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Post by doc11 on Jan 29, 2014 6:49:04 GMT
If I'm good, I'll post on this each week or so and keep you all updated about my container garden.
Since our South Carolina plans were only three years and gone, I did not put in a full garden, even though we live on an acre with a really nice--perhaps quarter of an acre--area that would be a great garden if one could work it over the course of a couple years. Instead I've been doing containers, mostly 5 gallon buckets and planters for peppers and herbs. I have always bought started plants before, but this year I acquired a few dozen seeds of various kinds that were being tossed out because they were two years old. I did a little research, and if I stay on top of things, I can get two growing seasons; we shall see if that works.
So far, I have started my seeds and I'm getting sprouts that I can't wait to get transplanted! It might be a little early according to the weather right now, but it's going to warm up sooner than we think. I'm using the starter kit you can buy in the local garden center, the kind that is a miniature green house, and it's pretty stupid easy to use. Fill it with water so that the soil soaks it up overnight, dropped the seeds in and cover. I planted tomatoes;four varieties--from heirloom to hybrid Better Boys. all the herbs one needs, peppers and spinach and collards and without looking I'm sure I'm missing something.
The containers have been cleaned and this year, I'm going to try using those upside down tomato planters. I did this one other year and the results were pretty good. The tomatoes were small but I think that was more because I didn't have a deep enough container and soil than the crop was iffy. I also got a couple of nice raised beds--thanks OM and Mrs. OM!--and I'm going to stack them and get soil deep for corn and beans, maybe. I'm not sure I want to put that into a garden if I only have a year or so left here. I might pass them on to a homesteading buddy of mine who is doing a bunch of raised beds to great success, if I don't take them to the next spot. Decisions.
So, my ramble. I'll post pics of the sprouts, because I am really proud of them!
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Post by NamelessStain on Jan 29, 2014 11:36:22 GMT
I do container gardening too but I cheat. I purchased containers known as "sub-irrigated planters" from agardenpatch.com
They are INSANE with the amount of plant growth in such a small space. There are also ways to build them yourself if you check the almighty google.
I look forward to see how your garden does this year.
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Post by doc11 on Jan 29, 2014 17:42:05 GMT
I've seen these... I've never used them or talked to anyone who has. I like how they are advertised as "self-watering!" The reservoir holds four gallons, which makes it nice for those times when you just can't see yourself watering, but you know you have to. I'll have to see if I can put together something like those for mine. I usually have a catch under my plants for water, but last year we got so much rain i left them off so that I could get drainage. I got just enough tomatoes and such last year to eat them as they ripened, and not have any go to rot on me.
I'm going to google them and see what it takes to make them.
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Post by doc11 on Feb 1, 2014 14:33:09 GMT
Sprouts like crazy. I probably need to start them in a container, but I'm thinking that I might give them a few more days before I do anything with them since the weather is not cooperating.
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Post by NamelessStain on Feb 2, 2014 13:56:30 GMT
My brother also uses the containers I posted above. He said he doesn't even bother with sprouting them inside. He just plants the seeds right in the containers. They grow like crazy. 2 years ago he planted 8 assorted hot pepper plants and got over 4 gallons of peppers. From my pepper plants last year, I jarred 12 pints and used or gave away at least 10 gallons of fresh peppers and I still had peppers on the plants that just died off. I pickled about 10 jars of cucumbers and 3 jars of green beans. I have 9 planting containers for this season and I've been planning what's going in them this year. 2 green beans 2 boston pickling cucumbers 1 bok choi (since it's such a short growing cycle, I should get 2 harvests out of 1 container) 1 sunflower (the container site says 8 to a container, but since I'm doing russian mammoth sunflowers, I'll just do 4) 1 green/red/yellow peppers 1 winter squash 1 pumpkin It's not set in stone yet, I still might change my mind.  Oh, and I just ordered 3 more containers as a gift for someone. The website claims each container is equivalent to 30 square feet of normal garden space. |
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Post by nxp on Feb 4, 2014 19:26:01 GMT
You're planting now? Man you guys have a long season.
We've still got over a foot and a half of snow on the ground and temps in the 0-teens. At this rate I think we'll be set for ANOTHER late start, I'll be happy if we can get plants in by Memorial Day. Last year was a stretch just to do that...
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Post by NamelessStain on Feb 5, 2014 0:40:44 GMT
I generally can start planting outside in early March. Currently it's still getting into the 40s at night and I need to wait a little bit longer. With the wacky weather we've had this year, I'll probably watch the forecasts starting March 1. Btw, I'm in zone 8A. Very long season for me. My peppers were still producing into early December. If I plant Bok Choi, it has a quick grow->harvest time, 30-45 days. I could possibly get up to 4 harvests from 1 container. If I REALLY pushed it, I could even attempt up to 6 by planting indoors and moving them outside, but I'm not that hard core |
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Post by NamelessStain on Feb 10, 2014 15:21:51 GMT
I received my order for new top mats and insect control for my planters. I also purchased 3 more setups for the Beaufort crew. |
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Post by omegaman on Feb 11, 2014 10:56:19 GMT
I received my order for new top mats and insect control for my planters. I also purchased 3 more setups for the Beaufort crew.  Off topic, finally had a free weekend to piddle around the yard at the new place. Starting to piece together a gardening strategy. We have 2 large gardens already fenced in (tall enough to keep deer out), but they haven't been used in awhile. Thinking about plowing a fire line around them and tossing a match. Weed control and nutrients in one step! |
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Post by NamelessStain on Feb 11, 2014 11:59:58 GMT
I received my order for new top mats and insect control for my planters. I also purchased 3 more setups for the Beaufort crew. Off topic, finally had a free weekend to piddle around the yard at the new place. Starting to piece together a gardening strategy. We have 2 large gardens already fenced in (tall enough to keep deer out), but they haven't been used in awhile. Thinking about plowing a fire line around them and tossing a match. Weed control and nutrients in one step! |
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Post by doc11 on Mar 28, 2014 5:21:21 GMT
edit; There are a lot of starts in this one, but that's the kind of gardening it's been for me.
So, I went on vacation, right? And my starters died. Sigh. So I had to start them again. Good thing is that a buddy of mine didn't kill his starters and he is going to give me some of his. So I'll have kale, and collards as my own start. I've got peppers that did survive from the first batch, but when I put them out to harden a little, the temperature took a shit on me when I had to work overnights last week so I lost all but two. The good thing is that I got some Hatch pepper seeds shipped from New Mexico and I got them started. It's been a pretty frustrating start to the container garden. I might have to supplement with store bought plants. But I will have a garden. However, I have a really cool raised garden I am going to build. I will add pic of the start of it here in a bit. It's a pallet from work that was used to hold metal fencing. I need to put in a bottom and finish sides so I'm using reclaimed pallets for everything. I think I have a pretty cool idea for drainage by leaving gaps in the slats on the bottom and covering it with the landscape cloth which will hold in the dirt but let it drain. If I still have the fabric we use last year on another project, I'll get this thing for the cost of the dirt to fill it.
So that's the update on the garden.
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Post by NamelessStain on Mar 29, 2014 13:22:03 GMT
Yea, these freezing temps have stopped me from planting. I plan to start today (if it stops raining) and hope we don't have another one. I have 9 planting containers for this season, here's the final plan. - 2 green beans - each container will have 10 plants. I will be busy pickling/canning these
- 2 boston pickling cucumbers - 6 plants per container for a total of 12. I had good success with these until I went on vacation and a friend didn't water them enough.
- 2 sunflower/pak choi - each planter will have 2 Russian mammoth sunflowers and 6 pak choi. I have 6' poles to support the sunflowers. Pak choi has a 35 day turnaround.
- 1 winter squash - these are the Italian ones I tried last year (Lunga di Napoli) I got plenty of flowers but no veggies. So I'm planting 4. These squash can get up to 40# each.
- 1 pumpkin/watermelon - 2 of each in the container. I can also pickle the watermelon rind.
- 1 radish - I was going to do peppers, but thought I'd try radishes since they have a 30 day turnaround.
I am going to let 1 batch of radishes and pak choi go to seed in the middle of the summer since the warm weather causes them to go past the harvest point too fast. I've also talked with OM about doing a green bean teepee at his place. Hopefully he has the 10' bamboo poles ready I hope OW has decided what she wants in her planters. |
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Post by doc11 on Mar 29, 2014 17:55:09 GMT
I still plan on trying the upside down hanging containers.
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Post by nxp on Mar 29, 2014 20:45:26 GMT
We can finally see the lawn (er, I mean mud) . Slowly but surely melting off, they're calling for a high of 50(!!!!) tomorrow, so hopefully we knock down some more of the dirty white crap and start getting things more like spring. Still have over 35" of ice on the lake, though... Can't wait for gardening this season - have the existing plot around the deck to plant, plus we're adding in 3 more raised sections around the yard/house. One just for tomatoes, one for the pumpkins and squash, and one for hops. Yayyyyyy hops, the crowns should be ordered shortly. |
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Post by NamelessStain on Mar 31, 2014 16:33:50 GMT
I ran out of pok choi seeds, so I threw in some herbs:
thyme
basil
dill
rosemary
I'll let my current batch of pok choi go to seed, then pull the herbs which should be good and dry them. Then back to pok choi.
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