Newbie at gardening

[msarro]

Hey everyone!
My girlfriend and I started our very first container garden last week. Thus far we have 3 strawberry plants, a basil plant, a few pansies, and 4 romaine lettuces. This is our first foray, and I wanted to start with things that were easy to grow. Next up is tomato plants, and some more herbs. That'll be it for this year... next year I'll go bigger since I'll have more experience.

I've been attending to it the best that I can - however I've noticed that while for the most part everything looks nice and green, some leaves still turn yellow and start to die. Or, some of the leaves get black spots and then start to die. This is true for the strawberries, the pansies, and the romaine. The basil seems to be just fine.

Is this anything I'm doing wrong? Is it normal? All get direct sunlight. It shouldn't be too warm for the lettuce yet since it still gets cool at night. Once it's above 55 every night I'm going to look into the tomato plants.

[GREENBACK]

I'm not an expert but do garden quite a bit. From what you describe, you may be overwaterting your plants. Hard to say without looking at them. There are many funguses and diseases out there so it can be tough. Sometimes young leaves die off but the plant will survive fine. Be patient, It's not that hard to grow things if you don't overthink it.

Tomatoes are a good starter plant and peppers as well. I've never had any trouble growing herbs either. Your basil plant should do really well. Try Sage as well as it's pretty hardy and will regrow from year to year(perennial). Green onions and chives also are easy. The savings can be very significant depending on how much you plant.

[madworld25]

I would like to start a garden soon, but I live in an apartment. Are there any starter plants that work well in doors, I can put them on the deck to get sunlight during certain times of the day but should I then bring them inside or just leave them outside all the time?

[GrimJack]

We have blueberries, strawberries, basel, and sage that all over-winter on our deck. I have a 32 gallon, plastic garbage can that I plant potatoes in - fill the bottom with about 12 inches of soil, plant the already sprouted seed potatoes and layer with more soil/straw/compost as the plants begin to grow. We finally moved the rosemary out into our limited garden space. We are still in a rental, we hope to buy a house in the near future so we are keeping the blueberries in containers to take with us.

[Fishindude77]

I've not had the greatest of luck growing things in pots. In most cases, I think you need a much bigger pot than we typically go with. Also, some of that potting soil is so light an fluffy that it drys super quickly. Potted plants set on a deck, patio, up against a house wall, etc. can also literally "cook" on a hot day killing them. A couple days with no attention and they are dead.