Indoor Containers

We moved, and in doing so, decided which tomato plant to save by placing indoors. We had room for only one, and several smaller pots. After hubby installed two grow-lights, we also brought in (all in pots) 2 strawberries, a zucchini, a bush cucumber, a banana plant, and the aloe-vera.

When we get a chance, we'll use some smaller pots to fill with potting soil and plant seeds for string beans, garden peas, carrots and greens. Yummy for this Winter!

We had cold temperatures this past week, so what was remaining on our back patio froze. That's ok. I'm ready for Winter.

Blueberries Survived the Winter

We started out with 4 blueberry seedlings from a mail order place last summer (2008). We carefully prepared the bed, making the soil acidic with peat moss and other additives. We planted the 4 blueberry, 2 cranberry and 2 lingonberry in the raised bed, and hoped for the best. We watered them and carefully tended them, but by the end of a very scorching summer, only one had survived.

By mid-summer we realized we weren't having any luck with the mail order plants, so we bought 2 blueberry plants from Lowe's. We potted them, tended them, and between the 2 plants, we harvested about 2 cups of blueberries. The most delicious, juicy... stop me!

We brought the 2 blueberries in containers indoors to the family room for the Winter, and hoped they and the one in the raised bed outside would survive. And survive they did... you can see from the pictures that the raised bed plant has decided it wants to live. And the two potted blueberries are already showing wonderful growth.

Aren't they beautiful?

I couldn't resist ... I bought two more blueberry plants the other day and will put them in containers, probably later this week. They already have flowers on them!

Banana Plant in Container

I'd been wanting to grow my own bananas for a long time. Two years ago, while we were still living in an apartment, I bought a plant. I potted it, I watered it, and I placed a grow-light near it.

Last year (2008) when we moved to this house and when the weathered warmed, I placed it outside where it grew thicker around the stalk, and new leaves appeared and disappeared quickly. It spent the winter in our family room with other plants and a grow light, often without water though.

But here's the banana plant today. I'll repot it soon to give it more room to stretch out its roots. Hopefully, one day, it will appreciate my new attention to it and will give us bananas!

Asparagus Came Back!

I don't really care for asparagus but Hubby does, and I do dehydrate it to crush into a powder and add it where I can hide it.

So last year (2008) we purchased 6 bedding plants from a nursery. Not just the roots, the actual plants. We didn't know exactly where to plant them (since they are quite permanent) so we stuck 2 per trash can/bucket. They ferned out great, and even gave out some stalks which we didn't eat (never the first and rarely the second year). In the Fall, we cut them back, and stored them in our family room for the Winter.

Not long ago, we noticed a little green shoot in one of the trash buckets. We placed the three buckets outside, watered them, and waited.

This is a picture of what they look like today! See? You CAN container garden!

Topsy Turvey Tomatoes

We've been seeing Topsy Turvey hanging tomato gardens all over the place - almost in every gardening catalog and magazine that we see.

Here's a link: http://www.hangingtomato.com/

Does anyone have experience with this contraption? We heard some might have been recalled... what about that? Are they safe? Stable? Really do well in providing tomatoes? What about other vegetables or fruits?

Let us know your thoughts - use the comment section for this posting. Thanks.

A Mobile Container Garden

Wanna see some pictures from our first year to garden? (2008)

This first picture to the right was part of our garden last year (2008). See the small rectangular tubs? We planted beans in them. We set small indoor trash cans, with peppers and eggplants and okra, in tires to prevent them from toppling over during wind storms. Several tires had potting soil directly into them and they grew beautiful delicious melons and pumpkins. The top right of the pic with the yellow netting (tulle fabric) is a pot with a blutberry plant in it (covered to prevent birds from eating our berries). The raised bed to the right was made from 4' x 8' wood boards, filled with potting soil... we planted soybeans around the edge and carrots in the center. The raised beds for the corn patch is in the upper left corner.


This second pic, to the right, is a picture of the potted tomatoes, taken in Summer 2008, about a month before the pic that follows. We placed the pots on boards so earwigs would have a harder time getting into the pot. It worked. Having a marigold and a basil in each pot also helped, I'm sure.




To the right is a pic of our tomatoes from 2008 Summer. Hmmm... how beautiful and very productive. We got 5-gallon pots and buckets from dollar stores to go with what we already had. We planted way too many tomatoes, and each of the 20 POTS held at least one tomato (sometimes two), a marigold and a basil. Still, even with overcrowding, we had a huge harvest.



To the right is a picture of 6 asparagas plants, about a month after we transplanted them. Three in each "trash can". By the end of Summer, these were so bushy that the little asparagus stems had to fight the foliage for sunlight! These pots have spent the Winter in our famil room, near the grow light, and are now awaiting decent weather so we can place them outside. Hopefully they're still alive after the Winter's hibernation.


Because of the quality of our soil at our current home (sand on top of clay), we grew much of last year's garden in containers., as you can see from above.


Now... because we are moving this Summer, we can't plant directly into the ground - at least, nothing that we want to take with us! So we're using all of our containers and will probably buy more. That way, when we move, we can move our growing plants too.



NOTE: We didn't empty any of the tubs before Winter came. When we thought to check on them (February 2009), we realized the clear tubs we got from Wal-Mart didn't hold up. Could be because of the freezing/hot/freezing weather. Just a thought.



We got the small white trash cans at a nearby dollar store for a couple of dollars each. Be sure to browse around for your own needs.

Windowsill Planters

For most people in the Northern Hemisphere, it's time to plant our outdoor garden. Time for that lettuce and broccoli, and starting seedlings indoors for the Summer.

But many people don't have the room for a garden. Maybe you live in an apartment, or rent a room somewhere. That's ok. You can still grow your salads!

• Do you have a windowsill that gets any light? If so, measure it and buy a couple of long planters to fit just so. Or a few planter pots. Don't have a windowsill? Get some planters anyway and while you're at it, hop on down to the Home Depot or Wal-Mart to get a grow (plant) lite to fit one of your lamps.
• Fill the planter(s) with good potting soil. Make sure you place something underneath to catch the water from when you get over-zealous with the watering.
• Do you have any seeds: lettuce, spinach, kale, etc.? What about carrots, radishes, scallions or parsley? If not, post an ad on a local free-cycle yahoo group or ask around with your friends and family. Or order some online.
• Plant according to packet directions. Watch, tend and wait. Within 60 days or so, you'll have fresh vegetables or herbs for healthy meals.

Don't be dependent on the grocery store to sell you produce picked from 2 states away, and might possibly be tainted with who-kn0ws-what. Take care of your food needs yourself. Plant an indoor grocery garden! Enjoy!

Using Kiddie Pools as Container Gardens

The picture to the right looks a little weird. Pots, containers, boards, and swimming pools. But they ALL produced a lot of vegetables for us this past Summer (2008).

We gathered two kiddie pools from people who were just throwing them out. We poked holes in the bottom, and covered the bottom and sides with newspaper. In the big blue pool, we added a tire to the center. We added potting soil. In the big blue pool, we planted a broccoli seedling in the middle of the tire, and other cold crop seedlings and carrot seeds around the perimeter.

The smaller white pool to the left got Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, radishes and various onion seeds. We ate a lot of lettuce until it began to bolt in mid-August.

These were our "cold" crops so we positioned them kinda under a big tree (shade to the right). We used yellow tulle (net fabric on sale from Wal-Mart) to cover to keep bugs and birds out, and set up leftover boards to keep the netting in place.

This worked so well for us, that we plan to do it again. No matter where we go. We have since gathered another 4 kiddie pools, various sizes and colors. Since we're moving this Summer, we can't do this in 2009 (the pools get VERY heavy!) but we will the next time we can!

Root Vue Farm

We recently came across the "Root Vue Farm" at http://www.mindware.com/ and bought a few of these kits for Christmas presents to ourselves.

We love carrots, and didn't grow nearly enough Summer 2008. Now, we might be moving before our first harvest of outside carrots. And we really prefer them fresh and raw, so growing carrots on a windowsill is a perfect setup for us... ... ... Yum!

Have you ever used this kit? We keep meaning to start these but here it is ... 4 months after we got them and they are still sitting in the box! Maybe this weekend... red carrots, purple carrots, white carrots, and probably regular-ole-orange carrots too! Maybe a couple of scallions/bunching onions too. What an amazing salad!