Ok. I was just wondering about it because my Earthboxes have the same mix, MG, and per the instructions I had to add 2 cups of dolomite mixed onto the top 4"~5" to prevent blossom end rot (which it surely has the last 2 years I've grown tomatoes in them, my only problem is cutworms,lol). The last time I checked the official EB instructions only required lime for tomatos. I have gone round and round with 2 managers at EB about their odd insistence that only tomatos require the extra lime when using a potting mix already limed. They claim tomatos not only need more calcium that anything else, but that they want an alkaline pH which flies in the face of every other source on the planet. For my troubles they sent me a nice EB coffee mug. I think they just wanted to shut me up ;-) Bottom line is that all plants need calcium and magnesium and there is no reason to treat tomatos different than anything else. BER on tomatos and peppers, more often than not, is not due to lack of calcium in the soil or potting mix, but unevenness of water supply which is required to deliver that calcium to the developing fruits. It has been demonstrated in controlled experiments that just a few hours of not enough water (or too much water which oddly can result in the plant not getting enough water) leads to BER. Unfortunately, too hot of temperatures also leads to BER and this is because the plants will lose water via the leaves faster than they can take it up via the roots and this results in an interruption of calcium to the developing fruits. Not much we can do about this one. My plants in regular containers haven't thrived like the ones in the boxes, that's why I was considering adding some lime and fertilizer into the MG mix. The lime won't help you. You don't need to raise the pH of a commercial, peat based mix as it is pH adjusted already with dolomitic lime. Possible reasons your plants in regular containers have not done as well as those in Earthboxes are better aeration in EBs as well as more consistent water supply. Consistency of nutrient supply is also a possibility. The EBs are really terrific to taking guesswork out of the equation. The folks who designed the boxes and the method clearly knew what they were doing. The good news is you can get results just as good in a regular container. Because you are giving up the water reservoir, you need to pay more attention to your watering. Because you are giving up the fertilizer strip you need to pay more attention to your fertilizing. Because you are giving up bottom watering you need to pay more attention the the tendency of your chosen mix to compact from top watering which reduces oxygen in the mix. I forgot to mention that I have some Dyna-Gro liquid grow plant food, 7-9-5, that I use on occasion for my few Japanese Maple trees. Terrific choice. Supplies all essential plant nutrients. I recommend you use this rather than the granular stuff that served you well with the EBs. Be careful not to water too much with the peat based potting mix, especially with peppers. Let the mix dry a couple/few inches down between waterings and use the DynaGro Grow formula according to instructions. You should do just fine. For best results, do not reuse the mix next year. Replace it. If you want a longer lasting mix, take a look at any thread by Tapla in this forum.

In my opinion, if you are only planting 2 or 3 tomato plants, there is no reason to stagger them. I am in zone 7 North Carolina, so my growing season is likely different than yours, however, my tomatoes grew and produced all summer long and into the fall some, not just 1 month. Plus the tomatoes you are planning to grow are 3 different types used for 3 different purposes (roma, slicing, cherry) so it is ok to have some of all at the same time. Do check to make sure if the tomato varieties you are growing are determinate or indeterminate. Indeterminate tomatoes can easily be trellised 1 per square foot by keeping the suckers pruned as it grows upwards. Tomatoes do not grow onto a trellis by themselves like beans do - as they grow, you weave them in and out up the trellis. I have left about a little over a foot of room behind my trellis that I can walk behind it and tend to my trellised plants from the back side. In fact, my garden interior dimensions are approx 18 feet x 2.75 feet (31-32 inches). I have that 32 inches divided into 3 squares - 12 inches, 12 inches, and 7-8 inches deep for the back square where my trellis is. My trellis sits about 3-4 inches in from the back garden edge over the middle of my 8 inch square. This was plenty of space for my tomatoes planted one plant per 8" deep x 12" wide square last year. I did keep them pruned to one main vine only. I have read that sugar baby watermelon can easily be trellised. I have those seeds myself and will be trellising them this year. I will also note that I have a very strong trellis. I will be growing the following on my trellis ... peas, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew (if I can ever find any seeds!), cucumber, blackeye peas (cowpeas). Peas and beans are planted on the trellis in 2 rows of 4, one row on each side of the trellis, all in one square foot, which will give you 8 bean plants per square foot. Cucumber is planted 2 per square foot in one row along the trellis. Unless you are pickling cukes, I think 1 or 2 plants is plenty. If you do 2 squares of beans, 1 square of cukes, and 3 squares of tomato, that is your 6 feet of trellis. However, here is an idea ... you were going to originally have 2 beds of 4x4, I am assuming they were side by side ? If so, could you do one bed of 3x8 ? There is no such thing as too much trellis in my opinion ! With 8 feet of trellis, you could also trellis your sugar babies. If you do not trellis the watermelon, I think you should plan on putting it elsewhere, as they take up a lot of room on the ground. Or possibly plant it in a corner of the bed and sprawl it outside of the bed. Assuming 3x6, with your 6 squares of trellis planned for, that leaves 12 squares ... I recommend the following ... plant your 2 pepper plants in the middle row next to the tomatoes on your trellis. The 10 remaining squares can all be broccoli and carrots and the watermelon. Staggered planting for those would be good. I have read online to plan for 5 to 10 broccoli plants per person and 20 to 40 carrots per person. Obviously, you will not have room for all that, so do what you can. Mel recommends 16 carrots per square. My carrot packages call for 2-3" spacing between carrots which would be 36 carrots per square on 2" spacing (6 rows of 6) or 16 carrots per square on 3" spacing. Last year, I think anniesgranny planted on 1.5" spacing at 64 carrots per square !! She harvested some of them as baby carrots though and reported great results. Watermelon will likely yield 1-2 melons per plant. This is also my first year for broccoli. I have read that once you cut the first head, more little ones will sprout from the cut area. Broccoli & carrots are spring/fall veggies, while all of your others are summer veggies. In the south, we have a definite spring season and a very hot summer season which does not work for broccoli & carrots thru the summer. My broccoli will be done by about June 1, at which point I will put something else in that space (bush beans) and then in the fall I will plant the cool weather crops again. You grow girl website has a seed planting chart based on last frost date that is easy to use ... http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/, click on The Lazy Gardener's Seed Starting Chart. For companion planting, this website has a long descriptive list http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html. If you do end up using cinder blocks, a lot of people use the holes in the blocks to plant other things like herbs, flowers, onions, etc. Be sure to calculate the width of the blocks in your plan to account for what the interior dimensions of your garden will be. My bed is built with 4x4's of treated lumber and 2x8's of untreated lumber. I do not have an answer on the slugs question, as I luckily did not have a problem with them. I have just started my first compost bin this year as well, so am not speaking from authority, but I think there is no problem with compost being in the shade from what I have read. Mine is, so I really hope it is fine ! You can build a free compost bin by using shipping pallets (find for free on craiglist) and tie them together with wire coat hangers. It also looks pretty nice in my opinion with the boards oriented vertically. Do a google search for compost bins made from pallets. Finally, check out the square foot gardening forum on gardenweb and also read the FAQ's for that forum. Sorry this reply is sooooooo long ! : )

Hi Marda, We go through 8 5.5 oz cans of Trader Joe's canned food a day. 4 in the am, 4 in the pm. That's for 8 cats, and leftovers go out for the possums. I could probably taper it down to 3 cans twice a day, but we have one diabetic and he needs to eat, so I worry about running out. And the possums certainly don't mind the extra! I think the amount of food would depend on the ingredients. Higher carb content should be feeding less. They also get 1/2 cup of Evo dry food twice a day. I like the Evo for them - it's high protein, low carb, grain free dry food (50% protein, 22% fat & 7% carbs). It doesn't sound like much, but it's highly concentrated protein & fat so they don't eat as much as they would regular dry food. We measure it out, and when it's gone, it's gone until dinner. I never free feed the dry food. They seem to go in phases. Sometimes the canned food is completely eaten out, other times the dry food is gone first. And some days they eat more than others. Go figure. I think they like the variety. If your cat prefers dry food, you might like to check out the Evo. Here is a link that might be useful: Evo Cat Food

BlueberryHill, I posted to your question the other day but was in a rush and it looks like I didn't click SUBMIT! I'm so sorry. My DD2 is 16, she has a skin condition call Ichthyosis and has had it since she was an infant. It makes her skin look like scales though the scales are not raised. It does break open between the scale delineations and bleed. We use Eucerin Cream on it to help keep it in check because there is no cure for it. She also has excema of the scalp. She's been having a lot of swelling in her knees and pain in her upper back all the time but x-rays and MRI have revealed no problems. I'm going to take her to see a Rheumatologist. That might be an avenue you might want to consider. My son has Psoriasis, he just had his first outbreak this past summer. No signs what-so-ever prior to that and he has it BAD! So far there are no other symptoms of anything else, he is 24. Not to scare you at all but Lupus is often diagnosed by having a combination of a butterfly shaped rash over the nose and cheeks along with painful joints. In some other cases there are other autoimmune diseases that are linked to rashes. I think I would check with a doctor before trying other remedies just to be on the safe side. JMHO. I wish you, and your little daughter, the best in finding answers, she is just too too young to be faced with stuff like this. I hope it's nothing serious. Nancy, I'm very excited for you about the possibility of knee surgery. The Rancher was having terrible pain in his knees and waited six months for an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon just to find out what was going on. In the end he had very badly torn miniscus' in both knees and some ligaments that had detached completely. Additionally there was the osteoarthritis. The surgeon was able to trim away the destroyed parts of the miniscus and reattach the ligaments. Then he cleaned the surfaces of the bone that were rubbing so that even though they rub together they rub more smoothly for now. He has very little pain now, it's really wonderful for him. I hope you have as wonderful a result!! Edna, I appreciate the crossing of fingers and anything else that wouldn't hurt you, LOL!! Hugs, MeMo