The Wife of a Dairyman ~ Churned in Cali: container gardening

Showing posts with label container gardening. Show all posts

August 31, 2011

Thankful Thursday w/Linky: I Spy with my little eye...

This year we planted our garden in raised beds, they're at about waist level which makes watering and weeding very simple. Thankfully, the plants seem to be flourishing in these raised beds...our little midnight visitors; the jack rabbits, have not found our veggie garden this year and either have the snails, earwigs and whatever has eaten our garden in previous years.

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Promise of Success

After returning from our Lake Tahoe vacation a few days ago, I went out to water my container garden, hoping everything was still doing well and had not been eaten by the jack rabbits that live here as well.

I have seven tomato plants, two cherries and the others, a variety of Early Girl, Beefsteak and a couple of unknowns. What I found was a promise of good things to come....at least from the Cherry tomato plant anyway.

You see, in the past, my tomato plants don't produce very well....be it the windy weather, the soil or the coolness of our climate. But this little guy has given me some high hopes.
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A Simple Gardener

This past February, when we were having 80 degree temps and what I thought was going to be an early summer, so I sprinkled some seeds and planted some bulbs in the simple container garden from last summer. Little did I know that our spring/summer like weather we were experiencing was only to last through the month of February.

I have yet to plant our 'formal' garden for the year.

Yesterday, it poured down rain all day long.

Today I went out to the containers in which I planted the carrot and parsley seeds, onion and garlic bulbs. I have never planted garlic {the larger bulb on the left} so I'm not sure if this is what it's supposed to look like or not, but I plan on hanging it to dry.

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Wordless Wednesday: How Does My Succulent Grow?

With our home on the farm being situated atop a hill and 20 miles from the coast, it can get quite windy. As a matter of fact, in the photos below, you can see our American flag flying high in the background. So when I am at the gardening store choosing plants, I need to keep this fact in mind and opt for something on the hearty side.

When my cousin was up visiting from southern California, he raved about the succulents he was growing in his containers back home. They only need a good watering once a month and they're very low maintenance. That's all I needed to hear before going out and buying a few myself.

My cousin was right, they are easy and I do love looking at them. They sit on my front porch, atop a wine barrel, in the windiest area of our yard.

I have no idea what the name of this succulent is, but it is so pretty with it's golden blooms. I can't recommend succulents enough.

What's your favorite container plant?
Linking to The Little Round Table for This Week in my Garden

Wordless Wednesday Link Up with:
Project Alicia: http://www.projectalicia.com/
The Pinke Post: http://pinkepost.blogspot.com/2011/05/wordless-wednesday-handmade-summer.html
Dagmar's Momsense: http://dagmarbleasdale.com/2011/05/wordless-wednesday-memory-lane

I love to hear from you! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. Have a fantastic day!

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April 19, 2011

Excitement on a Foggy Day

One of the climate issues we encounter when living near the coast is FOG. Some people call it our 'natural airconditioning' because it visits us all summer long, actually all year long. During the summer months, it really keeps things pretty cool on the days it visits us.

I don't like it.

But our cows do. They don't like the hot weather, so in the area of northern California where we live, the cows really like the climate. It's not too hot except maybe a few days in summer and it's not too cold.

I took a stroll outside with the macro lens today to see what exciting photos I could capture..... in the fog, then I came in to see what I could do with the dreary things on picnik.com.

Much more exciting when the editing is complete.

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My Home Depot Gardening Loot

With all this spring-like weather we've been having, I've totally gotten the gardening bug and it's only January! I've been trying to contain myself because I know there's more frost and I know more rain on the way. But when it's close to 70 degrees, I can't help myself from doing some yard clean up work and planting.

With both kids in school for the day I made my way down to Home Depot for a leisure shopping trip. My main purpose for the trip was to find a third terra cotta planting pot to replace the one that broke in my yard.

No luck finding a replacement which means I'll probably have to buy three different pots to replace the two remaining pots and move the two, to the patio area.

I didn't find three other pots that I liked well enough so it'll just have to wait until the true spring arrives and there's more of a selection.

I did manage to buy some plants though. Two Phormium plants to go into the two newly moved terra cotta pots. I loved the dark color and apparently they'll produce a white flower in late spring to summer.

Paige was a huge helper in the garden and helped me plant every single plant and then watered them.....kids, just love them.....should have had four of them then maybe I wouldn't have to clean my house!

To fill the two green pots near the front door, I bought some long spindly Horse's Tail, some color and ivy. Paige especially liked the Horse's Tail.

Oh, and I bought a bird feeder to see if we could attract some birds. The Hummingbird Feeders are in full use right now and it would be nice to add a different species of bird to our yard. I'll keep you updated.

I'm looking for some low maintenance, drought tolerant, colorful plants that will grow to 24 inches or so, that I can add to the future pots that I'm going to buy for our front yard.......any ideas??

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July 7, 2010

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mine? Ummm, not so well...

I do like to garden, or I should say, I like to reap the rewards of vegetable gardening. However, I have now tried my hand at gardening here on the ranch for the past six years and my results have been, shall we say, below average. Now I know I can garden and have been successful at it in the past.....maybe my results here have something to do with the gale force winds we experience up here on our little hill almost every afternoon??

We fertilize the soil, so I believe that part is okay. I've tried planting in the soil, changing locations of the plants every year, sprinkler watering, ground watering and now container gardening.

My poor patio tomato plant I planted at least 2 months ago......

Looks like a shriveled up mess doesn't it?

This is what it looked like 2 months ago. Much bushier isn't it?

My caged cucumber sprout. This is the third time this season that I've planted cucumber seeds. They always pop up but I think we have a pesky rabbit visiting every night. So I'm trying the cage method.

Heirloom jack-o-lantern plants, also protected by screen mesh.

The culprit may very well be VERY hungry insects because we also have zucchini planted (2nd time) in the ground and they have definitely been eaten by insects. Not sure what to do. We don't spray pesticides and I can't plant enough for everyone.

Okay, I'll quit my whining now.

My container radishes seem to be doing good. But aren't radishes the easiest thing you can grow? They're like weeds, so I couldn't go wrong there!

Dominic planted three rows of corn and they're doing okay for now.

Gale force winds.......everyday.....which is great for our flag! But look, I just noticed in this photo - even the flag pole is leaning from the wind.

Any and All tips are welcome! Help!

Happy Wednesday!

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May 14, 2010

Tomato Planting and Disease~Has this happened to you?

This year, instead of planting my tomato plants in the ground, I'm trying a container instead. The main reason for doing this is that every year my tomato plants and the fruit end up with brown spots on them. I've tried a few different things to try and discourage this, like lay out straw underneath the plants, planting them in a different spot every year but nothing seems to work. So about a month ago I bought a patio variety to plant in a container.

Well, I just read an article about Late Blight. Late Blight is a disease that infects tomatoes, potatoes and a few other types of vegetable plants. This disease, which is not harmful to humans, is extremely contagious and experts say it most likely spread on garden center shelves to plants not involved in the initial infection. It also can spread once plants reach their final destination, putting tomato and potato plants in both home gardens and commercial fields at risk.

Here is what it looks like.......

photos (4) by Cornell University

After seven years, I now know why brown spots emerge on my tomatoes. The first sign is often brown spots on plant stems, followed by nickel-sized olive-green or brown spots on the tops of leaves and fuzzy white fungal growth underneath. Tomato fruit will show firm, brown spots.

Tomato plants have just been removed from stores in half a dozen states as Late Blight makes its earliest and most widespread appearance ever in the eastern United States. The plants have been removed from Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowe's and Kmart stores in all six New England states, plus New York. Late blight also has been identified in all other East Coast states except Georgia, as well as Alabama, West Virginia and Ohio.

Click HERE to go to more information on this disease.

It's recommended to purchase plants from your local nursery or to start plants from seeds yourself to discourage the disease.

Well, I bought my little patio tomato plant from Kmart, one month ago.