Pot Questions

I figured I should just make this another post, instead of responding to the comment, as this will go long.

 Travis asked what kind of pots I use for my garden and how I fertilize.

Last year I chose pots using a couple different criteria.

• Attractiveness:  I'd like to be able to spend time on my porch in the garden, reading, or working or just being outside, so I wanted my pots to be visually appealing
• Price:  I didn't have a whole lot of cash to spend on pots, and so I wanted to be smart about what I was getting.  Pretty ceramic pots are nice, and they'll last, but they're pricey if you don't catch them on sale.  
• Weight:  I realize now that isn't as much of an issue as I thought, but because it is a rooftop garden, and I didn't know how much weight the rooftop could support safely, and how much all these pots filled with dirt would weigh, I worried.

My pots are a mixture of the nicer sturdy plastic, the pretty ceramics, foam, and fiberglass.  Most of my pots came from Big Lots and Home Goods. The most important things are to make sure your pots have drainage, and are the correct size for your plants.

In retrospect I realized that almost all the plants I had were in pots that were a bit too small for them.  I had three suhyo, japanese cucumber, in a 12 in. foam pot, two bell peppers in a 13 in. fiberglass pot, 6 slicer tomatoes in my deepest 18 in. plastic pot, and a roma tomato plant in a 10 in. ceramic pot.  The peppers were ok, and maybe could have gone into a slightly smaller pot, but everything else was too cramped by the end of the year.  I should have only had two suhyo in the 12 in. pot, and at most 4 of the tomatoes in the big pot.  The roma should have been in a larger pot as well.  All my plants did fine, and I had more produce than we could eat, but it would have been better with more space.

With regards to fertilizer, most potting soil comes with fertilizer and nutrients mixed in.  That being said, when transplanting I always added extra pellets, and about every 3 months I tossed in some more.  The pellets were supposed to be good for six months, but were for flowers and not plants that would produce large fruiting bodies, so I used extra.  I figured extra plant food wouldn't hurt.  This year I'm going to be using Pennington Tomato and Vegetable plant food.  I don't know how well it works.  I picked it up on sale at the end of the season last year for planting this year.  It needs to be applied every 3-4 weeks according to the box.

Something else to keep in mind: You will need to water your plants much more frequently, because the soil just cannot hold moisture the same way.  My suhyo were constantly needing water, during the hottest part of the summer it was not unusual to have to water in the morning and the afternoon for  the veggies.  I'm going to try some companion planting this year that may help keep the soil from drying out as quickly in the heat.  You can also spread gravel or pebbles on top to help cut down on evaporation.  Aesthetically, I don't like that, and so I don't do that, but it's a good idea nonetheless.

Pots

The weather's been nice for the past couple of days, so, on Tim's advice, I started clearing out the pots from last year.  I got a couple pots cleaned out and the dirt dumped into my new dirt bin. 

I was pretty sure my Spearmint was dead.  I brought in a bunch of plants over the winter and one of them had an infestation of gnat like bugs that spread to 3 or 4 others, and I had to put them back out in the snow to try to keep my remaining plants from being attacked.  The spearmint was one that went outside. When I pulled out the plant, I found a pretty healthy root system and new growth, leaves and all on the underside of the plant.  I'm guessing it was growing out the drainage holes, but I didn't notice it when I pulled the plant.  I'm still worried about bugs and the top half of the root system is shot.  I may separate the bad out and try to coax the plant back to health.  I also discovered it needs a bigger pot.

All this potting work would be a lot easier and more comfortable if I had a potting bench.  Right now, we're looking at building this one:  http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Indoor-Projects/Hallway/Benches/how-to-build-a-cedar-potting-bench/Step-By-Step.  If we do it, it will be pine instead of cedar, for two reasons.  One:  Cedar is really expensive.  And two:  Cedar dimensional lumber is really hard to find.   And for those of you out there who will be helpful and link me to cedar dimensional lumber, please see reason one.

I left a pot of woolly thyme in my greenhouse and forgot about over the winter.  Surprisingly it's doing very well.  Unfortunately I didn't realize that woolly thyme is not an edible thyme when I purchased it, so I'm really not sure what I should do with it.  It's a full sun ground cover plant, and I don't really have any place for it. 

I also need to make repairs to my greenhouse cover.  The seam ripped free this winter along the zipper.  The zipper is intact, but the side wall is no longer attached to the zipper.  If anyone has any clever ideas beyond tape and hope, I'd love to hear them.

Pictures

I've had a couple of requests for pictures so here you go:

The aerogarden seedlings:

I couldn't really get a good angle for the photo.  My step stool wasn't quite tall enough.

And here's my dormer growing area.  It'll empty out once we're frost free.

Garden Layout ver 1.0

I just finished my rough draft for my garden layout this year.  I haven't decided what's going in each pot, but the pots all have their own places, as does the green house and the bistro set.  The squiggly line was my reference point so that I made sure I could walk to the spots I need.

The brown line is a fence edge, and I'm hoping to get something like an old trough to go on the outside of the fence as a planter. But currently it's just dead space.  The sun hits the area from the upper right section, so I try to plan my pot sizes accordingly.  I think I will need to get or make stands this year to help keep my full sun plants happy.

The Adventure Begins

So, I decided to try a full fledged blog about my garden this year, instead of random Facebook posts.
This year’s garden began on Sunday, and already I have  lots of things sprouting.  Mostly it’s lettuce, but I think I saw some basil, and a couple of my flowers and my tisane herbs.  I co-opted Tim’s Aerogarden to start most of them in one of those foam garden starter trays.
Today I planted zucchini in a little terracotta pot.
I have rosemary, thyme, bergamont, chamomile, and catnip that wintered over inside.  I turned one of the dormer windows in our bedroom into a growing area this winter.
For those of you unfamiliar with my garden layout, I have two flowerbeds by the front door, but all my herbs and vegetables are on a rooftop patio in containers.  I also have a Yoshino Sakura in my container garden.  It’s only about 5 ft tall now and doesn’t have many branches but I’m hopeful that Yo-chan will grow well in her pot. Tim has a Japanese Maple, I forget what variety, in a pot up there too, but he’s supposed to live in our front yard at some point.
If I can figure this whole thing out well enough pictures will likely be forthcoming.