Ann's Entitled Life

This year I switched over to all container gardening. I had dabbled in container gardening every since I purchased my earth boxes, but this year I had the herb island removed and sod laid down where it used to be.

Spring Container Vegetable Gardening

I had the thornless blackberry bushes removed, and dirt laid where they had grown for the last 7 years. I had them bucketed, and a friend took them to his land where he planted them near his raspberry brambles.

I decided to go to containers because the truth is I ain’t gettin’ any younger. I was tired of bending over, getting on my knees to weed, fighting slugs, etc.

This post has been a long time in coming. I planted the day after Mother’s day (perfect for my area). May was a simply glorious month after a (very) cool April. I took photos of when I started, a week later, a week after that… and ended up with so many photos I became overwhelmed. And in truth, my container gardens have become overwhelming too!! My backyard patio looks like a jungle. People cannot believe how my plants in the containers have taken off.

Container Garden Vegetables Planted:

• Green Beans (earth boxes and regular garden pots)
• Cucumbers (earth box and regular garden pots)
• Peppers (earth boxes)
• Roman Tomatoes (the city picker boxes)
• Cherry Tomatoes (regular garden container)
• Cabbage (regular garden containers)
• Brussels Sprouts (regular garden containers)
• Peas (regular containers, three different types)
• Lettuce (bags)
• Spinach (bags)
• Mustard Greens (bags)
• Herbs – 2 different basil, thyme, spearmint, and something else…

So, here’s a few photos of how things are coming along this week.

This is a blend of lettuce. It is soft, soft, soft, and tastes great! Hubby and I have pulled off a few leaves to taste, but I have not yet cut to harvest.

I am growing several different types of cabbage. It is interesting as two were planted as singles in smaller containers, and six, three per container were planted in very large containers (I “thought” one or two would die off per container… thought wrong). I plan on keeping a notebook with all the tags and notes on what went right, and what went wrong, in my move over to container gardening.

There are far, far, FAR too many tomatoes in these city pickers. Again, I expected some to die off. I am considering transplanting into the ground before it is too late, but the whole experiment was to see how many would grow successfully in a planter. I know the Romas grow well in these containers as they did last year, so even though it makes me twitchy, I am prepared to ride it out and see what happens.

My peas are climbing. This is a new vegetable for me to plant. I have not done it at this house, and we’ve owned it for 13 years now. I am excited to see how well they will produce.

I am growing: banana peppers (shown above), red peppers, green peppers, and orange peppers. I planted 17 pepper plants (various types), lost 2, and am “down” to 15 plants. The banana peppers are already producing.

A real perk to this container gardening is the bunnies are not eating all my plants. Last year, the peppers didn’t survive to flower as the rabbits came through and simply ate the leaves before the plants could grow. This year? We have at least four rabbits hopping through the backyard every day, and {knock on wood} so far they have left hungry.

These are my Brussels Sprouts. The pots are enormous. I planted six Brussels Sprouts plants altogether, 3 per pot. In this pot, one has already died off. In the other pot, all three plants have been attacked by bugs. I think this weekend I’ll be transplanting one of these two plants into the other container, remove those three bug-eaten plants, and stake these so they can grow.

When I decided to transition to (what was supposed to be exclusively) container gardening this year, I knew I’d need a few containers. I had all my earth boxes, the city pickers, and large containers I had saved from prior years that had held flowers. I purchased a few cool aqua and purple containers to add a pop of color. And, I purchased this garden tower.

Hubby and I started looking at for a garden tower two years ago. I simply didn’t want to pay the price (they were going for $500!!!) So this year when I found this garden tower (post) at gardener’s supply for under $200, I snatched it up.

IT. IS. AMAZING!!

I am so, so, soooooooooooooooo happy I bought this. I decided to grow all my herbs in it this year (well, except for some oregano that has been in the ground for the last five years). We chose not to install the irrigation system, and I water (nearly) every day. I plan on buying at least one more next year for flowers, possibly two more (I may try peppers in there). For the small footprint, it really packs a visual whallop (not to mention it grows herbs pretty darned well!)

I have green beans growing everywhere – earth boxes (above), single pots, in the ground (because I overbought and didn’t want to waste them) – in all I have 18 green bean plants growing and starting to flower. I have no idea what I was thinking. All I can say is if these all produce… I am glad we like green beans.

I even managed a few flowers!

All-in-all this year’s container gardening is off to a good start.

If you are wondering how I planted the planters:

The earth boxes followed these directions: earth box set-up I have not really deviated from those instructions since I started using them in 2014.

The pots and city pickers were as follows:

• A scoop of drainage rocks not covering any drainage holes.
• A half full layer of Miracle Grow Potting Soil.
• A layer (yes, a layer) of Garden-tone vegetable food.
• Water (I use a sprinking water can for this).
• Fill the remainder of the pot with Miracle Grow Potting Soil.

Everything is an experiment this year outside the earth boxes. It should be interesting to see how much, or how little, the pots produce compared to the in-ground planting I have done for years.

Are you gardening this year? Containers, in-ground, or a mix of the two? How is your garden growing?

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