The container gardening hasn't been an entire failure, but it hasn't been as successful as I envisioned late this spring. I think we'll get one pepper off of the pepper plant. Anyone know if this is normal? We are getting tomatoes, but due to a failure to stake the plants better as they got taller, we won't get as many tomatoes as we should have. The Dancer is at least enjoying a few tomatoes every few days. The oregano looks rather sad. I suppose we may be able to chop what there is, up. Strawberries failed to materialize.
The problems as I see them were: 1. An especially rainy spring. The plants got overly soggy to the point where they were sitting in water. We did our best to drain the containers and moved the plants in when it rained, but the responsibility of lugging containers around, I think became discouraging.
2. Our patio faces south. This discourages us from spending much time out there, thus kind of forgetting about the plants. I would like to get some kind of large umbrella or other shade, but the cost is rather prohibitive.
Oh, and I planted some lilies-of-the-valley in front, in the shade. There didn't seem to be much to them, just a scrawny bit of root. I have lost all hope of them since the landscaping crew that maintains our development came and dumped a bunch of mulch on top of these little twigs sticking up. I wonder if transplanting some larger plants from someone who has some would work better. I think I mentioned before that I tried lilies before many years ago and got nothing then as well.
The price of food being what it is, I still think it is worth giving container gardening another try next spring. Actually, I would like to get some more containers so that we can grow more food. We'll see where things stand next spring. I will also put some ornamental bulbs in this fall.
3 comments:
Barb!
We put our peppers in large pots last year. You should get a lot more than 1 pepper off the plant.
I don't think peppers like to be wet, so drainage is pretty important. Make sure you've got some good drainage holes to let out the excess water.
There are some products you can buy to hold water and release it slowly into the soil, so if you forget to water for a day your plants won't be scorched. I don't know what they cost.
You know so much more about gardening than we do. I guess if we are going to get serious we should do some reading over the winter. Or just ask you. ;)
Barb!
I don't know that much, I've killed my fair share of plants.
Everything I know about gardens I learned from two sources I highly recommend:
Gardening By The Yard.
Illinois Gardener.
Do this and you'll know more than me.
Post a Comment