really good at going with the flow. It kinda depends on what you want to grow - and how much work you want to do.

Raised beds solve a ton of problems if you have bad soil or if your yard is overrun with weeds or voles (your new worst enemy).

An easy soil mix is to combine one bag of dark top soil with one bag of pine bark fines. By top soil I mean a bag labeled top soil, garden soil, potting soil, compost or any combination of the above. It needs to be dark and full of nutrients, some have fertilizer already in them. Some brands can be kinda sticky which is ok if you're gonna mix it with a high fiber component like pine bark or peat moss. Most brands of this stuff are designed to be blended in with your garden soil. If you want to use it in containers (which a raised bed is essentially) you need to extend it more with some form of fiber. The cheapest is pine bark fines, which can also be found labeled triple shredded pine bark. It should be very fine (almost like sawdust) but if it is coarse thats ok, but hard on your hands when you mix it or work in it. Peat moss is a pain to work with so I don't recommend it unless you are just gonna spread it around and let nature work it in for you.

You just mix the two bags together. If you need more and don't have enough top soil, buy an extra bag of pine bark fines - they are more important. What you want is a very fluffy mixture. Roots need air just as much as they need moisture.

Tomatoes, Potatoes, Peppers and Eggplant are all related and pretty much require rich soil that drains well. Tomatoes tend to grow taller than the tallest tomato cage you can buy so I don't use them. I pound two 6 foot T-posts into the ground on either side of the plant and use garden twine to keep them upright (they still sprawl around).

Squash, Cucumbers, and Melons grow fast and take up a lot of space. They also like rich soil. They like a lot of water but hate to sit in wet soil so they can be tricky in most gardens.

Herbs tend to like dryer soil with low nutrition. Hardly any of them like clay. Basil grows pretty much like tomatoes.

Onions like dark soil that drains well and most of them require cold periods to affect whether they are gonna bloom or make a bulb. Some of them just take a long time to size up.

Rabbits love to eat pepper plants right down to the soil level.

I am a novice gardener too and my seedlings were puny, leggy, dead, or otherwise not successful. I'm going to try winter sowing this year. Read through the FAQ on the Winter Sowing forum and see if you might want to try it too. I've been saving my soda bottles, Chinese take-outs, etc all summer.

Ryan I think everyone develops favorite methods for growing veggies. I like John's tie-up methods for tomatoes!

I'm in Greensboro on sticky clay and have had good results using some of that clay for it's moisture and nutrient holding qualities, but diluting it with cow manure that comes bagged as well as the bark fines John uses. The clay/manure/bark mix is about a foot deep into the ground and is mounded above the ground. A heavy fork is the easiest way to mix all this heavy stuff up and get down a foot. If you put plants in before the soil warms up, they will just sit there until it warms enough. The mixing and raising of the soil level does help it warm up because clay stays cold a long time. Plant the tomato up to the top few leaves in the soil, stripping off any leaves that would be underground, and do your best to keep moisture even. Basil does seem to like growing with tomatoes. Peas, bush and pole string beans, carrots like this soil mix, and so do canteloupes which need an amazing amount of room but are worth it in my opinion.

I haven't tried starting cold sensitive plants with winter gardening but have had luck with flowers like echinacea and alyssum and read that others have luck with starting heat-loving veggies that way. The plants stay smaller than you think will thrive but if you can protect the small bunches of seedlings you put in, they grow quickly. I have started seeds under lights a long time and still hedge my bets by buying some plants to go in with the home-starts.

Ryan I just read your post where your huge amount of clay ate the compost you added. Sorry you had that experience! My garden isn't as large as your so I think I use a higher % of compost to clay. All the best of luck for your fall garden.

Ryan, I'm going to add a chapter to John's LazyAssed Gardening about my spectacular success raising shrubs and perennials by just forgetting to take them out of the pot,dig a proper hole and plant them.
You know how some flowers come in 6-12 pack of young plants? Some of mine are still in the packs and have rooted down to the soil and have bloomed their fool heads off all summer long. I have monstrous beautyberry shrubs and in summer you'd never know I forgot to plant them before they took root out the bottom of the pot(uh..5 years ago)(not really attractive in winter when the pot shows).

This year I actually got more in the ground than on the ground. Funny part is in the garden beds, there's no difference in size or vigor of the plants that still sit in their pots rooted out the holes in the bottom.
Best can be said is that certain plants that prefer really good drainage kinda like having some of their roots up in the potted soil.

And Ryan...quit using that peatmoss. It works best for Northerners and those with more sandy topsoil.
Go find some rich mushroom compost(stinky stuff) and work that in with your clay and bark fines.(what Lowes labels as 'soil conditioner')
If you're planting high nitrogen users next year, start saving your peanut shells. Grind them up in a food processer(blender doesn't work) and save it in a jar for top dressing. Marvelous stuff..just be sure not to use the shells from salted in the shell peanuts. With that I grew dinnerplate sized spinach leaves in a raised bed a few years back.

Depending upon where you live in Charlotte, I might let you borrow my Mantis to work those amendments into the soil if you need a small tiller. Where are you in Charlotte anyway?

Dottie- you could always very carefully cut the pot away from the soil of the rooted thru plants. I've had that happen before, but it's never been where i wanted to leave something, so i end up yanking it up. One poor viburnum did it like 3x, til i got wise and put the pot on cement where it couldn't do that anymore until i could get it in the ground. Shame on me it took me that long.

Ryan- you're getting a good start. I've not had issues with my oregano in red clay, but it's in a raised, well drained bed which has reverted to clay, so maybe that makes a difference. At one point it was amended but the clay long ago gobbled all the good stuff. Everyone knows sand gobbles compost, but clay does it almost as bad. I find that many things will grow in the clay as long as it's been amended once when you plant and then mulched each year after (which keep working down into the soil). So long as clay can stay moist, not soggy or dry, most plants do fine in it. It does hold nutrients and water better than potting soil mixes or sand either one. In droughty years that is a huge plus. Mulching seems to be key to keeping the clay evenly moist- and not too thickly, either, or it will repel too much water. I lay down a very thin layer of well composted horse manure or home compost and then mulch on top of that with about an inch or so of double shred or whatever i can get my hands on once or twice a year as i get to it. The compost seems to really help fertilize and make the clay more amenable to moisture- it's amazing what such a thin layer does- and the mulch keeps it in.

As for seeds, i really like the winter sowing technique, and for other things like veggies, cell packs better than jiffy pots. I've always had trouble with the jiffys wicking or getting too dry and being hard to rewet and then being too restrictive in the soil. If you have to peel off the pot, the point of doing the jiffys is moot, so why not use cells or slightly larger plastic pots. Most things can handle being handled a little- for the things that can't you can try making newspaper pot or something similar.

You absolutely have to feed seedlings with a weak solution of plant food or they just sit there. Easiest way i've found is to put a dilute solution of whichever brand you prefer in a spray bottle and spray them lightly once or twice a week- let the seedlings' stage and growth be your guide. That gives them a gentle foliar feed, which gets them going fast. You do need to wait til they have true leaves to do it, but that doesn't take long for most things. I don't fertilize my winter sown stuff unless i want to grow it big before i set it out- most things that do well with winter sowing can go in the garden at small sizes and fare well that way. You can use potting soil that has some food in it for those seeds too- i put it in the bottom of the containers so the roots reach for it, but it doesn't burn them when they first emerge. There's a whole forum for & about winter sowing, if you're interested. Highly recommend reading the FAQ's and going from there. It's much easier than any other way i've tried and there have been plenty!

Do not forget to add lime to your soil. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. will get blossom end rot without calcium (found in the lime).
If you like to grow zuchinni, try it at the feet of some corn. I grow what is called the three sisters method. Plant corn, and the put beans at their base (they will use the corn to grow on) and then the zuchinni (or cucumbers or any other vining plant like melons and such) to act as a living mulch under the corn/beans. This method has been used for thousands of years and maximizes space.
When it comes to seedlings I like to mix some compost in with my potting soil as a slow release fertilizer.