Ok, so here it goes. I am a newbie at gardening. I think I may have planted too much my first year but that is just something I learned and am moving on. The below pictures are of my garden after transplanting and mulching in RED mulch (which I heard was best from a friend). If you notice, they had some good growth going on. I transplanted them on or a few days before 4/27/2008. I had so many plants.

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So, as you can see it was looking good; and still is a bit. Some plants are thriving like the lemon balm and basil while some dried out like the cabbage and broccoli. In the step garden along my fence are Peppers, Bush Beans, and Squash. They needed the most room according to the seed packets but didn't get a lot of sunlight. In the next series of images you will see I took a page from Organic Magazine and put foil along the back to reflect sunlight to the plants. I also repeated this in the box grower where my 16 tomato plants and more peppers are.

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So, I started the seeds indoors in a peat grower in the last days of February, moved them to medium pots, grew them a few weeks in my garage under a heat light until the frost passed and then in April I transplanted them in their current home.

Am I expecting these plants to be producing too quickly? I am getting a bit discouraged with them. I water them every other day unless rain is in the forecast and I am fertilizing them with organic matter and spray for the leaves. When could I expect certain plants to show vegetables? Right now I have picked about 5 (yes 5) bean pods and have 1 cherry Tomato on a plant I bought from the garden center (I cheated a bit).

As far as my next step, I plan on separating the tomato plants when they get about 6-8 inches tall but they just don't seem to be growing. Any advise on my problems???

Daniel, Atlanta,GA