I live near the Connecticut shoreline, with no remaining chance of a
frost. I recently bought a house, where I can have my first "non
container" garden. I have bought some tomato sets, and plan on also
planting a row each of cucumbers, squash and onions. I have two
planting areas. One is a limited areas along the side my house, with
near full sun all day. Then the rear of the house, a much larger
area, is mostly blocked from the sun unti afterl noon.

I was wondering what others do/ use to prep for planting. Should I buy
garden soil, to mix with the existing soil? I noted that the seed
containers do not mention any fertilizer, is there a recommendation.

Sorry, but even at age 55 I am a novice gardener..

On Mon, 23 May 2016 12:30:58 -0400, Rob_Lowe wrote:

I live near the Connecticut shoreline, with no remaining chance of a
frost. I recently bought a house, where I can have my first "non
container" garden. I have bought some tomato sets, and plan on also
planting a row each of cucumbers, squash and onions. I have two
planting areas. One is a limited areas along the side my house, with
near full sun all day. Then the rear of the house, a much larger area,
is mostly blocked from the sun unti afterl noon.

I was wondering what others do/ use to prep for planting. Should I buy
garden soil, to mix with the existing soil? I noted that the seed
containers do not mention any fertilizer, is there a recommendation.

Sorry, but even at age 55 I am a novice gardener..

and a Usenet novice too. This is a UK group for DIY not a US gardening
group. There is a UK Gardening group and one of its posters also posts
here and may know if there is an equivalent US garden group.

Having said that surely you have 'garden soil' already there so why buy
more? Or is the soil not soil in your planting areas? You could always
top up with manure to enrich what you have.

On Mon, 23 May 2016 12:51:22 -0500, Mark Allread wrote:

and a Usenet novice too. This is a UK group for DIY not a US gardening
group. There is a UK Gardening group and one of its posters also posts
here and may know if there is an equivalent US garden group.

I don't see the post as off-limits here. We get all sorts of weird
questions that invariably get good answers no matter how far-out they may
at first seem. This one is nothing unusual.

On Monday, 23 May 2016 17:31:08 UTC+1, wrote:
I live near the Connecticut shoreline, with no remaining chance of a
frost. I recently bought a house, where I can have my first "non
container" garden. I have bought some tomato sets, and plan on also
planting a row each of cucumbers, squash and onions. I have two
planting areas. One is a limited areas along the side my house, with
near full sun all day. Then the rear of the house, a much larger
area, is mostly blocked from the sun unti afterl noon.

I was wondering what others do/ use to prep for planting. Should I buy
garden soil, to mix with the existing soil? I noted that the seed
containers do not mention any fertilizer, is there a recommendation.

Sorry, but even at age 55 I am a novice gardener..

With gardens, the best thing is to see what neighbours with similar gardens are doing and whether their plants are thriving.

In article , Cursitor Doom
writes
On Mon, 23 May 2016 12:51:22 -0500, Mark Allread wrote:

and a Usenet novice too. This is a UK group for DIY not a US gardening
group. There is a UK Gardening group and one of its posters also posts
here and may know if there is an equivalent US garden group.

I don't see the post as off-limits here. We get all sorts of weird
questions that invariably get good answers no matter how far-out they may
at first seem. This one is nothing unusual.
Not off limits but the OP is likely to get a fuller response in
uk.rec.gardening
--
bert

On 23/05/16 19:52, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Mon, 23 May 2016 12:30:58 -0400, wrote:


Although you seem to get a reasonable amount of rainfall in the
summer, don't forget to keep the plants well watered, especially when
they're young and it's dry and sunny, otherwise they'll just shrivel
up.

Tomatoes and squashes love rich composty peaty damp soil warm and moist. #

Onions don't need as much. nutrients or water.

Pee and crap makes good fertiliser, also what we call 'fish blood and
bone - ground up bits of fish left over from processing. And any organic
matter that's rotted a couple of yeras - leaf mould is fantastic - will
help.




--
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have
guns, why should we let them have ideas?

Josef Stalin

On 23/05/16 20:10, bert wrote:
In article , Cursitor Doom
writes
On Mon, 23 May 2016 12:51:22 -0500, Mark Allread wrote:

and a Usenet novice too. This is a UK group for DIY not a US gardening
group. There is a UK Gardening group and one of its posters also posts
here and may know if there is an equivalent US garden group.

I don't see the post as off-limits here. We get all sorts of weird
questions that invariably get good answers no matter how far-out they may
at first seem. This one is nothing unusual.
Not off limits but the OP is likely to get a fuller response in
uk.rec.gardening

There are a few US gardeners who post in rec.gardens, and have a greater
experience of North American gardening conditions.

--

Jeff

In article ,
Mark Allread wrote:
and a Usenet novice too. This is a UK group for DIY

Right. A vast number of novices on here, then. ;-)

--
*(on a baby-size shirt) "Party -- my crib -- two a.m

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 23/05/16 19:52, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Mon, 23 May 2016 12:30:58 -0400, wrote:

I live near the Connecticut shoreline, with no remaining chance of a
frost. I recently bought a house, where I can have my first "non
container" garden. I have bought some tomato sets, and plan on also
planting a row each of cucumbers, squash and onions. I have two
planting areas. One is a limited areas along the side my house, with
near full sun all day. Then the rear of the house, a much larger
area, is mostly blocked from the sun unti afterl noon.

I was wondering what others do/ use to prep for planting. Should I buy
garden soil, to mix with the existing soil? I noted that the seed
containers do not mention any fertilizer, is there a recommendation.

Sorry, but even at age 55 I am a novice gardener..

You should really ask on uk.rec.gardening. This is a d-i-y group, more
familiar with plumbing, wiring and building things (and nuclear power
and climate change, but nobody's perfect!). What I would say is that
the climate generally in the US is nothing like that in the UK. In
general the US has a continental climate, the UK a maritime one. Yours
may be a little more moderate, being near the shore, but you're
further north than New York, so I would imagine you get some pretty
harsh winters. I see that even coastal Connecticut can sometimes reach
0°F (-18°C) http://tinyurl.com/84obpdv .

That is most certainly correct. See the second paragraph he
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/...7n1-nickou.htm

But it isn't the whole story by any means. I visited Nick's garden -
which was under a mile from the coast - a couple of times (in fact the
first time a couple of months before that article was written), and I
was amazed at the variety of plants he could grow there. It's the
prolonged high temperatures in summer which seem to help a lot, ripening
the wood of trees and shrubs in ways we can only dream of over here.
Deciduous woody plants in particular seemed to do very well. Being in
frozen soil over winter did them far less harm than being in damp,
claggy soil. I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure there were
plants I would consider zone 8 or possible even 9 which had been growing
there for many years.

--

Jeff

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

On Mon, 23 May 2016 12:30:58 -0400, wrote:

I live near the Connecticut shoreline, with no remaining chance of a
frost.

I think a key point is that US hardiness zones and their temperature
limits are mostly not relevant in the UK.

Exactly Chris -- as soon as I read Rob's first sentence with that
telling phrase "with no remaining chance of a frost" I thought: what
luxury! :-) [Not many people, anywhere in the UK, can use that
phrase - ever!]

As others have said Rob -- I wouldn't look in this particular group for
advice on gardening, especially in Connecticut. However we can give you
lots of advice on whether or not Britain should leave the EU though :-D

And even some advice on DIY! There's a vast fund of fantastic expertise
here. But - again - the US equivalent group would be better on that,
because of the differences in materials, tools, suppliers, etc etc etc.

Best of luck with your new home: lucky you!

John