Ragtag Garden, Part 18

in gardening •  7 years ago 

We had enough rain last night to wash away my latest Diatomaceous Earth application, so I'll need to dust everything again before dark.

I had a few other things to accomplish first. A while back, @lexikon082 predicted the runt of the zucchini plants would do just fine. He was right! It's not only keeping up with the other plants...

...it's the third plant to have a blossom! That means it's jumped ahead of two bin-mates! Now we just have to wait for some female blooms to show up. Fingers crossed that's next.

The tomato plant is coming along well. It's finally starting to produce more blossoms. There are a total of six now that have shown up over the last week. Yay!

Somehow I managed to get a great shot of the peppers today. The fourth one is just barely started and hard to see at this angle. A few days should remedy that.

The poles beans were one of things on my to-do list. They needed more dirt, some fertilizer, and the rightmost bucket's cage was too wobbly.

I had picked up some veggie/tomato fertilizer a while ago. I was wary of using it in the containers for fear of damaging the plants.

So, after some pondering, I decided to mix it in with some potting soil since the buckets needed more dirt, too. Hopefully, that will buffer the negative effects and allow the positive ones to work.

Once well mixed, I put most of it on the poles beans. I also used some of my twine to anchor the wobbly cage.

I had a little of the soil mixture left over, so I divided that between the pepper and tomato plants for a little boost.

The next project focused on getting the peas some additional rigging to accommodate the height the plants are reaching. The tallest has topped the uppermost crossbar of the trellis!

I used the support branch as a starting point and then placed the rigging in the path of the vines. That approach seems to be working well even if the whole thing looks wacky!

The cabbage is about the same. That's actually good news. No new damage and ready for another dusting of DE.

The brussels sprouts are slowing getting taller. I wish they would shoot up a little faster to outpace the bugs. In the meantime, they'll get dusted again, too.

Stay Tuned For The Next Installment - Coming Soon!


RECAP:

It started here - Reclaiming The Backyard Firepit.
Which turned into this - Ragtag Garden.

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Nice, upvoted and followed (based on your comment on my post :) ).

We gardened in containers last year, not knowing where we'd end up so we could move the garden if we needed to (didn't need to). Now we've got a 50' x 60' patch which we fenced in, and have put down two 2' shade cloth rows, with plants in the first 15' or so. I put a third shade cloth down today, a 3' one.

My plan is to fill in the beginning of the garden first; as the gate is in the front, and towards the right side, we'll basically fan out from the front-right corner. That's the wettest corner, so it makes sense in terms of watering, but if we use plants that don't like a lot of water, we should put them elsewhere (e.g., the back left).

Looking forward to watching your garden grow! :)

Thanks! Caught up on some of your stuff today, too.

Portability is one of the best features of using containers. That and weed control sold me on the idea years ago. (I'm a very lazy gardener. LOL!)

You've got a sweet set-up and lots of room to expand and experiment. It's neat that you have a slope to accommodate the different levels of water requirements. Good thinking on the placements of the plants for the future!

Thanks! Yeah the "slope" has two causes -- one being the swamp next door, which flows into our yard in the front right; we're planning to put some drainage pipe in to help with that. The other is the previous owners, who buried their trash in the back left, and which is coming back up... I found a knife the day before yesterday, and put it on one of the two tables out there. Then I forgot about it yesterday when I put down the third shade cloth, and ripped it in an unseemly fashion (unseamly? :) ).

Re: lazy gardening: I've read a modification to an old quote, "Laziness is the mother of invention" -- hence the remote control. :)

Dang, that's some interesting circumstances to deal with. Flooding is no stranger to gardening situations, but a trash heap is a new one! The pipe sounds like a good plan, especially for a swamp. Bummer about the shade cloth. Mishaps are annoying and time consuming.

Excellent sentiment and that quote is spot on!

your love for gardening is so amazing and inspiring! i enjoy seeing the greens in your photos.

Hmmm, you think the brussels sprouts could maybe not be getting enough sun? I dunno what time you took the last pic, but everything is pretty shaded. That might be hindering some growth.

That's entirely possible. The sunny spots are at a premium and I gave priority to the tomato and pepper. There are definitely more branches within reach that I should probably prune. I'll have to give that a good look-see tomorrow.

When was the pic in the bottom taken? Like, what time of day, I mean?

Hmmm, trying to remember... most likely early evening, but I think it was overcast most of the day, too. It is more shady than other parts, so your eye was right on.

So jealous of the rain haha
We are just high in humidity but no clouds in sight!
Omg your garden is looking lovelier by the day!

Thanks, hon! I'll send positive thoughts for rain for you.

Thank you☺️

Coming along beautifully, :)

Thanks, hon!

I love your post :)

Your garden is very beautiful and well maintained @aunt-deb :)

Thanks!

Don't know where you live, but it looks like a pretty good garden. Here in Florida we have already seen better days. Unless you like okra, jalapenos, and eggplant. Wow! 🐓🐓

I'm up near Chicago. Lived in a Florida for a couple of years ages ago. It's definitely a different set of issues than we deal with up here. We are just seeing locally grown corn coming in. Up til now it was coming out of Florida. Go figure. LOL!

They are coming along great!

Thanks!

I want to do the same thing! Inspired.

It's easy... grab a container, chuck in some dirt and throw a plant in. ;~D

Go for it!

I have one right now with hot chiles. They are super hot. But I neglect them too much. lol

Gotcha! Some plants thrive on neglect. I don't think chiles are one of them. ;~D

Makes the 🌶 really hot tho👍🏼😂

Those beans really grew up fast, didn't they?

what a great work there keep it up and thanks for sharing

Thank you for the kind words and for stopping by!

Beautiful garden!

Thank you!

It won't be long before you are able to start harvesting and reaping the rewards of all your hard work. Everything's looking great at the moment.

That's the difficult part - waiting... ;~D

Thanks for the encouragement!

I laugh every time I see the pea rigging. It's downright fantastic ingenuity. The runtchinni is a fighter. Mother Nature sure has an awesome way of correcting itself. It's great to see how many flowers you have on the tomato plants. You'll be eating some more fresh tomatoes in no time! It looks so peaceful back there.

Good! It is funny looking! Sometimes I can even picture my mom - who passed in '09 and took her green thumb with her - shaking her head or rolling her eyes at the contraption.

I hoped you'd get a kick out of the runt. It's got a whole host of buds around the base, too. I think I may have to move the entire bin away from the tomato plant, too, before they get over-crowded. I'm also about to pick that green tomato so the new ones can get a blast of energy to the blossoms. If I throw it in a bag, it should ripen quicker, too.

It is generally peaceful back there, except when the neighbor behind us has the kids playing on the trampoline or in the pool and their yappy dog chimes in. But, that's life in the suburbs. It makes the peaceful times more special. ;~D

Looking good! My tomato plants got septoria leaf spots. It will likely spread to my pumpkins. I've read it can stay in the soil for at least 1 season so looks like I'll be using buckets next year. Good to see your experience to learn from.

Thanks!

I've never heard of septoria leaf spots. Looked it up and...wow, nasty stuff! That bit of info will be filed away in case it's needed for future use. I appreciate the education! I hope your pumpkins escape it, too!

I've noticed lots of folks mentioning bakeries as a good source for large, inexpensive containers. That might be a good resource if you need to stock up. Good luck with knocking out the fungus!

Great your garden. I wish I could have one one day. I will follow you because I love nature and your garden and beautiful.