Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

My Container Garden: The Season is Over

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This spring, frustrated by the lack of any good growing space in our yard, we decided to give a container garden a try.  We bought up a whole bunch of pots to put everything in, got some good potting soil, and planted away.  Once we were done, we planted a couple pots of tomatoes, a couple pots of cucumbers, a longish pot of green beans, a pot of green peppers, a longish pot of carrots, two pots of onions, and two large pots of potatoes.

Last weekend, with the low temperatures in the forecast dipping below the 32 degree mark, we decided it was a good time to pull up the root vegetables, and pick anything that was ripe.  Considering the few silly things we did, and the terribly hot summer we had, I think we did O.K.

Container Garden Harvest

In the picture, you can see some of what we pulled up last weekend. I wasn’t quick enough on the camera trigger to get pictures of the carrots or peppers before they got taken into the house. Also not pictured are any of the cucumbers, beans, or tomatoes we’ve harvested throughout the summer, or any of 10 or so potatoes that we pulled out from the bottom of the potato bag in August.

Overall, I’d have to say that I was slightly disappointed with the harvest.  None of the onions grew to very good size.  What cucumbers we did harvest were all seeds and no flesh.  The heat really played havoc on most of the plants in the containers.  There were several weeks where the plants really needed to be watered every night, but we were either gone, or didn’t get home in time to do it.  I also made the mistake of planting a few too many plants in some of the containers, and I think they got crowded which stunted their growth.

The quality of what we got, however, was pretty good.  Fresh potatoes taste nothing like what you get from the store, they’re so buttery and sweet.  The onions, while small, were very good as well.  My wife made a salsa with some of the tomatoes and onions, and it was very, very good.

I’ve already got a pretty good mental list of the things that I’ll be changing next year.

  • We get such a short growing season here, that I either need to start the seeds much earlier in the house, or just spend the money and buy greenhouse plants when it’s time to plant.
  • I’ll have to be careful to reduce the number of plants in the pots as well, to cut back on the crowding issue we had.
  • I’m also thinking about building a few planters attached to the deck so I don’t have to buy any more pots.  Of course, I could try and find some second hand pots as well.
  • The soil we use may have to change a bit as well.  The stuff we bought this year, while good potting soil, just didn’t seem to keep it’s consistency very well.  Part of that may have been the need for more watering.
  • I’ll be changing the mix of plants that I plant as well.  The cucumbers didn’t seem to take to containers all that well, so I might cut those in half.  I’d also like to add a few more tomato plants, and a few more varieties of peppers.  We only planted green peppers this year, but I’d like to try some jalapeno, and maybe another variety of hot pepper.

How did your garden turn out this year?  Do you plant in a garden or in containers?

 

Growing Potatoes in Containers

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As part of my foray into container gardening this year, I decided that it would be fun to try my hand at growing some potatoes.  I’d done a fair amount of reading, and it seemed like growing potatoes in containers was pretty workable.  I’d seen several examples of people growing them in old tires stacked 4 high, fencing towers stuffed with straw, and some much more elaborate wood sided towers that allowed for taking the bottom rung off and pulling potatoes out from under the plant.

The re-purposed container that we already had, potatoes already planted.

When it came time to plant my potatoes, I decided that for the first time around, I’d just use one of the larger containers that I already had laying around the yard.  I’d previously used it to try and grow some flowers in, and while those turned out fine, some produce would be even better.  I also found and picked up another container that I wanted to give a try with potatoes.  It’s a bag made specifically for growing potatoes in, called, wait for it, Potato Planter.  It’s kind of cool though.  It’s made out of the same material that those blue tarps are made out of, and is designed with a velcro flap near the bottom of the bag to allow for you to open the bag and pull some potatoes out of the bottom while letting the rest of the potatoes grow near the top.

So, armed with my containers and a couple of bags of topsoil, I set about planting some potatoes!

Steps for growing potatoes in containers:

  • Potato Planter Packaging © by thatedeguy
    Fill each container with about 6 inches of soil.
  • Cut your seed potatoes so that each piece has about 2-3 eyes on it.
  • Place your seed potatoes onto the soil.  (I’m sure there’s a scientific spacing you should observe, but I didn’t.  I placed them about 6 inches apart.)
  • Cover the seed potatoes with a couple of inches of soil and water thoroughly.
  • Water as needed.  (Remember that containers dry out faster than your garden will, so they need more frequent watering.)
  • When the plants are about 6 inches tall, add more soil until the soil is about 2 inches from the top of the plant.
  • Repeat until the container is full of soil.
  • Continue to water, and wait.
  • Potato Bag Started © by thatedeguy

    After the plants have flowered, and the plant itself starts to yellow and die off, give the potatoes about a week to two weeks to mature, then harvest them.  (This step and the ones following are purely from my research, and not from experience yet.  I could be way off!)

  • When you harvest the potatoes, set them out in a warm, dry place to dry.  This is supposed to allow the skins to harden up a bit for better storage.  (One downside here is that the second the potato gets to a harvested state, the natural sugars in the potato begin converting to starch.  I’ll be trying a few fresh from the ground and some that have been “hardened” and see how much of a difference there is.)
  • Repeat next year!

So far, I’ve gotten as far as planting, and adding soil to the potato containers.  I’ve got one more batch of soil to add to the containers to fill them up with soil, then it’s just a waiting game as the plants grow potatoes and I wait for harvest time.  This year is a bit of an experiment, as it’s our first year of dedicated container gardening, as well as the first time I’ve ever grown potatoes.  Rather than add too many variables to the mix, I just planted some seed potatoes that I got from our local grocery store.  If I recall, they were the Red Pontiac variety.

Next year, should this year be a success (and it’s looking like it will be), I would like to order some seed potatoes of different varieties.  In particular, some purple potatoes.  Mostly, just because I think they look cool!  I’d like to try a few of the heritage/organic varieties too, and see if there’s much of a difference.

Have any of you ever successfully grown potatoes in your gardens or in containers?  Got any hints or tips for me?  Suggestions for varieties to grow next year?

Trying a Container Garden This Year

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In years past, we’ve tried futilely to grow a variety of vegetables, fruits and flowers in our designated garden areas of our yard.  Each year, some part of that has been a tremendous disappointment.  Part of the issue is the soil itself.  We have a large evergreen tree in the back yard that provides and excess of shade, an excess of protection from rainfall, and an excess of needles that lend a terrible acidity to the soil.  Between not getting enough shade, not getting enough rain and poor nutrient values in the soil, everything we plant has a terrible time trying to grow.

We’ve tried several things over the last few years.  Much more regular watering helps, obviously.  We’ve added better quality soil to try and make the soil better for growing.  We’ve even fertilized the plants. Each year, something happens to throw the wrench in the cogs.  Last year, we had a major slug infestation, and what did grow was quickly eaten by the slimy creatures.  With each year’s problems, we learn something new that we won’t repeat in future years.  Last year, we learned that, while fallen leaves do provide good insulation for plants over the winter, a abnormally wet spring makes them a wonderful breeding bed for slugs.  Maybe, after we’ve learned enough lessons, we’ll finally get a decent crop out of our garden.  Until then, we’re changing it up a bit.

This year, we’re giving a container garden a go.  We purchased several (8-10) containers of various sizes and shapes, filled them with potting soil and topsoil and purchased all the seeds we thought we might need for the year.

Gardening Supplies © by thatedeguy

I started the seeds nice and early (perhaps a bit too early) and quickly encountered my failure for the year. Not only did very few of the seeds sprout, but those that did quickly died and began to mold. Nothing that I grew in that first batch of seeds is currently still with us. I bought some different seed starting supplies, and tried again. I got slightly better results, and a majority of those seeds survived. Any that still didn’t grow, I replaced with plants from a nursery.

So far, we’re only a few weeks into the growing season, but several of our containers are doing quite well.  The potato planters are growing very well, and the onions (note: all not seeds that I started.)  are doing well.  Of the things that I started as seeds, the only things that are really doing well so far are the carrots.  But, the other stuff is growing, and hopefully, will continue to.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss the financial side of all of this a bit.  When you stop to consider the burden of having to buy most of the supplies this first year, it would have been far more economical to just buy the produce from the farmer’s market.  But, should we pull it off, and produce a good enough crop, we’ll continue it in future years.  Each successive year will make it a bit cheaper, as most of the containers and supplies are reusable.  This year, it’s probably creeping up to about $100 in total expenses, but next year will likely be a lot closer to the $20-$30 mark.  For $20-$30, the produce grown will be very cheap compared to what we could get it for at the farmer’s market.  Plus, it will have that little extra bit of flavor that gets added from having grown it yourself.

How do you garden?  Do you have the luxury of a large plot for a garden, or do you make do with containers?  Do you have any great tips for container gardening (or gardening in the presence of a evergreen) that you’d care to share?