What did you do in the garden today?

[Swiss]

I used 5 gallon buckets for tomatoes and peppers. It makes moving easier.

OOH!! My mom has a few she'd probably let me use, so I'll totally do some peppers, too (or more tomatoes..... hmm....) Thanks for the reminder!

 

[BReeder!]

I used 5 gallon buckets for tomatoes and peppers. It makes moving easier.

I've seen corn grown in buckets too. If container gardening is your thing you can get away with corn surrounded by salad greens in a five gallon bucket. Just be sure to incorporate a food amount of compost and feed with some Nitrogen fertilizer after 6 weeks. Natural fertilizer like compost tea and well composted manure work perfect. Make sure there's drainage in the bucket too is it is outside.

 

[BReeder!]

I came across an interesting business online a but randomly today. It's called Terraformer. It's essentially a marketplace for selling garden produce locally to individuals. I doubt I'll be successful enough to grow for others just yet, but it sure is an interesting idea.

 

[NewBoots]

I've learned more about wintering over my peppers. An article I read or watched said to cut back your peppers if you were trying to keep them over the winter, that they did better that way and my small sample seems to back that up. The Jimmy Nardello that I brutally cut back last fall is doing beautifully but the bell, serano, nardello, and rams horn look pretty sad. I'll cut them back tomorrow and hope for the best.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a pretty good day to get some gardening done. I dumped a big flake of alfalfa and straw each in the chicken run and the girls had a great time with it. The run is pretty well protected from the rain we've had and the only smell is of rich soil but I want to be sure it stays that way. I added straw and alfalfa to the compost bins as well to try and balance out some of the chicken poop the girls produce.

I've learned I love shakshuka and have made it three times in the last two weeks so now I'm even more keen on growing hot peppers and canning more whole and diced tomatoes. Since I intend on planting quite a bit more tomatoes this year than last year, I intend to can tomatoes and sauce but also ketchup, bbq sauce, pizza sauce, and probably even tomato soup.

 

[Ascholten]

Just remember on the 5 gallon buckets, in summer months the root mass can get very hot since it's above ground etc, no real heat sink, and you can kill plants real fast that way. Don't know how many buckets of potatos i nuked before I came to that Epiphamy. Since you are also heating up all of it so much more they will take a lot of water too, you may find yourself watering some stuff twice a day to keep it from wilting from drying out.

Aaron

 

[Sueby]

My first year here, before I got the raised beds in, I did a lot of container gardening & hated it. As Aaron said, I was watering twice a day & stuff was still cooking - especially in terra cotta pots. Never mind going away for a weekend, that just wasn't possible. But I still do some things in containers, all my herbs are in them, but much bigger ones now & no terra cotta!

Today is the calm before the storm I think. Cold, but sunny. I just keep telling myself to enjoy the snow that's coming because, hopefully, it's the last of it! Then I realize it's only the middle of Feb.

I need to top off all the waterers & feeders so I don't have to go out in snow & grab another bale of straw. Or maybe I have enough leaves...

Have a good one!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

My first year here, before I got the raised beds in, I did a lot of container gardening & hated it. As Aaron said, I was watering twice a day & stuff was still cooking - especially in terra cotta pots. Never mind going away for a weekend, that just wasn't possible. But I still do some things in containers, all my herbs are in them, but much bigger ones now & no terra cotta!

Today is the calm before the storm I think. Cold, but sunny. I just keep telling myself to enjoy the snow that's coming because, hopefully, it's the last of it! Then I realize it's only the middle of Feb.

I need to top off all the waterers & feeders so I don't have to go out in snow & grab another bale of straw. Or maybe I have enough leaves...

Have a good one!

Terra-cotta is pretty but I’d rather have plastic. Terra-cotta heats up and dries out too fast, its hard to move, cracks in winter and is expensive

 

[BReeder!]

Just remember on the 5 gallon buckets, in summer months the root mass can get very hot since it's above ground etc, no real heat sink, and you can kill plants real fast that way. Don't know how many buckets of potatos i nuked before I came to that Epiphamy. Since you are also heating up all of it so much more they will take a lot of water too, you may find yourself watering some stuff twice a day to keep it from wilting from drying out.

Aaron

That's the same case for just about all containers.

 

[Sueby]

Terra-cotta is pretty but I’d rather have plastic. Terra-cotta heats up and dries out too fast, its hard to move, cracks in winter and is expensive

I'm not a fan of plastic & try to keep it out of my life as much as possible, but it does work much better for pots. Here in CT I can get terra cotta soooo much cheaper than plastic pots! & if I take the dirt out & turn them upside down for the winter they don't crack. (I'm talking unglazed, plain old terra cotta)

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I'm not a fan of plastic & try to keep it out of my life as much as possible, but it does work much better for pots. Here in CT I can get terra cotta soooo much cheaper than plastic pots! & if I take the dirt out & turn them upside down for the winter they don't crack. (I'm talking unglazed, plain old terra cotta)

Wow! Terra-cotta is really expensive here. One plain pot big enough to hold a pepper plant is like $30.