Let me first say hello and thank you to everyone. I have just started my first garden and am having a lot of fun with it. Having found this site has probably saved me a bunch of wasted time and money. I like to read and read and read anytime I start a new hobby...interest or whatever and this place and you folk are a tremendous resource.
I have a couple of questions. I have read here that crushed egg shells can be beneficial but I was wondering how much to use and how large an area do you cover with them? Do you make a 3 inch diameter circle around the stalk for example?
I have also read that onions and basil among others are good to plant along with the tomatoes, but how close would you plant these to the stalk of the plant? Do you follow the spacing instructions on the plants themselves, or jam them in real tight in a nice little circle around the tomatoe?
Thanks,
Josh
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opabinia51
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 4659
- Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
- Location: Victoria, BC
Hi, welcome to the forums.
With regard to your eggshells. You want to crush them up as much as possible. I would leave maybe an inch around plants. Also, you can bury them in a trench dug around the root ball of plants.
When I plant tomatoe plants, I through some right into the whole before planting.
As far as companion plants are concerned. With tomatoes and basil, I would leave maybe 2-4 inches around the plants and be sure that you plant the basil after you tomatoe plants are well established. You can google companion plants to find if Tomatoes and basil are a good match but, purely from memory I think that they are.
Basil can take off if it is hot enough so, you want to make sure that it doesn't override your tomatoe plants.
With regard to your eggshells. You want to crush them up as much as possible. I would leave maybe an inch around plants. Also, you can bury them in a trench dug around the root ball of plants.
When I plant tomatoe plants, I through some right into the whole before planting.
As far as companion plants are concerned. With tomatoes and basil, I would leave maybe 2-4 inches around the plants and be sure that you plant the basil after you tomatoe plants are well established. You can google companion plants to find if Tomatoes and basil are a good match but, purely from memory I think that they are.
Basil can take off if it is hot enough so, you want to make sure that it doesn't override your tomatoe plants.