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No, water won't go thru the newspaper real well until it is in a state where it isn't doing all that much good as a mulch anymore. So IME if you are going to use a significant amount of paper or cardboard as mulch (not just in terms of thickness but in terms of width) you should figure you're...

((oops, double post))

What is "average to below average" lighting? The hood that came with the tank with a single 'normal' fluorescent bulb? Or something else? The three lowest-light plants there are, are Java moss, Java fern, and Anubias. The latter is distinctly more expensive than the first two but also more...

I've tried a whole bunch of methods (basically because I *loathe* the boiling water method of peeling tomatoes) and have come to the conclusion that for me the easiest method is to puree the tomatoes whole (skin and all) in a blender before cooking down; whereas the tastiest is to roast them...

Peppers tend to take their time germinating AND they really do prefer considerably warm soil, so that may be why yours aren't up yet. They may come up later, or may not. Yup! :) Pat

The growing point may be quite unaffected and produce perfectly-good leaves over the coming weeks. Leave the frostnipped leaves on the plant until/unless they start to die back severely (at which point they can be removed) and just see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised :) Pat

I really dislike those jiffy things. I have NEVER had good luck with them, AND they are a PITA to plant because you really ought to slice open the outside mesh stuff in multiple places otherwise you get poor root extension and the plant does badly. They are fun to watch expand when you wet them...

Yup. If your primary interest is in making thickish sauces, paste type tomatoes are your best bet. (Well, in a way. It may be that in some circumstances you could get better yeild -- especially if you were in a cold climate where season-length makes it hard to grow many paste tomatoes, but...

I'm going to say frost too. It does that to leaf lettuce sometimes. But you know, it may come back ok with new leaves; and in any case, it doesn't really hurt (much) to try extra-early plantings, they *may* get zapped like this but if they don't then you are weeks ahead in your harvest which is...

It depends what you are growing. Lettuce should not be grown under too-long daylength at first, b/c it makes it bolt earlier than it would otherwise. Onions by reputation are the same (makes them bulb up too young/small). There are others too, I believe, lettuce is just the only one I grow...

I've had soooo many storeboughten potatoes not just sprout but grow pretty long shoots -- what can I say, sometimes I forget about that last tater in the bag :P -- that I think it is perfectly reasonable to try it if you cannot get proper disease-free seed potato stock, or if you just want to...

The main problem with not having a fan is that you will need instead to have a VERY LARGE amount of openable passive-air-exchange vents. If you have nothing to do with your life other than sit with the greenhouse all day every day and open/close things as the weather requires, this may be...

IMO with what you're growing your main concern would be blight. If you don't have much in the way of blight in your area, and I would guess you probably don't??, then I think it's perfectly reasonable to not rotate, if you think that the consequences of rotating would be worse than the...

You might try Scoot. It is a paste (but can be diluted with water to apply via spraybottle), I believe technically it is a fungicide of some sort? but it is labelled and sold as a rabbit (etc) deterrent. I have had pretty good luck with it over winter. It is not a permanent yard-wide solution...

Be careful with this, or any other Sedum acre cultivar -- IME they can be really invasive weeds in lawns. Leetle wee pieces break off and root, and can be nearly impossible to get rid of. Other sedum species are not IME particularly a problem that way. Pat

Just be careful that you choose a well-grown plant (not just healthy roots, but also good aboveground architecture) -- height is easiliy made up for, but poor branching structure will be with you for a long time, maybe forever. Good luck, have fun, Pat

I am now a firm believer in "do not amend hole, just loosen soil well", after having seen clear evidence of roots failing to grow out of amended soil (just circling around in amended hole, stunting the plant and then it langishes->dies). That said, I think it makes alot of difference what your...

Arizona folks can feel free to correct me, but I'm going to say No. Metal shed walls get too hot to grow things up very well in the Northeast, even, let alone *your* version of summer :P The only thing I could think of would be to maybe put a very lean-y (like, 45-60 degree) trellis going to...

The wild-type white yarrow would probably do fine in your cinderblocks, although it needs supervision to avoid it becoming a weed (in lawn as well as garden). Not sure the ornamental cultivars would do so well. Thymes would do well there, and some have a reasonable flowering season. Portulaca...

Six weeks before is usually good -- although it depends on what temperatures you grow the seedlings at and whether you use a heat mat at any point. (Cooler = slower; but tomatoes generally do better if you grow them rather coolish once they have a pair or two of true leaves) I would err on the...