Container gardens

Thanks for the tip, Grandmotherbear! The pH didn't even occur to me. The things you learn...

I play with a mix of containers and some in-ground plantings. I have Earthboxes on my deck for tomatoes, peppers, leaf lettuce, and radishes. I have to replant radishes as I have a continual harvest over the summer. I use potting mix in the planters here. It doesn't compact like our soil which is mostly clay here. I use containers because the soil is so poor. I considered raised beds but it's more work than we want to do. It is just me and my husband now so we don't require a lot and I have a wonderful farmer's market close by for everything we don't grow. That saves my back and helps my neighbors.

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I love containers but I am bad not to keep things watered. I might try all containers next year, then maybe all my gardening time with be spent on them.


Yes I agree, I HATE to buy dirt. I compost horse manure and hay. You might check with neighbors and find some near you for free.

__________________
The begining of wisdom is realizing you don't know everything.

We are on a steep slope with little soil and lots of stray cats so here is my solution:

I don't buy "dirt". I do buy potting mix. It's different. It works in my Earthboxes and plain old dirt will not. It can be an expense to begin with, but I don't have to discard it. I can reuse it for several seasons as long as I rotate the tomatoes. There is a method to planting/re-planting Earthboxes. They have videos on their website Earthbox.com.

I have containers and I don't like them. Some things grow well in containers but many things do not. I find it tiresome having to trim the roots or divide the herbs every year just to keep the plant healthy in the container. Containers seem to stunt some plants. I have chives in a large pot and they grow small and thin. I have chives in the ground and they grow large, strong, and thick. Chard seems to also be stunted in a container as well and Jerusalem Artichokes.

I find straight top soil compacts. I make a mix of top soil, peat moss, compost, and sand that works well.

Yes, some things do better planted in-ground. I like a mix of in-ground and containers depending on what is being grown or what effect I am looking for in my flower beds. Container plants require a level of maintainence that may not be what you feel like doing. I plant quite a few annuals and they get discarded at the end of the season. I don't have potted perennials. I grow some houseplants and cactus though and they require regular repotting, dividing, and inspection. It's a difficult job with some of them - especially the cactus and most certainly the very LARGE cactus. I have a couple that must be moved with a handcart. No, repotting these is NOT fun.

Well, I am more than embarrassed. I pulled up the oldest Sagitterria mass of roots and inspected them for tubers (grown in 17 gallon pots, with 5 inches water atop) Coulda sworn I ordered Latifolia (which grows egg sized tubers) Instead, these have lima bean sized tubers and the leaves are only rarely showing a slight arrowhead look- they look exactly like LANCIFOLIA! ARGH!! Wate of time and money...yeach the base of the shoots is edible, as are the petite flowers, but I wanted TUBERS!!! Guess I'll gift some to my neighbor and try to figure out how we can eat 5 pots of LANCIFOLIA!!

Smallbore- LOVE your contaainers! Melwynd- O can't get more than a half inch of your pic to download but I really want to see what you got.
Some of our corn (small plants- Chires- about 4 feet high) in small pots had been knocked off and some stalks broken about a foot up- discovered that it was the infestation of semi feral kittens- one tried to climb a cornstalk while I was watching and over it went. WHEE! The corn in big tree sized pots didn't give near as exciting a ride and they weren't too anxious to try to climb those.

I LOVE these!! Where did you get them??

Corn is not one of the things I would even consider planting in a container. I would need too much of it to be worthwhile. We have been trying to simplify and get more from less here. When our kids were little we had a huge garden and put up YEARS-worth of food. There were also more hands to help plant, weed, pick, and process what we grew. We were also a lot younger and stronger. Now less work is a good thing. The containers cut out having to till a plot and keep it weeded. I am able to keep up with the work. I have super neighbors who have the best farmer's market. I get all the produce I don't grow from them. It's a win/win situation for me.

I make them. There's a how to video on my website:

www.half-pinthomestead.com/GardenBarrels

I also sell some supplies like the pocket template, precut legs, and stuff.

I have four this year (2 strawberry and 2 veggie) and am very happy with them. I'm a great gardener in the spring... not so good in the hot summer. But these are so little work that they're still going strong. One thing I discovered by accident....I put the strawberries on the strawberry barrels for decoration, but they also keep the birds from getting your real strawberries.

There are composting worms in the center tube, so the barrels are somewhat self-fertilizing.

I wouldn't recommend them for perennials except for strawberries which are generally replaced every two years.

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“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

Albert Einstein

www.halfpinthomestead.com

I grew corn in a container one year and it did very well until the raccoons stole it all.
I had a 8ft long, 1ft wide, 1ft deep container and I was able to get 12 corn plants in the container by staggering them.

Wow! I am impressed.

Golden Bantam is small enough to do well in large containers- or baby corn.