Things are Sprouting the Weather is Great

This is prety much my garden this year. I have two types of tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, bush beans, and Sunflowers. Everything is in pots except for the Sunflowers. I am excited about how it is going to come out this year.

These are the tomatoes. I have a beefsteak variety and a roma variety. This year I have planted only one plant per container. I did this because of what happened last year.

My Spinach has sprouted. I should be able to cut something from it in about a month. I’m excited.

I am pretty sure these are the Brussel Sprouts I planted. The only other thing they could be is the bush beans I planted, but I am pretty sure these are the sprouts.

My Sunflowers are a little bigger. 🙂

Planning My Vegetable Garden for the Spring of 2008

Now that the growing season is almost over and I have documented some of what I have learned this year (Check out my Cucumbers and Tomatoes), it is time to start doing research for next year.

Plans:

1. Winter: Get the Compost going so I can use it in the spring.
2. Winter: Create some homemade trelluses from branches I cut when trimming trees.
3. Winter: Find / Buy a couple 2x6s to hold soil in the new Garden I have planned for the Spring.
4. Early Spring: Start the Seeds in the mini contianers I have from last years’ flower purchase.
5. Early Spring: Buy some Garden Soil for the Garden Box.
6. Early Spring: Break up a 10 foot x 10 foot section in the hill in the backyard for garden.
7. Early Spring: Install the 2x6s to hold in the soil.
8. Early Spring: Mix in the Soil and Compost Started in the Winter.
9. Early Spring: Plant the seedlings after the first frost.
10. Spring and Summer: Document the Growth of my Garden

What I want to plant in the Garden of 2008

• Big Boy Tomatoes (seeds stolen from a friend at work)
• Roma Tomatoes (seeds from 2007 crop)
• Cucumbers (seeds from 2007 crop)
• Squash (will have to buy the seed)
• Sunflowers (will have to buy the seed)
• Strawberries (will have to buy the seed)
• maybe some sweet peas (will have to buy the seed)
• Blackberries (seed from the wild blackberries in the backyard)
• Avocado Tree (Pits from fruit from store when they are cheap again)

I don’t know if I will be able to grow all of these plants in next year’s garden. Money has been tight and I don’t see it letting up any time soon. I am going to get stuff as I have the money and the time. Hopefully things will work themselves out by next spring.

If you would like to join me in a home garden endeavor, make a comment on this post. If you have your own blog, please post a trackback link. If I can get several websites together for next Spring, it might be fun to see each other’s garden as it grows. Let me know if you are interested.

Here are some Tomato Growing websites that I found interesting. They may just come in handy for next spring.

• Tomato growing in buckets – Burpee Big Girls
• The Great Tomato Weigh-In
• How To Make An Upside Down Tomato Planter
• upside down tomato plant

These are some other great vegetable gardening blogs that I have found in my search for ideas for next year.

• Carlton Garden
• I Wet My Plants
• Garden Desk

How to Grow Tomatoes in a Container – Romas in 2007

April 21st, 2007 – This year I wanted to grow some tomatoes, but I felt that the ground in the backyard was just too hard, full of rocks and lacked the nutrition to nuture any kind of decent vegetables. So what I did was to take an empty cat litter container…

…and drilled holes in the bottom for drainage reasons, filled it up with potting soil and planted the tomato seeds. I placed the container on the back patio where it would get about 30-40% full sun every day and I watered them every day and waited to see how this little experiment unfolded.

April 28th, 2007 – After about a week or so I had small seedlings that poked their head above the dirt. 

May 11th, 2007 – They’re doing really well, growing nice and strong.  The other plants that are in the box are carrots that I originally planted with the tomatoes. I pulled most of them later on.

May 18th, 2007 – The tomatoe plans have started to bush out and cover the mouth of the container. at this point I pulled most of the carrots and a few of the weaker tomato plants so the ones that are left in there will grow stronger.

May 26, 2007 – The tomato plants are getting really tall now. I knew that I needed to get something to hold them up. I gound an old grill rack that had been thrown in the dumpster next door where they were building a new house.  I bent it and stuck it in the dirt with the tomatoes.

June 2nd, 2007 – As you can see, within one week the tomato plants already overtook the grill rack. I am going to have to find something larger to hold the tomatoes. I also saw the first flower buds on the plants. I will most likely pluck them since thay are the first buds, we will see.

June 25th, 2007 – I broke down and bought a wire plant support from Lowes. It was only $2-3 so I was not that upset. These things just keep growing

July 8th, 2007 – I went away for a week on vacation. I left my tomatoes and the rest of my plants in very capable hands.

When I got home I found that I actually have tomatoes growing on the plants. The time is almost near.

July 15th, 2007 – I have noticed a thinning in the leaves on my tomato plants. This picture is actually of the back of the plant. A storm from last week knocked over the entire planter. I guess it is getting kind of top heavy. When I set it back up, I turned the leaning side towards the house. I have also notice that the roots are covering the top of the soil. I believe that the plants have nearly exhausted the nutrients in the littler box. That is my fault for planting 8-9 plants in one box.

There are plenty of tomatoes on the plant at the moment. There has to be a couple dozen tmatoes on the plant. I am waiting for one of them to start turning red. Should be happening soon.

August 4th, 2007 – I have Red Tomatoes!!!!! The plant itself seems to be shedding it leaves at the bottom to be able to grow the tomatoes. I have picked 4 tomatoes so far. They yave tasted great. I even saved some seeds so I can plant them again next year.

See. They are Red!

August 13th, 2007 – The plant is still growing. It is taller than the metal stand it is growing in. The leaves at the bottom have all died, but the new growth at the top is nice and green. The tomatoes are still growing nicely.

September 2nd, 2007 – Well, I believe that the tomato plants have finally used up all the nutrients in the soil. They just have quit producing tomatoes and all the leaves are dying. I think I got about 2 dozen tomatoes out of the plant. I pulled the root ball out of the kitty litter container and this is what I found.

It is crazy. The roots formed a nice impression of the bottom of the inside of the container. Interesting. I learned that I should only have one tomato plant ina container. I had about 12 plants in this one container. They were all fighting for the nutrients. So next Spring I will keep it to one plant per container.

See You Next Year,

How to Grow Hydroponic Cucumbers – The Wick Method

May 3, 2007 – I set up the following contraption from things I had around the house. The first thing I did was take a cotton work glove and cut it at the finger joints making longer strips that will fit into the hole in the base of the pot.

I pushed each of the strips into a different hole in the bottom of the pot, making sure that each strip would reach the top of the pot.

This is what the inside of the pot should look like.

Next I found a bigger container that was capable of holding a decent amount of water. In this case I found a plastic shoe box. I drilled a one inch hole in the top.

I filled the pot with dirt, making sure that each of the cotton strips made their way to the top of the dirt in several different places. I also filled the shoebox with water and one of my favorite liquid fertilizers. I slid the bottom of the cotton glove through the hole I made in the top of the shoebox. Then placed the top of the shoebox on top of the base of the shoebox. I placed 4 seeds just under the dirt and gave them a small drink from the top.

May 11, 2007 – This is the results as of one week later. The plants are growing well. I did water the plants the first couple of days to help germinate the seeds. Bu now they are growing all on their own with the water in the shoebox.

May 18th, 2007 – I have completely quit supplementing water. It is thriving on the water in the shoebox.

May 26, 2007 – They are so much taller than the rest of the cucumbers that I have been watering daily in clay pots.

 June 2nd, 2007 – Some of the leaves started to aquire brown edges.  I am not sure what that means.  I am going to have to do some research to find out I think.

June 12th, 2007 – I have been told that my water/soil’s PH is off and that is why my leaves have brown edges. I have yet to do anything about it. I figure it is only going to get worse. I will do some research, implement it and report my findings.

Here is the latest Photo taken today. The vines have now over grown the sides of the pot and are growing along the ground. I moved the box off the hot concrete to it would not burn the plant. I hope this was the correct move. I also had to refil the container for the first time.

June 25th, 2007 – You can see the difference between the two plants. On the left is the hyro-cucumber. it is still fighting a PH problem, because I won’t take the time to pick up a PH test. Lazy me. I through a scoop of dirt into the shoebox when I filled it up this week. I don’t know if that will help. On the right is the plant that has been in a pot the entire time. It is catching up and is actually doing much better than the hydro.

July 9th, 2007 – The Hydro-Cucumber is still doing OK. It is a figher. Nope, I still have done nothing about the PH levels. The potted Cuke is doing great. In fact I have a nice sized cucumber growing on it right now. MY camer ran out of juice, so I will have to provide a picture of it at a later date.

July 15th, 2007 – They decided that they want to take over the yard.

I have picked my fist cucumbers this past week. This one makes 3.

I also noticed that the Hydro Cucumber plant has started to grow new leaves at its base. I guess it is trying to shade its roots. The grass around the cucumbers has gone wild. I will not cut it till I pull the plants at the end of the season. Should be interesting how tall it gets.

August 4th, 2007 – I have harvested 4 Cucumbers so far and there are about a half dozen more growing on the vines. I did have one that had one side under grown. That half tasted horrible. I may have picked it too soon.

August 13th, 2007 – The vine is almost a long as the patio. I wonder how big this thing would have gotten if I had taken care of it properly.

Here is a example pf the newest cucumbers. Aren’t they pretty?

September 2nd, 2007 – This plant has created a few really nice cucumbers and a few that didn’t taste all that good. So I went ahead and pulled it early. It took a little while to get the plant out of the grass that had grown up around it. I took it to the front yard and laid it out on the driveway just to see how long it really grew.

This is what the roots looked like inside the container. I think if I want to try this again nect year, I am going to have to use a bigger container to hold the hydro solution.

See You Next Year.