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Simple steps to delicious container veggies at home

We are all craving back-to-basics outdoor time right now.  Early concerns about food lit a fire under many of us to grow our own fruits and veggies at home.  But what if you’ve never grown food before?

Many would-be vegetable gardeners are thwarted by a lack of experience or space, impenetrable rocky soil or clay, or a shortage of sunshine.  With limited space on a balcony or patio, too much shade or landscape conditions that aren’t conducive to vegetable gardening, what’s a wannabe green thumb to do?

The burgeoning gardening movement and the increasing national interest in growing vegetables at home has fueled the creation of many alternatives to a patch of rich soil in the ground.

Alternative growing containers are the latest trend, making vegetable gardening simpler than ever.  To go along with the increasing desire for small space alternatives, there are also more container-sized vegetable varieties now than ever before.

Most vegetables can be grown in a whole host of containers.  From boring plastic pots to specially designed grow bags, it’s never been easier to get started.  There are many other container options for inexpensive and moveable mini-gardens, too.  Consider large 5-gallon plastic buckets, leftover from house projects.  Other options include wooden barrels, galvanized tubs, even bushel baskets.   Just make sure the container has adequate drainage by poking holes in the bottom.  And, if you’d rather not look at a white plastic pickle bucket housing your tomatoes, you can spray paint your container to match any garden decor.  Make sure the container is safe, and not treated in any way with toxic materials.

Don’t forget about vertical spaces. Hanging baskets can be used for lightweight greens and herbs and some fruits or vegetables will even grow in upside-down hanging planters.  Train your vining vegetables up on poles, supports or trellises as much as possible, using the vertical space in your garden as well as the ground.  Large plants like tomatoes will also need tomato cages in the pots to give them the support they need.

Use the right size planter.  Smaller containers work for herbs, but for veggies, make sure your pot is big enough and has drainage holes in the bottom.  One of the most important things you can do to ensure success is to use a big enough container—the bigger, the better. For one indeterminate tomato plant, for example, you need a container that is at least 1 square foot, but 2 square feet is better. Five-gallon buckets (with holes drilled) are the perfect size for one plant.

Be sure to use a lightweight potting soil.  Choose a mix designed specifically for pots that will help it drain properly. Do not use topsoil or garden soil.

Keep a close eye on the moisture needs of the plant – remember, containers dry out faster than soil in the ground.  Be sure to water regularly to keep plants happy and healthy.  Keeping your containers near a water source will make regular watering easier.

Check out your sunlight.  Most veggies need between 6-8 hours of sunlight.  If you have lots of shade, containers are great because you can move them around the maximize sun exposure.

Make sure you give your plant the right nutrients—nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—all essential for container growing. Some potting soils come with fertilizing nutrients in them. If your bag doesn’t, buy all-purpose slow-release fertilizer or a tomato/veggie-specific fertilizer and follow the directions on the bag.

Happy Gardening.

Help – Calling all Veggie gardeners…


Help. Please.

I have 7 mature, healthy tomato plants…

Well, some of them are healthy. But one bed – 4 plants up to 10 feet tall and amazing — is infested with leaf footed bugs. I have sprayed insecticidal soap and Neem oil on them about 3 times. I have killed a bunch of them.

This morning I have spent HOURS cutting away the dead foliage and squashing bugs by hand and spraying and stomping on them. I am on a rampage.

But I am afraid I cannot possibly get them all … and I don’t think the Neem really stops their growth.

I am considering cutting them back by 1/2, trying to keep attacking them for about a week, and then, if they are still everywhere – I will rip (GASP) them out, and plant new ones. The time to plant fall tomatoes in Central Texas is right now, so I can’t wait too long.

Sad thing is these are my babies grown from see in the greenhouse and they have many blooms and it’s gonna make me cry to pull them out.

Have you got a leaf footed bug killing secret weapon?

Garden dinner…

This was the scene from my kitchen this afternoon. I sliced up leeks to fry and crisp up to top some boiled and fried potatoes, cut up green beans for a side dish and sliced a Lemon Yellow tomato to eat with just a little kosher salt.

Yum, yum. The beans were picked about a week or more too late, but with travel and other family things going on, I finally got to them today and my husband and I are both at home together tonight to eat them.
The leeks were originally going to be potato leek soup, but I thought I’d try something different and it worked great. They were browned little crisps that went great with the browned potatoes.
And the tomato was sweet and delicate, with a lot less acidity than your average red tomatoes. They have a very subtle but very nice flavor — I’d plant that one again. The cherry tomatoes on the counter were “Hank” and were sent to me for free with my TomatoBob heirloom tomato seed order in December. My DH said that they were not as sweet as the normal cherry tomatoes we grow, so I don’t think I will order them.
Paired with some pork tenderloin medallions under the broiler, as Martha Stewart would say, it was “a good thing.”

Full for the Freeze…or, I blew bloom day!

Okay, everyone is inside, all cozy and getting heated up for the impending freeze tonight.

Yes, you read right, Central Texas has a freeze warning for tonight.  In the city, we are expecting a low of 37, but the surrounding areas will be colder.
Even though we have been unseasonably warm this fall — (all year, really), this is very early for the threat of a freeze.
In anticipation, though, I loaded up the greenhouse and my DH put a fancy, new-fangled thermometer with a humidity reading on it that I can see from inside the house.  How cool is that?
Then, instead of taking pictures for Bloom Day like I was supposed to (Sorry Carol, I’m skipping this one), I was picking an amazing crop of tomatoes and lemons.  I picked 65, YES, 65 red tomatoes.  I left countless green ones on the plants.  Since I don’t really think it will freeze, I’m taking the chance.  But the reds were really almost all ready, so I’ll have to find something to do with them anyway!
Then I went around the corner and crawled carefully under the Lemon tree (because there are lethal 1-inch thorns all over it).  I picked 30 lemons from my Citrus limon variegated.  I only picked the really big ones, and again, left countless littler ones in the hope it won’t really freeze.
Don’t blink and think you’ve been reading blogs too long, the next photo is out of focus.  (I was too lazy to get my DH’s good camera when mine didn’t fully focus where I wanted it to.)
Can you tell what I am photographing?  It’s my token bloom in honor of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day — yes, I have blooms all over my lemon tree!  
Our plants are so confused.  I guess tonight might set them straight.  
Ironically, yesterday as I was putting some plant into the greenhouse, it was 85 hot and sunny degrees outside.  Even with the 4 roof windows open and the doors open and the fan/vent running, it was 110 inside the greenhouse!
Yep.  So it isn’t going to be the cold that gets me — I’m just praying it stays under 75 until sometime in the Spring!  What an odd wish that must seem for those of you in parts north of here.  
Happy Fall!

Fall harvest … ripe and ready

This is the tale of the tomatoes that just wouldn’t die.

This Spring, it got into the 100’s not long after the tomato plants went into the ground.  Much too hot at night for blooms to set.  
I tried some of that bloom set spray and I got some tomatoes, but a pretty meager crop.  A tomato here, a tomato there.  Sometimes a few tomatoes – enough for a fresh tomato salad.  But they were random.  Not very sweet, some were mealy…just not much to blog home about.
After our 40+ days of 100+ degrees, the tomato plants were crispy and crinkl-y and ugly.  For some reason, I cleaned them up, plucked off all the dead, brown leaves and tried to cheer them up for the coming Fall.
Now we’ve had some cool nights and some 85 degree days.  The plants are 8-10 feet tall – leggy on the bottom but lush and full of fruit on the top.  And they taste pretty good.  Not our best, but tasty.  All of a sudden, I am having cravings for turkey, cheese and tomato sandwiches — my favorite.  And we’re having slices on a plate with kosher salt, or with cottage cheese.  
It’s almost like the beginning of Summer!
By |2017-11-29T23:27:51-06:00October 21st, 2008|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomaotes|0 Comments
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