Bucket vegetables

Photo credit: WVC P1110578 copy

Vegetables and herbs can be grown easily in buckets. Notice the drainage hole in the sidewall, saving some water (not drained through a hole in the bottom). See also the layer of coarse sand on top (mulch), which is limiting evaporation (Willem Van Cotthem’s comment)

Gardening in a Bucket

Growing wholesome, healthy vegetables in a container are a way of life these days. Here are some easy and less expensive tips for creating that bucket garden.

In a bucket – http://nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu/hort/files/2015/04/tomatoes-in-pots-eddie-powell-225×300.jpg

• In a large container or on a plastic mat on the ground, mix garden soil and compost in a 2:1 ratio. Two scoops of soil and one of compost, add the recommended quantity of slow release fertilizer from product label
• Drill 6 to 8- ½ inch holes in the bottom of the 5-gallon buckets. Make sure that the buckets did not contain toxic materials!
• Line the bottom of the bucket with gravel. You may substitute broken pottery or sticks that are broken in short links
• Fill the bucket to within 3 inches of the top of the container
• Place container in sunny spot that will allow drainage
• Plant chosen vegetable with two seeds in center of the container
• Water well and keep moist but not wet
• Place plant support around seeds

Plant requirements:

Read the full article: UF/IFAS

 

 

If flavour rather than bulk is your priority

Photo credit: The Telegraph

Spuds on tap: pick what you need for your meal and leave the rest to grow 

Photo: GAP Photos/Gary Smith

How to grow potatoes in pots

Not only fantastic if you’re short on space, growing potatoes in containers make for a delicious crop

By Lia Leendertz

That sweet, nutty taste and the texture like slicing butter just doesn’t exist in the shop-bought potato, and I wanted it back in my life.

The answer has been to start growing them in pots. There are lots of ways in which this beats growing them in the ground, and a few in which it really doesn’t. Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. This is not the way to grow if you are after bulk and high yield. It is also high maintenance and you will need to remember to water regularly and well.

However, if flavour rather than bulk is your priority then this is a lovely way to grow them.

Potatoes grown in pots become almost a different vegetable. One of the reasons they are so good is that they grow so fast, giving them a soft, moist texture and almost non-existent skins. This also happens to be the secret behind the flown-in earlies: they are grown in places where the soils warm early in the year, so growth is speedy. But most of us don’t garden in a south-facing sloping Jersey field by the sea. After the chill of winter most UK soils are slowly warmed through by a still-weak sun. But pots can be moved to a sheltered corner to bake, onto a sunny balcony or patio, or even into a polytunnel or greenhouse. This will help increase the heat in the compost and therefore the growth rate of the potatoes.

Read the full article: The Telegraph

Containers in the farm-to-table movement

Photo credit: Google

Ethnic restaurant Asian garden

Farm-To-Table Will Change Us [Opinion]

by Carol Miller

Unlike all the trends our industry has seen come and go, the farm-to-table movement has the power to rewrite our future.

A trend is like a wind that disturbs a pond but doesn’t reshape it. Take gazing globes, huge 10 years ago. They made our industry a lot of money, but their popularity faded, and we moved on, unchanged.

Container gardens had a bigger impact. They were a hit with customers who wanted instant gratification and with retailers who liked selling several products at once. They also reflected a changing customer base, who valued getting the visual impact of gardening without the work.

Home grown vegetables – http://perfectgardeningtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/container-vegetables.jpg

I want to take the time to unpack that thought. Container gardens’ popularity rose along with the flood of smart phones, big, immersive TVs and games like Candy Crush. People still eat out, go to theaters and, yes, garden. But they spend less time doing so.

So it can be argued that selling container gardens was a necessary adaption to our customers’ lifestyles.

Combo gardens had a bigger impact than gazing globes. But what gazing globes are to container gardens, that’s what combo gardens are to the farm-to-table movement.

Read the full article: Today’s Garden Center

Indoor Plants in Winter

Photo credit: The Record Herald

Rosemary in window-Turn 1/4 every few days to keep growth even (B.Petrucci)

Winter Care Tips for Indoors Plants

by Carol Kagan, Master Gardener

EXCERPT

From Master Gardeners I have learned a few key things, so here is my quick tip list followed by a number of great resource sites. It is important to check the needs of each plant since they can vary greatly.

Aloe roots crop – http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BhvAgFZ2Q4s/VMEdUMUBThI/AAAAAAAADU4/Yo2jVQRwhsw/s1600/aloe%2Broots%2Bcrop.jpg

1. Be sure the plant is potted in the right size container (with a drainage hole) and right potting soil.

If you are digging it up and dragging it in from the outdoors then potting it up, don’t use garden soil. It’s too heavy.

2- Water only as needed when the soil is dry.

Water from the top until water comes out the drainage hole (You do have a drainage hole, right?) into the saucer. About two hours later, drain any excess water from the saucer. Don’t allow the roots to stand in water. If you don’t see drainage but have watered well, check for a clog in the hole and clear it. Inconsistent watering is one of the primary reasons for plant loss.

3- Use room temperature water.

Leave tap water out overnight, uncapped or uncovered, to allow the chlorine and fluorine added to city water to dissipate. Although these probably don’t harm plants, you want the water to be at room temperature anyway. Rainwater, snow melt and well water are ok. Don’t use water run through water softeners.

4- Light should be appropriate for the plant. – See more at: http://www.therecordherald.com/article/20150122/BLOGS/301229993/1391#sthash.uFCa0nro.dpuf

Combine the colors

Photo credit: Container Crazy CT

One year, these three plants were used in two pots and the foliage rich result was eye-catching

Yellow shrimp plant with two companions make the perfect trio in two pots

Container Crazy CT

Foliage Lasts Throughout the Season

One of the benefits of focusing on plants for their foliage features is foliage lasts throughout the growing season.  In many cases, annual plant blooms will wither away towards the end of the summer from heat exhaustion or repeat blooming.

So when you use foliage with a captivating thriller plant, like the yellow shrimp plant, you result with a stunning combination which is easy to assemble and maintain.

Echoing Foliage Colors

Notice how the dark purple plum like color (violet-red color on the color wheel) of the sweet potato vine’s heart shaped leaves are repeated in a band of the same rich purple plum color in the leaves of the Coleus ‘Kong Rose’ plant.

Repeating a color of one plant in another plant is a way to add impact to a design. This holds true in containers, patio pots, and in gardens of the ground.

Complementary Color – Yellow and Purple

Read the full article: Container Crazy CT

Winter sowing is great

Photo credit: Buffalo-Niagara Gardening

Start seeds outside now using milk jug, other containers in ‘winter sowing’

by Connie Oswald Stofko

EXCERPT

Will opaque milk jugs work for winter sowing?

I had first tried winter sowing a few years ago with the translucent milk jugs that we used to get in stores around here. Find the directions for the milk jug greenhouse here.

I had good results, but wasn’t sure if it would work with the newer opaque milk jugs, so I tried it last winter.

This does work with opaque milk jugs!

I tried it last winter and by spring I had tomato seedlings. I worried that they were coming up later than they should, but our spring was cold, so they were probably on time.

I’m not sure why it worked with the opaque milk jug, but it did. When the top and bottom halves of the opaque jug were closed, they didn’t fit together as neatly as they did on the translucent milk jug. Maybe that let in enough light for the sprouts.

Other containers for winter sowing

If you don’t trust the idea of using containers that are opaque, there are lots of other options.

 

Read the full article: Buffalo-Niagara Gardening

Your own potatoes at home

 Photo credit: Access to the Garden

Potatoes in burlap bags

How to Plant Potatoes in a Container

Posted by Acus Cimis on Google+

EXCERPT

4. Planting Potatoes In A Pot

 

• Mix free draining soil with fertilizer and moist them.
• Fill in the container with 4 inches deep of growing medium.
• Cut the seed potatoes into 2-inch chunks that have some eyes. You can plant small potatoes as they are.
• Plant the chunks in container with 5-7 inches between apart.
• Cover the seeds with 3 inches of moist soil / growing medium.
• After the potatoes grow around 7 inches, cover them with more soil. Continue to cover the small plants until you reach the top of the bag or container.
• Keep the potatoes in containers are well watered but not soggy.

Read the full article: Garden and Farm