Welcome to Frog Pond Veg Patch! We're Kelly and Dan, gardening enthusiasts with 20 years of experience. We believe gardening should be relaxing and fun, not stressful, and reflect your personality.
We created this channel to share our simple, no-nonsense approach to organic gardening. We avoid anything overly complicated or time-consuming and aim to help you tailor an approach that suits you.
But gardening is more than just planting. What can you cook with your prized veggies? How can you support local wildlife while still protecting your beloved plants? Can you make money from your garden without setting up a farm stall? Our goal is to share with you the things we do to make the most of our garden while still having plenty of time to sit back and enjoy a cup of tea by the frog pond.
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I've stored them in the basement bins with sand or vermiculite. I've used newspaper, too, but they need to be checked on more during the winter to see that they aren't drying out. They can be stored in layers on top of each other in the containers to save some space.
I’ve been wanting to build a small pond for awhile and have been watching a bunch of videos - I really like the planter box design, I hadn’t even thought of that! I’m changing my plans because I think this idea will work better for me, thank you!
Can I get more information about your method and the results? I've seen others prune theirs and they are absolutely covered in tomatoes. So I'm wondering what differences occurred. I will try to find more research that have the same results you're having, but this video isn't very helpful.
Ah. I didn't notice that this video was a "short." I found the full video. You didn't really go over indeterminate and determinate tomatoes. Perhaps the ones that give you a worse harvest are determinate. You're not supposed to use the pruning method on determinate tomatoe plants.
You're right, determinates should not be pruned. I should have labeled determinate vs. indeterminate in the video. We usually only grow (and would prune) indeterminate tomatoes. This year, for example, only one of the varieties (Silver Fir Tree) is determinate. I think pest pressure (primarily chipmunks and tomato hornworm) typically have the biggest impact for us, coupled with our growing season, which doesn't get as much sun in the fall as I think tomatoes generally would be prefer.
5:42 I disagree everything came from a different location. Even the stuff I get from my neighborhood will not be native until the prove they can live in my waters with reproduction. Lol getting from a stream ..pond water way etc…is dangerous..seriously but adding small quantities by inclination seems smart if available and similar water chemistry and temperatures is fine I think. Use common sense though…ekkk nevermind so many use debit cards instead.
I planted one tomato plant this year. It is growing all over my flower bed. I've gotten over 40 tomatoes on it. There's still at least 20 more and still more flowers. I'm just now seeing yellow leaves. But for the first time in my life, I found three of those hornworms, which I got rid of. The tomatoes are loving it.
that sounds great! glad your tomato plant is doing well. Yeah, we've got to keep an eye out for those hornworm caterpillars. They do become the 5-spotted hawk moth, but those caterpillars can eat a lot. Some years, we plant sacrificial tomato seedlings away from where our main tomatoes are. There are also predatory wasps and even shield bugs that are natural predators.
Adding shit to the soil is never needed. Nature heals it self. Put the seed in the ground and watch your flowers grow. Year after year it will get better and better.
certainly, choosing to amend the soil or leave it as-is can be up to personal preference. In my case here the soil is mostly sand and clay, so it doesn't have the organic matter needed to support the kinds of plants I want to put here. Also, given the level of compaction, I needed to do something otherwise the rain would just run straight off.
If I'd known about the sod remover, just a few days ago, I'd have saved a lot of time and back breaking work LOL What you've done here is amazing. Learning all the time & thanks for sharing!!
Thank you for your honesty and perspective. I try to purchase organic produce and still wash it all with soap and water because they still have chemical residue.
I love gardening but abandoned that to raise baby ladybugs. I had an eggplant that was infested with aphids. I found a ladybug in my pond. I saved her and put her on my eggplant for sustenance. I kept finding loads of eggs, then those killer looking babies. So now I farm Ladybugs but just for me. I don’t box them off to Home Depot 😮
Nice video ^_^ I use shade cloth, ouyas, and a lot of mulch 9coco coir and/or grass cuttings). I cannot remember when I last lost a plant to a heat wave. Usually it's severe storms or ground hogs that do the deed.
Generally around here the deer tend to more damage than the heat. I do have to keep an eye on our containers because they are in full sun most of the day.
@@frogpondvegpatch I use one or five gallon pots/grow bags so I can move some stuff around in the event I have storms or a heat wave. The rest gets shade cloth, or if I am desperate a tarp blocks the sun.
Some plant get overwelmed from aphids, even the plant was healthy before. Especially broad beans, cive, in springtime also elderberry trees. And the ladybug itselve isn't that good in eat that pest, it's the larva of them. If you're having water suppy nearby, you can rinse them aphids away with water at first glance, then the ladybugs and their larvas can do the rest.
Yep, the aphids really went after the new growth on our beach plum tree (it's the only thing that's had an aphid problem so far this year). But once a few lady bugs arrived and laid eggs, we started seeing the larvae do their thing!
You have such a huge field of grass. Do you know that your flowers are edible? Use colorful cabbage as a flowerbed edging then pick it and eat it. Throughout your flowerbed plant garlic and onions.. they will repel pest insects while not disturbing your helpful insects like bees, ladybugs, etc. Indeterminate tomatoes can be planted to crawl across your garden bed or string as a rich green background with amazing plate sized bright red tomatoes. Have you ever seen an okra plant? Spectator plant with huge white flowers. Picked young, the okra can be eaten raw, off the plant! A million plants that are spectacular and edible. Grow organically and you'll be amazed at the flavor and colors you'll enjoy.
Do yourself a huge favor and learn about Edible Landscaping. Beautiful plants that provide food. Are you aware that from roots to leaftips, HOSTAS are edible? Sweetest parts are the new sprouts that taste like asparagus.🎉❤
thanks for the tips! When we have extra seedlings like tomatoes we do plant those out in the beds as well. We also have oregano, parsley, fennel, chives - the bees and caterpillars enjoy those. We don't eat anything from this area because it's near our septic field, so everything is just for the creatures. In other areas we do mix in edible flowers like nasturtium.
The dowside is they'll disappear as soon as the bugs do and leave it open to be re-infested.. It's best to find out why you're having the problems in the first place, (with aphids it's usually overcrowding, sickly plants, or a poorly maintained garden/patch of weeds nearby.) You don't typically get infestations on healthy & happy plants.
I don't think the beach plum tree is struggling, but like you suggest it's something to look into and we'll definitely keep an eye on things. Our gardens here are new - just lawn when we first moved in. It seems like the pest insects are finding the plants first and then the beneficials arrive. We're steadily working on balancing the ecosystem.
Awesome! You can sign up on to be on the waitlist - and then we'll let you know as soon as the membership opens up! frog-pond-veg-patch.ck.page/b1a945c5b9
Thanks for the tip! We'll definitely look into other varieties to try. We're a bit limited by the fact that we have wire worm in the soil - so we can't plant out the raised bed. We're hoping to get them into a sunnier spot for next year. - D
They will work they just have a really long route tap that got to go into the ground if you're starting them in containers you got to start them well longer than you did they weren't done cooking as most people say they were in there long enough and the Taproot wasn't getting enough nutrients
Thanks! We left them as long as we could (getting cold here now), but possibly could have gotten them in sooner. Probably didn't help that it was cool, wet summer for us. We will try again next year and let everyone know how it goes!
Try it in that raised bed behind y’all next season! Or try in actual cardboard boxes. We do best in the ground here. Though we are a lot more south and better region for growing them. Over the years we find the tubs and bags don’t work like everyone claims. Honestly feel they are a waste of time and a way to make people get upset and not want to keep growing their food! Haha. Definitely try again cause those aren’t terrible they just need more grow space and time! ❤
Cool stuff. I'm in Pelham, Zone 6a as well. I'm in the process of putting a heated greenhouse installed so I can grow during the winter time. I see your tomatoe plants look relatively healthy still. This was one of my worse tomato years ever. They usually last until Halloween but mine died off from disease in September.
Thanks! Yes, our tomato plants held up pretty well this year. We tried to keep up with pruning the lower stems and I think that helped. Though by the time we get later into fall that bed get too much shade to fully ripen tomatoes, so we end up picking some of them green. Good luck with the heated greenhouse - would love to learn how that works out for you! - D
My mom used to yell at me because id touch any Caterpillar i seen ESPECIALLY if they were fuzzy, never got why till i realized some can hurt you, i just thought they were cute little guys
It was a long time before I learned that too! I think it depends on the person sometimes too. I could never resist touching these fuzzy little guys though. - K
