I just wanted to let you all know I have decided to retire from Marty's Garden and the online world of gardening. I want to thank everyone for their support over the years. Everyone has been awesome and it's been an amazing journey of over 15 years I will close this account in a couple of days. I recommend that you reach out to any new friends and get their details so you can keep contact with them. Sending lots of love to you all. Marty & Sherly

Hi all, tomato's are usually a go to crop at my place and this summer is no different, infect I went overboard and have tomato's everywhere, but there is one that is perplexing me , I think its a Grammys throwing tomato, (the labels all blew away so i could be wrong) that I put in a old half while barrel pot that was set up for my blueberry that unfortunately didn't come back after re potting , it just hasn't grown, the ones in the bed nonboring it that were planted at the same time seem fine, could it have something to do with the Rose mix that was put I put in the post for the blueberry? as the other beds were prepared for tomato's at the start of the season shall i try it somewhere else? any advice would be appreciated

Hello again everyone. Such a sad story to tell today. I never have any luck with my creamy Dutch potatos. The dreaded 28 spotted lady beetle comes along and desecratesb my plants, everytime! I pulled up the potatoes yesterday and to my astonishment received my worst harvest yet. @Marty Ware perhaps you can offer some friendly advice. The soil looked healthy, most of the organic matter had been eaten by the worms, there were still a few worms in the soil. I add minerals to the soil. It is possible that they need more water but everything I show you is all in a row running on a drip line and as you can see everything else is getting enough water.

Christmas came early this year when I was taken to a different garden center and I stumbled on this one blueberry plant amongst the other berries, I asked if it they had others I could chose from but they confirmed what I had knows its probably the only one in SA (as there was issues with supply this season) so I get to try again since my last plant didn't like its move to a new pot, but it had to be done as it was falling apart. So we start again I'll start prepping the soil , wish me luck! I think i got this but being the unicorn of the garden centers lately, i feel a lot of responsibility!

I finally got into the garden after a busy week and todays job was digging out the potato bags, I've had the aussie gardener bags for a few years and they have been groin g well, however, this year i have got a lot less out of the bags then ever i got nothing out of one of the big bags. The plants were doing well and had been watered regally with the hose that leaks ( another thing for the shopping list) Id used Premium veggie potting mix with manure and sewed in the bag, usually the soil starts there and works its way to top up the beds, however after the miserable potato harvest i think im going to toss it. I'm thinking in future, buy a premium potting mix but add compost ,fertilizer, castings and manure myself. I did add mushroom compost layer as they were growing but I don't think it did much, just another one to add to the blueberry that didn't like its new soil. has anyone got some suggestions to make a decent soil for veggies ? Thank you