Container Garden Week 11 Update

The really nice thing about my container garden is that there is little maintenance required once everything is initially set up. There were three days this past week that I didn’t even do my usual morning walk around. And the weeds didn’t take over.

Greenhouse Area

Hubby had moved the frame to this area so that it would be closer to the house for me to use. Previously it had been over by the big garden location when we were running a CSA a few years ago. I am so happy we moved some of the containers to this spot too, because there is some afternoon shade. It is such a pleasure working out there, nice and comfortable in the shade, when the heat index is over 100°.

That white container on the right above, has a grape vine and there’s another white container 20′ to the right of it with another grape vine. I’ve read that grapes can be grown in containers, so I am giving it a try.

I hope I’m up to utilizing the greenhouse for some winter harvesting this year. My plans are to start some containers for fall crops soon.

Sweet Potatoes

I did finally rig a piece of plastic fencing from the white barrels (picture below right) to the greenhouse frame, so that I can guide the sweet potato vines up, instead of letting them sprawl on the ground.

Hubby frowns upon mowing around plants. Like the couple or three dozen bushes planted along the driveway, which were only suppose to get “this high and this wide”.

Tomatoes in Buckets

Can’t tell by the picture, but most of these are close to 2′ tall. They are all showing signs of leaf spot though. I put stakes in the buckets for now, but will need to make cages soon.

Zucchini & Squash

These plants are still looking fairly good. In the left picture above, zucchini are in both of the end containers. I am totally amazed at their growth…in containers…and growing upright!

The squash bugs have been persistent in laying eggs, but I’m finding them before they hatch. Yay me!

Why am I so excited about growing summer squash? Besides the fact that it is such a versatile vegetable, easily incorporated into many dishes from savory to sweet, I have read that there are wonderful health benefits of eating zucchini. Yellow squash has a lot of the same benefits.

Beans

I planted the obligatory beans…because who doesn’t grow green beans in their garden? We love fresh cooked beans.  But we didn’t pick enough this year to warrant taking up three containers. I’m probably going to pull them up in a week or two. I’ll plant sugar snap peas in their place, since the spring planting didn’t germinate at all.

Minnesota Midget Cantaloupes

When ripe, these little melons are about the size of softball and look identical to full size melons. There are several that are close to the right size, so shouldn’t be much longer.

Hot Peppers

We picked a bunch of jalapenos this week and a few Pablanos. The larger jalapenos and Pablanos I prepped for the freezer for future use. The smaller jalapenos are for fresh eating, unless we end up with too many, then I will start another fermented Jalapeno jar. I’m going to dry the smaller Pablanos to make an ancho chili powder.

Tomatoes & Cucumbers

The heat has taken a toll on all of the tomatoes. Although they have developed lots of blooms, only about half of them become tomatoes. I’m embarrassed about my naked tomato plants. They are still producing and are delicious, but the tomatoes are only about half the size of what they should be for the varieties planted.

The red cherry tomato plants are doing okay, just haven’t got to pick any yet. Maybe when the weather gets back to more normal…

Cucumbers were not the Straight Eight I had thought I bought (wrong tag) but they are still pretty tasty!

Squash & Cherry Tomatoes

These two plants have leaves that are turning yellow. We watered and fertilized everything really well a couple of evenings ago and then the next morning had a slow steady rain for a few hours, so hope they bounce back.

I’m finding some eggs on these squash plants, but also a bunch of adult squash bugs. I’ve gotten pretty good at catching and killing them as I see them.

The yellow cherry tomato plant was loaded with blooms a couple of weeks ago, but the majority of them fell off in the heat. So none harvested yet.

Bell Peppers

They are such pretty plants and are still blooming in the heat. Most of the peppers we have picked so far are medium size. A little smaller than what I like for making stuffed peppers, but they’ll work. So far, only had one turn red, but it had sun scald.

I have diced a few to put in the freezer for using over the winter.

Herbs

Herbs are surviving the heat for the most part. I need to do some harvesting and cut most of them back.

I forgot to trim those yellow leaves off of that cucumber plant.

Ladder #1

I’m going to pull that bucket with the tomato out and move it over by the other tomato buckets. Not sure why it’s so slow-growing. Another nice thing about container vegetables…if something isn’t happy in one place, I can always move it.

That stand of grass in the bottom right corner is a week’s worth of growth. It’s really tough this year keeping up with the mowing and weed eating.

It’s takes us the better part of two days for us to get all of the yard work done each week, because neither of us have the stamina to keep working non-stop in 90° plus weather with 60% plus humidity.

Shade Garden

It’s really nice to have ornamental plants that don’t get consumed by the weeds. Debating on whether to put them in the ground or not.

This Week’s Harvest

Plus another 1/2 gallon or so of blackberries that didn’t make it to the freezer. What can I say…I love blackberries!

We’re about half-way through our garden season, so still plenty of time to have bumper crops. We have plenty coming in now for fresh vegetables, plus a little to put up

I’m going to start just doing harvest updates, plus any major changes, for awhile. I’ll also include a couple of wide angle shots, so everyone that is following along can see how well the garden is doing.

Start here if you want to look back to see how the container garden started.

Happy Gardening!

Robin

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