My 2011 summer garden....[update 2: June 1, '11]

[southernfried]

Posted here b/c it is more than just hot peppers. Doing a container garden and shaded flower garden behind my apartment. My friend was walking by earlier and she tweeted this pic with the caption "hey garden of eden," haha. Not quite there yet, but it's growing.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Current Grow list:

seasoning stuffs:

shallots
basil
chives
sweet mint
kentucky colonel mint
peppermint
chocolate mint
rosemary
greek oregano
lemon thyme

Non peppers:

Black Krim tomato
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Red Pear tomato
sweet 100 cherry tomato
2 spacesaver cucumbers
2 sugar baby watermelons
8 heirloom dwarf okras
2 heirloom classsic verde tomatillos
16 contender bush beans (assuming the squirrels don't wreck them)

Hot Peppers:

5 mammoth jalapenos
4 red cayennes
2 regular habaneros
2 standard jalapenos
2 tabasco chilis
2 numex big jim plants



Shaded flower garden

two kinds of chinese foxgloves (5 plants)
whatever else my girlfriend decided to buy
also growing two morning glories, full sun area, in a tomato cage flower vine experiment - grandpa ott and baby blues


Plants that are on the way/to be planted soon:

2 Ancho Ranchero hybrids
3 datils
1 choc hab
2 jamaican reds
2 yellow squashes
1 trinidad perfume
1 potato leaf red brandywine

fingers crossed that cross country still has these in stock when my order is processed next week

Also thinking about trying out some spinach for sauteing in partial sun, and probably going to plant some green onions and regular large sweet onions

Just wanted to share. Only my second time doing the complete container set up, so it'll be a good learning experience.
I'll get more photos up as my plants progress.

 

[SuperHot]

Nice!!

 

[wordwiz]

Have you grown in containers before? IME, it takes a couple of trials to learn the ins and outs. But your plants look great so far.

Mike

 

[southernfried]

Nice!!

Thanks!

Have you grown in containers before? IME, it takes a couple of trials to learn the ins and outs. But your plants look great so far.

Mike

Last summer was my first container project, so definitely still learning. What I learned last year the hard way: a 16 inch pot is too small for most tomatoes, never let your tomatoes get dry, mulch your tomato containers.

Most of my peppers did fairly well, apart from some of them getting too leggy. My tabasco chiles were the most successful.

Thanks, hoping they work out!

 

[highalt]

Nice grow list!

I've grown peppers, tomatoes, okra, lettuces, and various herbs in pots. Most everything did fine for me. Probably the least successful were the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes plants were full sized, I had trouble keeping them watered enough, and when I missed even a single day, I ended up with blossom end rot. The plant recovered, but lost quite a few tomatoes as a result. The plants that were in the ground never had that problem, and produced much larger fruits.

Hope you'll continue to post pics throughout the season. I'm really curious to see how the cukes and melons produce for you.

 

[southernfried]

Well, thought I'd update with pics and post my final grow list.

Similar angle from first shot. Kinda shocked me how far the garden has come along:



Since someone asked about the cucs, here they are. Already harvested one and have a few more almost ready for harvest.





Front shot



Rear shot



(if it's sideways I apologize, imageshack looks like it might have flipped it)

Herbs and such on the back porch




Final Grow list, all in containers:

Non Chilis -

1 cherokee purple tomato
1 red pear tomato
1 pink brandywine potato leaf (late addition, not that far along)
1 supersweet 100 cherry tomato
1 black krim tomato
2 verde tomatillo plants

2 spacesaver bushmaster cucumbers plants
2 sugar baby watermelons (late planting as well)
8-10 heirloom dwarf okra
about 16 contender bush grean beans (gonna alternate my bean planting all the way until first frost for continued harvest)
about 8 tender bush beans
shallots
yellow onions
sweet basil
greek oregeno
lemon thyme
colonel mint
sweet mint
chocolate mint
peppermint
chives
bunching green onions

Chili Plants:

7 jumbo jalapenos
3 regular jalapenos
4 red cayenne
3 chocolate habanero
3 regular habanero
3 tabasco chili
1 trinidad perfume
3 datils
3 jamaican hot reds
2 ancho ranchero hybrids
2 yellow squash
2 numex big jim peppers

Also some assorted flowers

Early observations:

It is already unseasonably hot, and the cucumbers and tomatoes have forced my hand into buying under container water dishes a size larger than for their pot. I may be operating an outdoor hydroponic operation by July. The Black Krim tomato is hands down the best grower of all the maters, now that the time has come to stop pinching buds, we will see who is the best producer. Surprisingly, the cherokee purple, which is supposed to be the largest of all my tomato plants, hasn't grown as fast as my others, despite being in the largest pot. I may surface dress with a 10-2-8 at the end of the week if it is still lagging.

Some of my more exotic chilis are not picture, being off to the side in a part sun part shade area. I'll post their pics over in the chili growing forum.

Oh, and the small tomato and basil plants in the white pots in the first pic are not mine, just babysitting them for a neighbor.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[southernfried]

Nice grow list!

I've grown peppers, tomatoes, okra, lettuces, and various herbs in pots. Most everything did fine for me. Probably the least successful were the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes plants were full sized, I had trouble keeping them watered enough, and when I missed even a single day, I ended up with blossom end rot. The plant recovered, but lost quite a few tomatoes as a result. The plants that were in the ground never had that problem, and produced much larger fruits.

Hope you'll continue to post pics throughout the season. I'm really curious to see how the cukes and melons produce for you.

I'm monitoring the tomatoes closely, making sure there is always some water to drink in the bottom saucer. I am also upgrading the saucer size for a larger reservoir as the plants grow. Hopefully this will work. Last year I had a better boy that produced 3 tomatoes and then fried, given it was only in a 16 inch pot with no saucer. Live and learn I guess. The cucs are doing well. I posted pics above.

 

[mmcdermott1_thehothalf]

Your container garden looks great. We had a roma in a 5 gallon bucket and ended up transplanting it into the garden, on top of being constantly thirsty it was so tall (even after being staked up) it was very tipsy. Good luck with everything and keep posting the pics!