i Would just run the sprinkler on and off a lot for a day to soften the area first to make digging easier. I think you can work over sprinkler lines but I don’t believe they are that deep so dig carefully.

It has been raining the whole day so it is already soft and wet. Not sure why my husband and i cant dig it out.

So finally my husband have dug up the space and i was just reading ur note to understand. For the grass part i have dug to 8 inches deep and do we put that grass back inside again? Wont it grow back again? Before putting all the mix dirts.

also im reading alot that people r mixing their dirt or doil with compost? where do i get that? or do i need to add to my dirt top soil?

If they just seeded the yard for the grass... then yes just put the grass at the bottom the bed. it Won’t be able to grow through the depth of soil you are putting back on top.

Compost is just organic matter and acts as a mild fertilizer. Your potting soil is both of that for now, so you are good. After your plants are taller, you can always mulch on top with compost if you want. Post more pics of your progress!

i got more bags of all purpose mix for in ground now since im growing on thw ground. will that work as compost too? also how many bags of that i would need? i got 4 baga of top soil and i got 4 bags of compost to mix in with the dirt from the ground. will that be enough for everything. i will post pics after raining has been stopped. it has been raining here since yesterday and now it is raining heavily.

Any if the Bagged stuff will add organic matter. You will need to determine how much you need to fill the bed a bit above where you want it. All the mixing will fluff it up now so it will setting down after a while and with watering

Thank you i will be updating with pictures today.

Depends on the plants and the root systems, but many of your plants will survive being transplanted into the new improved raised bed. And even with the ones that are marginal, doesn't hurt to try. Baby plants can be remarkably hardy . . . or not . . . Little lettuces and beets and radishes and such can just be added to salads.

"... do we put that grass back inside again? Wont it grow back again? "

It depends on the type of grass. Grass that sends out "runners" to propagate (like Bermuda) will come back.. Grass that sprouts from seed won't. You can turn it upside down and bury it. But if you want to be on the safe side, toss the grass away.

You are totally on the right track. Dig your bags of amendments (including the potting soil) into the 8 inches of dirt. Just mix it all up as best you can. Then, you can plant in that. In addtioin to working in the organic stuff you bought, you are also getting some air into the soil giving the plant roots places to grow.

One of the keys here is that the dirt under your raised bed is not "nothing". It has valuable minerals and bacteria and other life that will be crucial to your garden that you can't buy in any bag. By combining it all you are getting the best of both worlds.

One last thing, once the weather gets a bit warmer, add a layer of mulch on top to keep the moisture from evaporating so quickly. You will have to water less, and you create an even better environment for the bugs and tiny organisms that break down all that organic stuff into food your plants can use. I save my fall leaves to use as summer mulch, but you can also just buy a bale of straw (not hay) at a garden center of big box store and that will last you for a year.

So everything is done. Very hard work and im so tired now. So i threw the grass away cuz i was scared of growing it back. Then we put 14 bags of top soil plus 5 bags of compost and 3 bags of potting soil. I did transfer the plants into the new garden bed. Lets see which ones will grow out.

One more question i had one of the okra seed had hole in the leaf is that bad should i take that out?

Also how do i thin them out? Its alot of seeds that came out. So many plants. What to do now? How will i know that they r growing?

One more question i have the grass that i dug out i put it in trash bags and they are alot like 15 of the 13 gallon bags. I want to use those grass to make it compost. How would i do that? My husband wants to through it out cuz he thinks it will just stink and do nothing. I watched videos people making compost of their grass. I wanna make more bed on the other side of my yard for flowers but i want to use all this to fill in that bed as a compost.

Just pile the grass up, water, and wait. Ideally turn it with a fork every month or so to aerate. It should be moist, but not soggy. You'll get compost pretty easily that way. If you don't turn the pile, and aeration is poor, you could end up with some rotten eggs-like stink. Ideally, dig in some ground up dried leaves and or straw.

I’m no expert but I’d leave the plant with the hole in the leaf for now.

As far as thinning the plants goes, the back of each seed pack usually list spacing suggestions. For example it may say plant 2” apart but thin to 6” apart, keeping/shifting around the strongest plants. The recommended spacing is to allow for mature growth plus proper airflow around the full sized plants.

I plant in raised beds - we farm and I have a lot of aged manure and organic matter in them so pretty rich soil. I tend to space my stuff quite a bit closer than suggested and do a lousy job of thinning - makes for some challenging harvesting at times.

Congratulations on getting so much done setting up your new beds and getting everything planted - it is a lot of hard work and your beds look fantastic!

Thank you inmomx3. I have done the spacing today n thinning lets see how they grow out.

one more question now i have done everthing how often should i fertilize the plants?

I’m a terrible fertilizer (thank goodness for all the manure and compost!) so I will let someone else answer better. I have thrown in the all season/extended releases stuff before though, so I didn’t have to remember throughout the growing season.

Check the bag of the potting soil you added. Most have fertilizer mixed in and that lasts at least a month if not more, depending. Read the instructions on the bag, it should say if fertilizer is incorporated and how long it lasts. There are different schools of thought on fertilizing. Some fertilize to the max once a month, others a little bit each week. I usually shake a slow release fertilizer on my beds midseason when the growth gets going. You don't want to fertilize too much, you'll get all leaves and no crops. Use a fertilizer mix designed for vegetables, it will say on the label. Also fast growth fueled by high nitrogen fertilizer tends to be weak and subject to insect infestations. That's why compost is so ideal, small levels of nutrients and slow release.

I'm gonna add to what others have said, give yourself a big pat on the back from me, that was a lot of work! Here's wishing you some yummy future harvests!

You've done a lot of work and a quick read of this very long thread shows you've done it right. I went through the same thing as you did. Many trips to the store for soil amendments and lots of digging in to mix the native soil with the amendments. Luckily, here in CA there's a company that specializes in amendments for our regional soil. It was a lot cheaper than potting soil or topsoil bags.

Keep up learning about gardening. It's a never ending series of questions, especially to a newbie like you. Not meaning to insult you by calling you a newbie by the way. We were all newbies at some point. And in forums like this, you can generally get an answer to just about any question you may have.

What you're using for fertilizer has a lot to do with how often. Your best bet is to choose a fertilizer and read the instructions. If you go with a dry fertilizer (like the shake on pellet or granular type), they usually don't require fertilizing as often.

I use Miracle-gro for tomatoes which is a powder you dissolve in water. Their instructions call for fertilizing every week or two weeks. I'm happy with the Miracle-gro for tomatoes (been using it for over 30 years) so I'll keep going with that

Thank you so much everyone. Yes im learning alot from all of you guys. My potting soil said feeds up to 6 months and i have also mixed the in ground one which was 3 months. Maybe after 3 months i will put in some more.

One more question my husband was saying i put the tomatoes buried too deep low. Please let me know if its ok or do i have to take it out and put it little high.

Tomatoes always get planted deeply....as much as 2/3's of the plant can be buried under the soil (some actually lay the plants horizontally in the soil and then just prop up the very top, which will then grow vertical).

Deep planting encourages a robust and well developed root system and therefore a healthier, more productive plant.

I always trim off the lowest leaves and just leave a few at the very tip of the plant. Then plant them deep so the tip is barely above soil level. Been doing this for years and years.

thank you so much everyone. lets see how many grows out and what happens. i will update when something grows bigger and bigger. thank you so much for everyone help.

What is this happening with my tomatoe plants??

Is it because of less water? Somebody please help me? Are they dead already??

you might be getting some nibbling by slugs to something one sons of those. Others just might shocked a bit from being lifted. You soil looks damp. Each time Let it dry up some Before watering again

Today i bought this and sprinkled the powdered on the plants. How often should i use this?

The answer to questions about how to use garden chemicals is - read the directions. Carbaryl is strong stuff, and actually pretty toxic to humans. Also pretty bad for honeybees and birds. I think you are cautioned to use it a limited number of times per year.

Ditto to that comment. If you do have slugs...You can get some Sluggo product which just uses iron to kill them. Sevin is a ruff product On the other hand.

run out there at night with a flashlight and see what’s going on. Slugs like damp soils so that’s another reason to let you soil dry out some before watering. Tomatoes are tuff plants and should start taking off once they settle in. no need for chemicals.

i did dry it out before watering again one day but still the leaves are dying so im watering them. so this sevin wont kill the slugs?

This was covered in another thread. If these are half-inch tall tomato plants in Houston at the beginning of May, you are NOT going to get tomatoes out of them. The heat will set in before they mature. Don't poison stuff for fun.

But i have other plants like okra that k planted and the leafs of those are also getting holes. Thats why i got those to sprinkle it on them. But the lady at the homedepot who works in the garden area said that they will grow n i will get tomatoes. So im not sure what to do. Im first time gardener and i dont know lot of stuff about planting.

I will see what happens this season and next season i will try to plant them early then.

Also i planted the seeds on april 9th and now they have about 4 leaves on them. Still growing.

You can always by veggie starts and drop them in

Naz, step away from the poisons. Slow down. Figure out what to do before you do it. Even if you do have a few nibbles on a plant, so what?

I don’t know how much that Sevin cost you, but you didn’t need it. It kills birds. It kills all kinds of good insects. There are far less poisonous ways to treat slugs—-if you even have them.

I don’t garden in Texas, so I don’t know if you can get tomatoes from a seed you didn’t start early. I do know this. For the price of that Sevin, you could have bought a lot of nice tomato plants at Home Depot.

The lady at the Home Depot is wrong. They're selling plants. They'll tell you what they need to tell you to sell plants. When nighttime temps get above 70F, tomatoes DO NOT pollinate. Period. That will happen, in south Texas, in a month or two. Those plants will not be flowering in a month or two.

Three inch tall veggie starts are not likely to make it a lot better, but would buy you a few weeks.

What you could try to do is keep them going until fall, to get tomatoes. but it would be smarter to plant out new plants in July or August. You won't find starts for those in the stores, so you should seed them in June.

Next year, you should be planting indoors in January, and setting out the plants in late February. That seems crazy to northern gardeners, but this isn't northern gardening. My cherries are now six feet tall, and have fruit on them already. The tomato season in south and central Texas is May-June. Might get a few ripening ones in July. But then it's over.

The holes in okra are worth some concern, but the zero order task there is to figure out what you're fighting. We can't do that for you. You need to go out at night with a flashlight. I've heard that Sevin can work on slugs and snails, but I had a desperate situation a few years ago with slugs and snails, where iron phosphate wasn't working, and I tried Sevin spray (which I try to avoid using). It didn't work.

I would just add that Home Depot workers are unlikely to have very valid growing information. They are just sales people, not trained nursery personnel or horticulturists, and may or may not even have much gardening experience! I would not rely on the accuracy of anything they told me!!

Thank you everyone. I guess i can sow seed in june for tomotoes and hopefully get tomotoes from them. For the sevin, i wont use it again if its too much harsh.

The holes in okra plants are same from the slugs as well. I will take a pic today and update those plants as well.

Here are the pics okra plants

These are the tomatoes plant

These mustard plants spinach plants and onion.

also i want to know the season for these plants if somebody can tell me. when to start the seeds and how many and if i should start the seeds in direct ground or in small cubes then transplant them in garden.

tomatoes: month to start seeds
mustard green:
onions:
spinach
cucumber
okra
cilantro
cabbage

thank you

You need to go to the vegetable gardening resource of your local ag extension. For you, that would be the same as mine, which is Texas A&M. You will find that here.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/

Their vegetable planting calendar, for Texas, is here

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/VegPlantingGuideJan2015.pdf

In that calendar, the average dates of first and last freeze is given, in general, for Texas (which is a big state). For you in Houston, those dates will be a little different, and can be looked up here, by zip code.

https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates

Those are AVERAGE dates, which means that you have a 50% chance of your frost intolerant plants getting killed. Add or subtract a few weeks if you want to be safer.

Thank you so much for the info guides.

Naz, it appears to me that the next time it's advised for you to plant carrots is in Sept. Likewise for mustard greens and spinach---Sept.

It appears it's too late for you to plant Onions. I think you start them from seed in Oct.

You can start your cucumbers and okra now.

I think you---in Texas---should be planting your tomato seeds in January.

In my experience, a healthy seedling can shrug off a little bit of insect damage such as your okra has. In fact, your okra looks good---not that I've ever seen it before.

Did you say your potting soil has fertilizer in it?

You've got one thing down---enthusiasm for planting. That will take you far.

Sevin will kill everything, even beneficial insects. The bad guys will rebound faster and you could end up with spider mites with no natural predators. As far as fertilizer goes, there will be directions on the package as to how much and how often to use it. More is not better. Have some tolerance for holes. Not every plant is going to be perfect and you'll still get something to eat. Since you live in Texas, Texas A&M has great resources for gardeners. https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/

Yes annpat on the packet it said it will feed up to 6 months for potting soil and for in ground it said 3 months.
Igteacher i have washed the sevin powder off the plants and didnt use it again.
Im not planting any more tomatoes plants whatever i have there lets see if they grow if not its ok. I guess i will try to plant on time next time cuz i have done alot this month and now im fasting cuz of ramadan and cant do much cuz of fasting. So whatever i have lets see how it grows out to for the next season i will try to begin early and start seeds in door then plant outside when they are big enough.

Thank you everyone for such good suggestions and guided. Im so thankful to everyone.