Seriously, I am tired of the stereotypes of leftists in the west looking like they all grow soy beans, as the fash call it ie weak as fuck. And almost to a large degree, it’s true.
I see chuds everywhere when I go to the community garden, and their plants are fucking huge ngl. They take care of their tomatoes. I don't care if you're growing potatoes, cucumbers, squash, artichokes, you have to have those fruits and leaves fucking huge and shooting to the sky and looking good. You want to help the cause? Help yourself. Do it for vanity, do it for others, do it for the greater good, I don’t care. Fucking weed and fertilize the best you can and get those veggies the biggest they can be.
It’s hard, but so is literally everything. Just know this is going to take 3-4 years of consistency. If you’re starting out, don’t worry about a garden layout, and just plant good shit. Your biggest goal at this point is consistency, watering 5 days a week. Do that over 3-4 years, and progressive growth every single day whether that be lettuce or whatever.
I want you fuckers to be fucking vain jesus fuck. Fuck your organics, use Miracle Grow for all I care, but have a green thumb while doing it. Slowly start doing more functional things such as eggplant or mushrooms w/e to truly maximise your gardening potential.
I have had fertilizer troubles often in the past, this year I picked up a sack of 13-13-13 and that stuff is like pepper crack cocaine, as soon as I see the green starting to get a little pale I sprinkle in a small bit and water it in and the plant gets dark green again within a week or two
OH! and I got a super cheap soil test kit so when I plant something I test the soil in the pot and then amend as needed
this is entirely dumb guy gardening, I enjoy doing it but I hate reading about it so i mostly fumble around in the dark until I hit on something that works and the 13-13-13 is like fertilizing on casual mode
I've been fertilizing most of my plants regularly this year but was kind of neglecting the peppers because I figured they'd be fine. Tomatoes are getting massive though and I've never had a cucumber plant get so large, it's covering an 8x8 area and is starting to overrun some of the other plants.
I've never had luck with tomatoes or tomatillos, bugs and birds get them before I can every single time. Eggplants are real fun though, I didn't plant any this year because last year I kept getting too many and didn't eat them all or made too much ajvar that never got eaten. They're really pretty plants on top of being super easy to grow, at least in my region (east texas). Wish I planted cucumbers this year.
Might be worth hitting the plants with something like Neem oil to keep the bugs off of them, not sure about the birds though. I've had people say I should put up netting or some kind of cover but I'd never forgive myself if I found a dead bird caught in it. First time I tried growing strawberries every time I went to pick a ripe one I'd find a beak sized chunk taken out of the side. I haven't gotten eggplants completely dialed in but I really enjoy the Japanese ones for being just overall easier to cook.
Yeah I'm not too worried about the birds, the bugs annoy me though. With peppers it's just easier to spend a few minutes every few days examining them and just remove and relocate the offending critters. The japanese eggplants are fantastic