Container Garden Week 9 Update

Well, no drought concerns here this past week. We have had numerous thunderstorms with a total of 4 3/4″ of rain on our hilltop, plus heat advisories every day. I go out for daily morning walks to check on all of the containers and am grateful that everything is doing as well as it is.

All of the plants look beautiful with all of the rain and the leaf spot is spreading rapidly with all of the rain. I sprayed a homemade fungicide on everything that is showing signs of it. I’ll let you know in a later post how that works out for me.

Nothing was caught in the trap this week. The electric fence seems to be a great deterrent. So far…

Squash, Beans and Cantaloupes

We have never had a such a beautiful crop of zucchini and squash plants. LOVE the upright growing method! I know…I’ve probably said that in every update. I did find about 8 clusters of eggs on the backs of leaves, and caught one newly hatched bunch of squash bugs, which I immediately smashed.

Haven’t seen any more evidence of deer snacking on the beans.

There’s a bunch of baby cantaloupe! I’m getting my melon bags ready to hang on the cage to support the melons.

I had one mini-watermelon seed germinate out of 30 or so. It’s planted in the first white bucket in the picture above.

Sweet Potatoes

Forgot to take a picture this week, but it’s looking really good. Going to have to either put up a trellis for the vines or move the electric fence soon to not include the sweet potatoes. A few vines are already long enough to reach the ground and if they touch the electric fence line, the fence doesn’t work.

Hot Peppers

Oh, my! Theses peppers are heavy producers. We decided to not harvest any more this week to see if they get bigger. I can still make chili rellenos with the ones we have already picked, but they are only about half of the size of what they should be.

Lots of jalapenos to make poppers!

Tomatoes and Cucumbers

We have a steady supply of cucumbers. I have a feeling we are going to get burned out of cucumbers before the summer is over.

I am really disappointed with the tomatoes. They appeared to be producing well. But they kept losing leaves. I removed every leaf that had visible Leaf Spot and then sprayed them with the homemade fungicide. There was already a lot of new leaf growth starting on the stems, so I went ahead and picked most of the tomatoes, so the plants can put more energy into growing new foliage.

It’s not just these tomatoes with the Leaf Spot. Every single tomato plant, every variety, in every location, even where no nightshades have been in the past, have Leaf Spot. Next year, I will start a spraying regime when they get planted.

Squash and Cherry Tomatoes

These squash (yellow straight neck and zucchini) are doing well too. The cherry tomatoes planted behind them are pretty spindly looking, so I pulled the containers out a little for increased sunshine and air circulation.  I never dreamed the squashes would survive this long! (knock on wood)

Bell Peppers

We’re picking enough for ‘seasoning’ use. As the summer goes on they’ll get bigger, and then I’ll harvest some to make stuffed peppers for the freezer.

Finally got an orange bell pepper. Disappointing that it’s barely the size of  a golf ball!

Herb Shelves

I got the herb shelves straightened up. I moved most of the herbs from the hanging baskets on the porch to this area. These poor plants have already been battered several times by the torrential rainfalls this week.

There is a variety of herbs here. The two green flower boxes have Toy Bok Choy. It’s a Chinese cabbage, which is good in a Stir Fry.

Blackberries

Blackberries are starting to turn purple! Nothing like picking fruits right off the vines to munch on! I picked almost a quart yesterday. They didn’t make it to the house, which is why there is an empty bowl in the picture below.

This Week’s Harvest

The ugly side of gardening

I love how lush-looking my plants are and I try to keep my containers “pretty looking”, but it doesn’t always work out that well when you need to protect your plants from critters.

This poor container of Swiss Chard…I could not figure out why it wasn’t growing. When it finally took off growing and the plants were about 3″ tall, I was so excited.

The next morning, there were only tiny little stems.

Ah-ha! The bunnies must have visited. Up goes the plastic to protect it.

Ladder #2 Area

The plants on and around the ladder are all starting to fill out. The Cypress Vine on the ladder will have red flowers when it finally gets around to blooming and there are yellow Marigolds at the bottom of the ladder.

The right side picture below is my project of the week. This area gets about an hour of sun mid-morning, then evening sun starting about 4 in the afternoon, so it’s nice and cool in the shade until then. I’ve been wanting to make a dancing “scarecrow lady” for a long time, but I couldn’t decide where to put her. I had been working on straightening up this area and found the perfect place for her! Now she’s done and she can keep me company when I take my breaks!

I also had a bunch of salvaged galvanized buckets, etc. found on the property when we bought it, plus a few other acquired pieces.

Extra Plants

I had a few extra Big Beef and cherry tomato plants, plus a couple of Pablano peppers, that I put in the ground, as a backup. Shouldn’t be a problem getting lots of tomatoes this year! I thought about starting a couple of more containers, but want to save those for fall peas.

I’m also working on clearing a small patch for an in-ground herb bed.

I hope you are enjoying following along with this Container Gardening Series and getting some ideas for growing your own food in containers, too.

Happy Gardening,

Robin