Roo's 2018 Container Gardening Attempts

I caught the garden bug again. 
 
It's been a couple years since I did much of any gardening - I moved to Asheville for a year and a half and had two 'gardens' that ended up being rather disappointing and producing very little of anything. What they did produce was quite disappointing - weirdly stunted tomatoes, oddly shaped peppers... I'm sure I was doing many things wrong, but nothing I tried helped! It also didn't help that the bear and her cubs tromped through and broke a bunch of my plants.
 
Anyway, I bought a townhouse with a nice deck late last year, and I've spent the winter eyeing the deck thinking about how I can utilize the space for gardening. When I walked by the stacks of $2.50 5-gallon buckets yesterday, I was struck with inspiration! 
 
I was already planning to start some rose and ginger seeds I bought on eBay (I know, I know - but they were cheap and I bought them thinking "These probably aren't going to grow, or grow right, but it'll be a fun experiment), and a couple cherry pits I saved from some fruit last year (I know, I know - most seeds saved from store-bought fruit don't grow true, but again, experiment). 
 
Now I'm thinking I'll add a few jalapeños and tomato seeds to this seed-starting experiment with the goal of transplanting them into buckets after the frost danger has passed (because while it may be mid-70s now, this is NC and therefore it's likely frost again before we're through with winter).
 
The HOA allows for a planting box on the deck railing, so I'm going to do some herbs in one of those (likely basil and chives, since those are really all I use). 
 
Tips for container gardening would be appreciated! In the meantime, I'll just be over here trying to urge my little seeds to sprout.

 

[dragonsfire]

Good luck !!
Ginger seeds ? talking about ginger root?

 

[Chorizo857_62J]

There are plenty of vids on double-bucket container growing for bigger plants, but you should not need that until your plants are established (6-in. to 12-in).  And you may not want to go there at all depending on your situation. 
You can use the same self-draining approach with smaller grows, using window boxes and low-profile planters, etc.
The lure of the double-bucket approach is self watering and less day-to-day maintenance.  For me where I am it worked better to non-pepper stuff.  Nonetheless, Peter S. is a member here, and it was his tutorials on the double-bucket stuff that got me going.  Not to mention he has several vids on tasting wonderful things that people grow/concoct/and send to someone willing to actually eat them.  I am in awe, and am not worthy.  Power on Pete!

 

[Roo]

Yeah, ginger root - but they're from eBay and they're seeds, so I'm assuming they're probably not actually ginger. I'll find out! I like an experiment every now and again.
 
Thanks for the tips - I'll check out those tutorials! I'm not looking to have a whole bunch of containers (just a couple of each, hopefully). I wish I could do window boxes but the HOA nixed those in the regulations. A deck box (hanging off the railing) is allowed, though, so I'm going to put some herbs in one. 

 

[Devv]

Good luck!
 
You should do well in NC.

 

[Roo]

Got my little corner all set up in the basement...
 

 

 
I recreated my setup from a couple years ago - shelving unit, dollar store pans, etc - only this time I actually remembered to label everything. I didn't label well the first time I tried starting seeds, so when I transplanted, I had no idea what was what.
 
I probably need to get a second light, but that'll have to wait till I get paid next week. In the meantime, I'm rotating the trays every day so everybody gets as equal an amount of light as possible.

 

[Chorizo857_62J]

For some reason I feel like baking some brownies.....

 

[Roo]

For some reason I feel like baking some brownies.....

 
Haha! I may have gotten most of my ideas from sites geared towards another type of indoor grow I spent about a week expecting the DEA to knock at my door.
 
Unless you're referring to the trays being used for regular brownies, in which case never mind 

 

[Roo]

I lost my password for a while an then promptly forgot I had a glog, but I'm back now!
 
On March 4th, I moved all my seedlings into slightly larger little pots and transferred everyone over to a bigger shelf. (And bought chives, which promptly died.)

 
On March 26th, I put the biggest of the plants in their permanent pots.

 
On April 7th, more joined the party. (And I started to hate the fact that I had to haul everybody in and out, in and out, because it was still chilly at night.) (And also, my squirrels are jerks.)

 
On April 9th, the outside temp was warm enough to leave them out overnight, and I was a nervous mother. (I also bought the romaine and the two pepper plants at the store.)

 
On April 10th, I got everyone I was keeping potted up to their grown up pots and organized on the deck.

 
Then I bought herbs.

 
Then on May 1st I reorganized everyone to work in some new additions.

 
Today, my tomatoes (brandywine and cherry) are really tall and thriving. My jalapenos that I started from seed are finally growing. I added a few more seed-started peppers - dragon cayenne, FilFil Baladi, and Tekne Dolmasi - that I bought 4 years ago. I threw them in some seed starting mixture, expecting them to all die, but they sprouted and are growing up quite well!

 

 
So this is the story of how I turned my back deck into a forest, sort of accidentally as I was planning on only having a couple plants and got a bit carried away.

 

[dragonsfire]

Nice Collection

 

[Muckyai]

I see some spaces for some more plants. It's addicting!

 

[Roo]

I see some spaces for some more plants. It's addicting!

 
It is! The only thing holding me back is that I'm now worried my deck will collapse if I add anything else 
 
I do have a couple FilFil sprouts that are just now ready to pot... Maybe I'll make an exception to my "Seriously, stop buying plants" rule and pot those.