…and determined how much direct sunlight it gets.

Your garden gets less than 6 hours and you feel hopeless.

Sorry to break it to you, but that means you can’t grow tomatoes.

Don’t worry there are other vegetables you can successfully grow in that space.

Shade loving vegetables

The following vegetables will do just well in containers and the shade:

The following vegetables will do just well in containers and the shade.

• Beans
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Brussel sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Leafy greens
• Peas
• Radishes
• Scallions
  

  Helping you to succeed in your garden

  The purpose of this list is to serve as a guide in helping you to minimize the mistakes you make and set you up for success in your garden.

  If you want to, experiment in your garden. See if other vegetables do well in the shade. No one will get hurt if you do.

FoxFarm

Ocean Forest, 1.5 cubic feet - MSRP: $23.95  $12.50 (pallet prices as low as $11.67 per bag)

One of our most popular soil mixes, Ocean Forest comes loaded with nutrients right off the bat. Enriched with sea-based fertilizers such as crab meal and fish meal as well as bat guano, composted forest humus and earthworm castings, this is a real hot mix that is ready to go for heavy feeding plants. Especially high in available nitrogen, be careful not to over-fertilize with too much nitrogen in the first few weeks if you are adding additional fertilizers.

Happy Frog, 2.0 cubic feet - MSRP: $26.95  $15.69 (pallet prices as low as  14.67 per bag)

This FoxFarm mix is alive! Inoculated with several strains of beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae Happy Frog is already thriving before you even plant in it! The extra large bag contains one third more medium, but there are less nutrients and more perlite in this mix. It contains a medium levels of nutrients, so fertilization will be required for heavy feeding plants, but this is great FoxFarm alternative where the nutrients in Ocean Forest are not appropriate.

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Roots Organics

Organic Potting Soil, 1.5 cubic feet - MSRP: $23.95  $11.99 (pallet prices as low as  10.50 per bag)

This natural and organic potting soil is perfect for just about any plant! An all around mix that incorporates coco fiber and perlite to increase soil pore space along with a high level of thoroughly composted nutrients. Contains bat guano, earth worm castings, fish bone meal, feather meal, green sand, mycorrihzae, glacial rock dust, soybean meal, humic acid, and many more. This is a very user friendly mix, and is perfect complement for all skill levels.

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Green Lite Potting Soil, 1.5 cubic feet - MSRP: $23.95  $14.95 (pallet prices as low as  11.95 per bag)

Green Lite is a faster draining alternative to their organic potting soil, containing less nutrients so you have better control of what goes into your medium. Designed specifically as an indoor mix it has more perlite and pumice to give it additional pore space, incorporating more oxygen into the medium. This accelerates root growth and nutrient uptake which means you need to feed more often, resulting in blazing fast growth for any indoor plant.

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Formula 707 Potting Soil, 3.0 cubic feet - MSRP: $39.95  $26.95 (pallet prices as low as  24.95 per bag)

The ideal outdoor mix ready-to-use off the shelf, packaged  in a 30 gallon grow-bag. Formula 707 boasts greater water retention capacity with less perlite and pumice. Contains a wide variety of nutrients such as coarse peat, coco fiber, compost,  worm castings, bat guano, fish bone meal, soybean meal, feather meal, kelp meal and much more. 20 gallons of media inside a 30 gallon grow bag, just poke holes in the bottom and plant in it and you're good to go.

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Dr. Earth

Pot of Gold, 1.5 cubic feet - MSRP: $19.95  $14.63

The newest edition to our selection of high performance soils, Pot of Gold by Dr. Earth has proven to be a great mix for a variety of garden plants. This mix contains a moderate amount of nutrients that will not burn, perfect for your favorite plants! All purpose indoor & outdoor container potting mix. Contains aloe vera and yucca extract. Beneficial soil microbes plus Mycorrhizae are part of the ProBiotic® Inside.

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Home Grown, 1.5 cubic feet - MSRP: $19.95  $14.63 

This premium soil is great for growing herbs and vegetables, especially since it is manure free! Attractive packaging and a great aroma, this soil is a great choice for any garden! Specially designed to hold extra moisture using all natural Aloe Vera extract. This bag maintains a thriving micro-colony of soil organisms  at all times just waiting for a plant companion!

1) Find a healthy above-ground stem on the plant, preferably a lower branch.
2) Look at the stem you selected, make sure there are at least 3 total nodes on the stem. One node at the very top, one at the bottom and one in the middle. A node is where the petiole connects to the main stem.
3) Remove the leaves and petioles completely from only the bottom node, roots will emerge only from nodes so it is important to get this right.
4) Using a sharp blade angled downward at a 45 degree angle, cut as close to bottom node as you can get without actually cutting the node off. The bottom stem of the plant should be angled like the tip on a hypodermic needle.
5) If using a cloning gel or solution apply that generously to the entire bottom node.

GROW GREEN MI TIPS FOR CLONING SUCCESS

• You should take cuttings from stems with a diameter of ⅛” to ¼”, these will root the most easily.
• Feel the node where the roots are going to grow. If it feels hard/woody try to select a stem with softer vegetative tissue
• Use a clean razor blade or scalpel. Sharper is better, but be careful!
• If you have taken a cutting which has very large leaves or a smaller stem, cut off part of the leaves to prevent losing too much water to transpiration.
• Oxygenate your water!

Strong plants yield more than weak ones, so it is best to start supplementing your plant with silicon once your  plants are well rooted. Plants can uptake silicon through their roots, and with also through the stomata on the leaves. Silicon is naturallychelated by potassium and so it helps to improve nutrient uptake and transfer into the vascular tissue. Once inside the plant,it is incorporated into and around cell walls strengthening the tissues of the plant further protecting it further from pathogenic and fungal infections.

Silicon has also been shown to protect plants from high salinity stress, which will protect your plant from heavily  accumulated nutrients in your medium. Silicon can also protect your plant from drying out, by increasing its drought resistance. Plants that have accumulated silica into their cell wall spaces have been shown to tolerate dryer conditions.

Concentrations of dissolved silicon between 10-50ppm have been shown to be beneficial for many plants, and in almost all trials plants supplemented with silicon grew better than those that were not supplemented with silicon.

 HOW TO USE SILICON IN SOIL: Diatomaceous earth is 80-90% silicon, so amending it into your soil before planting at the rate of ¼ cup diatomaceous earth per 1 gallon of soil will work best. You can also water in diatomaceous earth(2tbsp per gallon) or another silicon supplement(see below) by hand with a watering can.

Diatomaceous Earth: http://growgreenmi.com/de-insect-dust-4-4-lb (an organic supplement)

HOW TO USE SILICON IN HDYRO: There are many silicon supplements available on the market, the ones we recommend are: Dyna-Gro ProTekt, Grotek Pro-Silicate, and Botanicare Silica Blast. All of these products can be added to reservoirs at the rate of 1-5ml per gallon of water. Please note that the silicon solution is basic, and adding it to your reservoir may raise your reservoir pH. Make sure your pH stays in the correct range and add a small amount of pH down if necessary.

Dyna-Gro - Pro-Tekt: http://growgreenmi.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=pro-tekt

Grotek - Pro SIlicate: http://growgreenmi.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=pro-tekt

Botanicare - Silica Blast: http://growgreenmi.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=silica+blast

Don't let your plants get eaten by those pesky bugs this season! Fight back!

The staff here at GrowGreenMi is happy to introduce you to an effective product! We have been using Mighty Wash and have nothing but positive results.

Heres some information about Mighty Wash:

• Mighty wash is an effective solution to any spider mite problem. It is easy to use, and is a great addition to any garden.
• Mighty Wash is people and pet safe, and contains no harmful/toxic chemicals.
• It can be used at any point in the growth season, no need to worry about getting a nasty chemicals on your precious flowers.
• Foggers and spray-cans may seem like the best solution, but the people have made the switch from can-based pesticides to Mighty Wash have given us so much positive feedback.

Might Wash comes ready to use, no dilution is required. Diluting the product will render it ineffective, so DO NOT DILUTE IT. 

This products works great with a hand sprayer, but larger applications we prefer to use an atomizer.

Mighty Wash will eliminate spider mites, along with their eggs and larvae. This is an all-in-one spider mite solution.

HOW TO USE MIGHTY WASH:

1. 1) Load the Mighty Wash undiluted into the spraying device.
2. 2) Get it your plant wet. I mean really, really wet. Get it soaking wet. Cover the tops and bottoms of the leaves, the stems, the flower sites and the top of the soil/medium.
3. 3) Allow the water to evaporate, which will leave a thin film of the product on your plant. Do not wash the film off immediately, wait at least a day for the plant to dry completely.
4. 4) Repeat once more in 5-7 days.

Two treatments are generally sufficient to remove the infestation, but some gardens with more advanced infestations may require 3 treatments.

This most important thing is to completely cover the surfaces of your entire plant with the product, and not to leave any plants uncovered.