More container gardening

I know that I go on and on about my container gardening efforts but this time I'll show you what a local garden center has done.

JR and I had heard about a place in Katy that is big on water gardens and since I have a special affinity for water gardens of any sort we thought we'd trek on out there to look them over. This place was having some sort of open house/celebration/sale thing going so there were demonstrations, music and information booths. It must be a big deal because they had a couple of policemen there directing traffic.

Since, we were going there to look at water gardens I was surprised to see container vegetable gardens. Pleasantly surprised but surprised none the less.

This one was filled with tomatoes, corn, and basil. I'm not sure why they chose corn unless it was to train the tomato up the stalk. One stalk of corn only produces a couple of ears per plant so it is not a very efficient use of space. The whole point of veggie container gardening is to get a decent yield in a small amount of space. While fresh corn on the cob is yummy it doesn't really qualify as efficient.

 This one is fairly standard issue; tomatoes, peppers, an herb or two in a narrow planter box. Perfect for a small patio or balcony. Intensively planting in a box or two like this will give you a nice little salad garden throughout the season.

Not sure what to plant with what? It is easy. Plant a tall sun loving plant, like a tomato or two in what will be the back of the planter. Plant a medium size sun lover in front of the tomato that takes either less time to yield or more time to yield than the tomato. Check the tags on the starts that you buy at the garden store. In the very front plant a low and fast grower. Herbs such as thyme or oregano work well as does lettuce. A packet of mixed lettuce seeds are cheap and will having you nibbling on baby greens in only a few weeks.

Think you only have room for a fountain or a veggie container but not both? Think again.  The veggies are planted in the fountain. It is almost hydroponic. Keeping your fountain full keeps your plants watered. Perfect for folks that leave for a couple of weeks in the summer.

This one makes a little less sense. It is placed in a much larger pond. One would have to give a lot of thought to placement. Too far into the pond would make harvest a wet experience.

I encourage you to grow your own if you can. Even a container on the balcony gives you a sense of accomplishment, lets you control a little bit of the healthiness of your produce and adds some life in an urban environment. Plus it is literally no work. No hoeing the rows. No weeding between the plants. And no tilling up the soil at the end of the season. Container gardening is a pick and eat affair with a little bit of tending and consistent watering. 

Tis the season, so go out there and grow your own.

Love,
M

PS: I'm calling this my Meatless Monday post because you can't really container garden cows.

Container garden update

We live in an apartment with an excuse for a patio. This thing measures about 10 feet by 6 feet and faces west. Not the best size or orientation for gardening. We decided that a patio tomato sitting by the tree outside our door and herbs in pots were about all we could do. Some of these are from our old place and some are new. 

 This is our sage and second rosemary plant. This rosemary is a bunch of starts from my primary rosemary plant, shown below. Rosemary, like most plants, is very easy to root.  When I need to use rosemary in a recipe I usually cut off about 4 or 5 six inch sprigs. I strip off about 3 inches of the leaves from the cut end. I use the leaves in my recipe then place the sprigs in a glass of water. After about 1 week the sprigs will sprout. By 3 weeks they will have a couple of roots around 3 inches long. I poke a hole in the dirt of one of my pots, plant the rooted sprigs, and what you see above is where they go from there.

 The nice thing about rosemary is that it is really hardy. When it gets cold around here (it does too!) it will hang in there through the cold. This plant is around a year and a half old. When we move to the new place we'll place it in our little backyard. Little is 26 feet by 12 feet. It will seem like an acre compared to this patio. I have just the place for it, right next to the sliding glass door next to the fountain. It will love that spot.Nice and sunny. I'll love the smell as I brush by it as I come and go. We will have to wait until October though otherwise it will be too shocked.

 This is our oregano plant. I think. It could be our marjoram plant. They look a lot alike. I always have to eat a leaf to figure it out. Sometimes I throw caution to the wind and add whatever I cut off. As you can see it needs a bit of a hair cut and clean up. I feel its pain. I too need a bit of a hair cut.

To maximize our space we bought a chrome shelving unit. It works very well, except that our strawberry plant likes to put out runners. If you look to the back of the pot you can see that one of them found a home in with the oregano. 

 3 weeks ago our basil plants were this size

10 days ago this was what our basil plants looked like.

This is what they looks like today. You can see that the tops of the plants have reached to the bottom of the shelf above. I felt compelled to start eating off these plants already. I'm doing it a service. Mmmmm.... basil. 

 

 Strawberry plants 10 days ago.

 Strawberry plants today.

Hopefully we can get to those red ones before the birds do. Not that I don't begrudge the birds the food, it's just that JR loves strawberries and he has worked so hard keeping these alive on a patio without a water faucet. That's right. JR carries bucket after bucket of water from the master bathroom to water these plants. Sounds like stupidity doesn't it? It is still worth it.

 

 These are some more of the herb plants that we picked up 3 weeks or so ago at the farmers market. Flat leaf parsley and lemon thyme. The thyme is going crazy and it is about time to give the parsley a cut.

 No matter where we move JR buys himself a tomato plant. This cherry tomato plant we got at the farmers market also. It was 6 inches tall then. It is about 3 feet tall and flowering right now. We should be eating tomatoes in another month. We've found that cherry tomatoes do very well in pots.

That is how our garden is growing right now. For those of you with very little space, like us, a container garden is the best way to go. Also, gardening is a wonderful activity for your children. We taught The Boy his colors in the garden. It was the only way we could keep him from eating the green tomatoes.

Have a great day everyone.

Love,

M

Oh Joy! Mad container gardening skills.

Right at this moment we live in an apartment. We thought this was going to be okay. Mmmm, not so much. It is close to our places of employment. It has 3 bedrooms. It has the mandatory 2 bathrooms. It has space for a dining room table. What it doesn't have is storage, OMG it is so lacking in storage, it is not funny. Don't laugh. I store all kinds of crap. 

What it also doesn't have is very much outdoor living space. This wouldn't be too bad if; 

1. we didn't have the dogs. Giving them up is a non-issue. They are not just companions but getting a dog is a responsibility. Yikes! I almost went into pet responsibility lecture mode. 

2. It is hard to seat 2 people on our excuse for a patio. During the fall and spring JR and I like to sit out on the patio, drinks in hand, chat about our day or he reads and I paint. We miss this. Seriously miss it.

3. We can't garden. Much. Or barely at all. We have some gardenias that we put along the fence that is 5 or 6 feet from our door but what about veggie and fruit? Where do we put those? And, basil? Please God, don't make me give up my basil. It is life to me. It is my drug of choice. If we don't count wine. For this example let's not, m'kay?

What were we to do?

We put up a set of wire shelves to hold pots of plants. Herbs mostly.

This is lemon thyme and Flat Leaf Parsley

Yummy

We did pot up a few strawberry plants. 

Lookee how well they are doing.

JR loves strawberries.

Maybe not as much as peaches. 

Peaches are his favorite,

but strawberries come in a very close second. 

Plus, they are easier to grow in a pot. 

Though we do have a peach tree in a pot. 

It's just not doing as well. Something we'll have to work on.

We have my beloved basil.

We had to put in new plants a couple of weeks ago.

The freeze killed off my last bunch. It was a sad day in the Dog's Life household.

I'll be planting basil seeds in that bare front area tomorrow.

Basil loves to be in pots. Loves to be bunched up with its buddies. Loves the hot humid weather of southeast Texas. 

By this time next week we will be snacking on these plants and the seeds will be up.

We also have oregano, rosemary and sage. 

Do not think that this situation will persist. We are moving in July to a bigger townhouse with fenced front and back yards. We will be making good use of that place. I have been plotting (steeples fingers and taps them). Because while the new place has 20 times more area to work with I want 40 times more veggies and herbs. Here's what we are going to do; we're going vertical. I have plans for those fences to become garden space. I'll keep you all posted. Though I'm pretty sure you don't really care about my mad planting/gardening plans I'll tell them to you anyway. Because I'm like that. Mhahahaha.

Love,

M