Lets Talk CONTAINER GARDENING (How to have the best success) | VLOG
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
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Hey ya'll, I'm Jess from Roots & Refuge Farm
Welcome to a place that feels like home. A small farm with a big family. We hope you'll pull up a chair, grab some coffee and visit awhile.
There was a time that all I wanted in the world was a little farm where I could raise my family and grow our food. Now, that is exactly what exists outside my door. In watching it unfold, a new dream was formed in my heart - to share this beautiful life with others and teach them the lessons we've learned along the way. Welcome to our journey, friend. I am so glad you're here.
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I thought for ages I sucked at container gardening cause the in ground stuff did fine but the pot just kept dying. I wasn’t till my friend Natalie came over and looked at the pot and said “Hun, that’s metal and it’s 107 degrees, that’s not gardening, that’s baking” that I realized pot choice matters😂😂
😂 love that "all our thumbs are different colors, and all our thumbs can grow food"
As a long-time urban renter, the first 5+ years of my gardening journey were exclusively in containers. Mostly because I could move them when I, inevitably, had to move mid-season (college student life). And I gained SO MUCH knowledge and experience about soil quality, plant health, watering routines, and how the sunlight changes throughout the season during those years. Best of all, the containers allowed me to adjust for all of those different factors, AS I was learning about them. To this day, I will highly encourage anyone just learning to become a garderner to get started with a few containers! There's just so much more leeway and forgiveness for some of the most common mistakes new gardeners will make!
I could have written this exact comment as my own experience. I agree entirely
@RootsandRefugeFarm The number of times I had to move my first container tomatoes to chase the sunlight all season is almost laughable to me now. But had they been in the ground, I never would have gotten those small wins you mentioned early on, and likely would have given up entirely. So, really, the mobility and flexibility of learning to garden in containers is a major reason I'm still harvesting tomatoes almost 15yrs later. 🍅
Year after year my soil in my raised beds become hydrophobic. I just can’t get it right.
@ChickensandCanines are you adding compost?
@@ChickensandCanines does it have peat in it? Any soil can become hydrophobic when it is dry but peat is notorious for becoming stubbornly hydrophobic.
The girl on the youtube channel "Becoming a Farmgirl" grows SO MUCH food in these at her townhouse homestead, definitely worth following if anyone wants to grow in Greenstalks.
Yes, Becoming a farmgirl's harvests are amazing from the Greenstalk vertical container.
The chickens and ducks singing the song of their people, lol!😅 I have 2 Greenstalks, and am gardening from a wheelchair love them!
I am disabled too and have 3 verticals… they allow me to garden so I haven’t totally lost something I love to do.
I'm a container gardener since I rent. My garden has grown each year and I'm loving it , this is my 4th year🌱🌻🏵️🐝🍅🍉🍓🥕🥔🥦🥒🌶️😊
Tips please
Being an astrologer I follow the Moon cycle....so everytime there is a New Moon I feed my plants...and then also everytime there is a Full Moon I feed my plants (always a 2 week period).....just gives me a great reminder...
“I’m pretty sure I just swallowed a bug” 😂😂
The farm is so farmy now. It’s so lovely, so pastoral and filled with farm life. What an amazing dream come true.
It truly is more than I ever imagined!
I just found your channel a couple of weeks ago. This is my first garden season using a Greenstalk! I’m excited!
Good luck!! And welcome!!
You've got this!!!! Wishing you a great harvest this year. :)
You will love the greenstock! I just got a second one :-) and you will learn a great deal from Jess’ vlogs
Welcome to the Roots and Refuge fam! 🎉 This is THE BEST community on TH-cam. Everyone is so helpful and encouraging in the comments.
I've had full bags of potting soil get hydrophobic and I just mix it in a bucket with plain water and let it sit for a few hours and it rehydrates just fine! It's like making brownie batter with dry cocoa powder - just add water and mix it really well and let it sit! And when it happens to my houseplants (chronic underwaterer here 🙋♀️) I stick the whole pot in the kitchen sink and let it soak for a few hours and then drain it out. Works like a charm!
My health is not going to permit me to garden this year or so I thought until I listened to your vlog today. I had forgotten all about the green stalk container garden. Thank you for reminding me that I can’t still produce food. ❤️
Sometimes people are in a situation whereby their land is on solid rock… 🙋🏼♀️
All kinds of R&R lately. I love it! Thank you for being you, Jess. Love all you do.
Yes ma'am! Love my Greenstalk growing towers! Have close to a dozen now and two more on the way with this sale. I have a very small lot and I'm not allowed to grow in the ground. With due diligence I harvest a lot of food in a very small space. Blessings on your day Kiddo!🌻🐛
If you want to grow mint, containers are the way to go!🤣
Y'all watch out with those GreenStalks-they're addictive. Especially when they are on sale. My 4 year old GreenStalk looks as good today as the day I bought it. No cracks. No deterioration. Been through zone 5 snow, ice, heavy rain, searing sun, high winds. Quality construction is beyond impressive. No place to put another one? Get a backup and keep it in the box till you need to replace one. ( does that ever happen?)
My mom had a “fail” last year, using containers. She said she wasn’t gardening again this year. It broke my heart.
I’m sending her this video.
I've been gardening since i was a child and i still kill plants and have off years but i will always continue to plant because i can and because when i am successful it is glorious 😊❤
Last year, I grew bok choy, green onions, chives, radishes, beans, (yellow and green) leaf lettuce, yellow and green peppers. The seeds I used were from actual vegs that I purchased, ate and saved the seeds. The seeds were like four years old, lol and the vegs grew fast and healthy. The bok choy was actually the smaller pieces of the plant that I hadnt eaten and just replanted and wow did they grow. Mind you, I get full sun on my patio which is a few floors up from the main level. I do this every year now.
Container gardening is how I got started three years ago. It was an easy investment that if I didn't enjoy it, the loss wasn't a big deal. Those little wins over the years have encouraged me to make raised beds this year! I was actually working on them today. That said, I'm still container gardening on our patio and I'm also trying grow bags this year. Eventually I'd like to change our yard into a garden, but one step at a time. P.S. Would love to see your mom's container garden and hear her input as well!
*long pause* "I'm pretty sure I just swallowed a bug" 🤣dying
After purchasing my current home I discovered that the previous owner had covered the entire backyard with huge chunks of limestone gravel that was impossible to remove. I can’t dig a hole anywhere😝
I’ve been growing in black felt grow bags for 10 years now. I’m up to 120 pots and I really appreciate the ability to grow in something. I call it my Tetris garden because it’s so easy to place or move things wherever I want them.
Last year I even used 2 baby pools to grow onions, worked great.
I had to rewind and rewatch the part where you started talking next to that napa cabbage. 😅 I was too distracted by it's beauty and realized I wasn't listening. I'm going to be filling my first greenstalks this year!
This is my 4th year container gardening and I'm getting better each year. The garden is also growing each year. My summer garden is my favorite because I can grow so much that I like to eat. My favorite things to grow are green beans and cucumbers in my containers. I think there are learning seasons and growing seasons and some combo seasons lol. Good luck to everyone who keeps trying and to those that stop...just don't...keep growing!
Thanks to this video, I just remembered I had my soaker hose running… um all WEEK!!??
I've tried and failed at in ground gardening for several years. Last year I dod containers and it was my first successful garden!
I'm in Burlington VT - so short summer and my yard is full of huge trees. I decided to use containers until I can figure out which part of my yard actually gets enough sun to grow things, and the trees keep getting bigger for some reason making more shade. Last summer I finally managed to grow a bunch of "4th of July" variety tomatoes - it was so exciting. They got red before the end of the summer! My containers are 22" wide x 18" plastic pots from Costco summer of '21. I have 12 of those and then a bunch of other random sizes. There's a tiny variety of tomato that's the size of a pea, Baker Creek Spoon, that was the cutest thing and they tasted good and I was getting them until the first week of Nov. Those surprisingly produced in 2-3 gallon pots, I can't wait to see how they do this year in something better. Thanks for the reminder to water the pots overwintering in the garage!
So excited to watch this vlog. As a renter all I've been able to do garden wise is containers for the 9 years I've been gardening. My garden gets bigger every year and a lot of it is because of all I have learned from watching your channel. And from the inspiration and encouragement you provide. 😊
When I was younger, 30's, 40's containers sav e d plants from kids, toys, and dog. Now, 60's it saves my back, hips, and knees! This year my focus is companion plants flowers with vegetables and Working to control pests! Last year my seeds germinated and leafed then we're devowered by pests! I planted green beans four times! Still didn't harvest many. Year before that had many green beans. I want just basic, 🍅, green beans, peas, greens, peppers, NO PESTS! 😉 🐛🐌 I so appreciate you wisdom on container gardening. Thanks! 🐸💛🐸💚🐸💙😎
I live in Las Vegas. I bought my first GreenStalk 6 years ago. It sits in full sun ( from sunrise to sunset on a south facing wall.) It looks brand new, no fading or cracking. I was so impressed I bought 3 more 😊
Great to know. I live in TX and yes, very hot sun here too. Thanks for easing my mind. I will have mine planted this spring and happy to know they stand the test of time in the sun!
Im a houseplant parent and drainage holes are just as important as their are for outdoor plants. yes you can use decorative pots but its best if used as cover pots for plastic pots
There is nothing like a brown thumb to grow a lovely crop of dried arrangements 😅😅
I live in Maine where the growing season is short. I do container gardening because it’s less of a commitment than a full in-ground garden, my plants don’t get the runoff from whatever my neighbors treat their lawns with, we are not home many weekends during the summer, ease of access, and the fact that deer and other creatures don’t come up on my back deck and eat my plants! I have grown cherry tomatoes, cukes, green beans, and herbs - especially basil, because my family loves homemade pesto.
Bless you Jess ! Love you Lady !
I just ordered a green stalk vertical while watching your video. First time that I felt it would be advantageous. Currently I have lettuces, Bok choy, Flowers and other leafy veggies that I will plant in this new planter. Thank you, you made it simple for me to understand how it works. I visit my garden everyday!
Took the plunge this weekend and purchase seeds and a greenstalk leaf for my balcony. I live in an apt. Excited and terrified - let the adventure begin 😊
I know a lot of people who use those shallow Dollar Tree stackable pots instead of the Green Stalks. The Green Stalks are better but I understand that the Dollar Tree pots are affordable for others. My only advice for the people using the cheap pots is they need watered more often and it's very easy to over fertilize them. The pots are very shallow so they really only need half strength fertilizer. It'd probably be better to use a water soluble fertilizer like fish emulsion mixed. I'd use a potting soil mix and add in about a tbsp of worm castings per pot. I gave up on the cheap pots because the upkeep wasn't worth it. Grow bags were a much better option for me.
I would love some info from your Mum with more container gardening tips
Great information; thanks for sharing! Blessings to all!
I grow cherry tomatoes, sugar snaps, leaf lettuce, spinach, radishes and chives on my back porch in containers. It’s my salad garden that I fresh pick from everyday during the growing season.
I have wild animals & a small herd of barn cats, growing in containers keeps the critters out of my crops & reduces my weeding needs. It’s also a fun daily habit to go out each morning to pick the day’s bounty at its perkiest (except the tomatoes. I get them as I use them)
And remember....all plants need the same thing but not all want the same amounts of those things.
I have some in-ground beds, and also quite a few pots. My pink lemon tree is in a pot because our winter temps have at times gotten low enough to kill citrus, so I like keeping some things in containers to be able to bring them into the garage during the few freezes we might get each winter. I like watching "Gary and Robbie Gardening Easy" for ideas with my containers. Robbie has a wealth of information and experience growing food in containers. 💚
I discovered that our greenhouse is the only really good place to sucessfully grow jalapenos (and hopefully this year, sweet potatoes) in pots because there is too much wind everywhere else on our property and it's too dang cold many nights. I really mistakenly thought that it'd be too hot in the greenhouse to grow anything in the heat of the summer, but (surprise surprise!) with some rudimentary airflow (from a janky window and a door propped open) the temperature is just right!! It's a short-ish season here (in midwestern Manitoba, Canada) so every little bit helps!
Like your channel. I hope you can get your mother to do a video on her knowledge on container gardening. Because of my back injury, that's all I'm able to do.
Love all those farm sounds!!!
This year’s gardening plants have kind of been interrupted by the small house fire that I just had this month. I will be gardening in myGreenstalk, and other pots, and in my front flower bed. The flower bed in front of the house will be used for peppers, tomatoes, and flowers.
This is my first Greenstalk, and I’m so excited!
listening with a small window on one screen while doing work on the other... "*gugh* .... pretty sure I just swallowed a bug..." 😆😆😆🤣😂 I died. Thank you, Editing Jess, for leaving Gardening Jess's appetizer in the video.
I am giving containers a go this year.. second year at it this coming spring. I am hopeful we’ll move again into a home we’ve purchased so I bought containers just in case. Bet cha last dollar I’ll be moving my soil with me 😂
I do have two very small beds I have made up though because once we move, I’d hope it’s better than nothing for the next who rent here. Maybe encourage them to Grow something too. Will leave some seed packets behind. Made a small but nice area around it with stone. Repurposed our old duck coop and run - Now it is able to be used to store totes on the coop shelves and is fully roofed. I have a small chair out there to sit under it and admire the plants while the dogs run our yard. 😌 I hope the next renters love it just as much as I do.
Great information....but your reaction to swallowing a bug was my favorite. Thank you for not editing it out. Literally made me laugh out loud after a very long day
I started and continue to be a container gardener eventho I've put in raised beds. I grow, peppers, cherry and herloom slicing tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, onions, salad greens, herbs, okra, garlic and flowers in containers. Containers(storage totes, pots and buckets) give me the ability to move my plants around based on the sun. I get very little sun in my backyard during the winter months. The south side of my front yard gets more sun but not full sun. Most all of my winter garden is grown on the north side of the front yard. My summer garden occupies both front and back yards!
Thank you Jess for the information in this video. ~ Rhonda❤
I was so excited about the sale. It was the exact item I wanted to gift my friend for their birthday and in just enough time to arrive the day before the birthday. Thanks!
You’re such a sweet friend Kristi ♥️
@@RootsandRefugeFarm thanks! It delivers tomorrow and is a surprise. I can't wait to hear his reaction! Lia helped me pick the color. ❤️
When you stopped and stated you were pretty sure you swallowed a bug, straight mid sentence, I related WAYYYY too much with it lmfao
18:23 LMAO That cracked me up🤣
I LOVE my Greenstalk containers!
My #1 reason for using them is to "contain" some of the 'pushy' crops that we can't live without.
Mint and strawberries (both of which we grow in multiple varieties) seem to thrive a little too well in our area and, if left unchecked, will quite happily take over the entire garden. So we have a Greenstalk that is all mint and one that us all strawberries.
A 3rd Greenstalk (the "leaf" one) is devoted to lettuce, spinach, and assorted greens and a 4th is primarily root veggies. Growing them upright keeps the leafy foods clean and the moisture damage to a minimum, while the root crops are protected from underground critters that would otherwise be treated to an 'all you can eat buffet.'
The containers produce enormous amounts of food.. Some of it actually makes it into the house, but some of it is eaten right off the plant. The girls (9 & 3 years old) will stand next to the planters munching lettuce, spinach and strawberries as fast as they can pick them.
2 years ago, my son built 2 raised planters as a Christmas present for me. One of them stands next to an exterior wall of the house that reflects a lot of heat, so I am able to grow peppers; the other one stands outside my office/sewing room window, filled with pollinators attracting flowers.
Our soil is rocky, and after being hay fields for 20+ years, completely devoid of nutrients.
We have devoted a great deal of time and effort to restoring some sections of the garden to functional space using Charles Dowding's no-till methods, but it it slow and expensive.
Thanks to containers, we have food *now* while we continue to work on the rest of the garden & grounds.
I really appreciate all that you share. It is so much information and I need that. Thank you!!
Sweet Jess, I'm counting down days until I can plant outside. I'm so excited!!!! Listening to you talk about planting watering, and watching you plant your sweet pea seedlings in this video has me itching to plant NOW!!! I've already made my garden plan on paper. Along with dates on my calendar to start sowing seeds indoors.
This year, I plan on planting larger variety of flowers in between my vegetables to help attract more pollinators.
Life is good😊
Gulp... "I'm pretty sure I just swallowed a bug." HAHA! Jess, I just love you and your transparent personality. Thank you for not editing that out! This is why I continue to be here. You're so real.
Thank you for this video. While I've done in ground gardening for 50 years, I just got 2 new Greenstalks. After buying them, I read negative comments from others. Perhaps they didn't do things right. I'm glad to know to what I should pay attention. As always, it's a very insightful video.
Bless you Jess for giving me some wonderful things to watch and distract me from the horrors of the world right now. I am ready to climb in a hole and pull the lid in after me. 😢 Much love friend. I hear your killdeer birds! I have them too. SC also. ❤
I absolutely love my Greenstalks.
I have 3 and found that worm castings and Trifecta from Migardener work quite well in them. I use Happy Frog soil in them. But I also noticed that after it rains they really look really great.
I leave my Greenstalks out all winter here in Michigan so they don't dry out.
Similar plan and experience here. GS is a great product.
Good to know they can handle the winter! I may invest. Hi from 🇨🇦!
If the looks of our garden is an artistic expression, mine says I'm not an artist. Yikes. But it does grow for me. 😊
Hi Jess. I just planted parsley and radish seeds in a half barrel in my garden, and I will plant cucumbers in the other one. The soil is coming out of the duck enclosure and it is full of earthworms and millipedes and little knocker roaches. This one muscovy hen sits there watching me shovel it up and darts at anything that moves 😂 I hope to eventually be able to feed myself out of the garden.
Just bought my first greenstalk (still in the box waiting to be assembled and planted) so I'm excited for these suggestions. Thanks everyone.
I've just moved out of my grandpa's old house and into a small rental apartment as my mother wanted to use the house and it is too small for us both to live in permanently. I will still be able to use the gardens I've established over there, but made sure to find a place with a small backside for some container gardening right at home. So this video was perfect and really inspiring.
Here in Sweden there is still alot of snow on the ground and negative degrees but I feel the call of spring!
Podcast with your mom about container gardening?!
I transformed my three large flower pots to veggie pots. Two grew shishitos with allysum, and the third was a herb garden. My hubby loves shishitos, so I wanted to make sure at least two plants were safe from the bunnies.
My big veggie garden is an acre from my house. I use the Greenstalks for my "kitchen garden" - things that are convenient to have on our deck. Herbs, greens, etc. So easy to step outside for a handful of something. I also plant a few flowers. Beautiful!
I have my green stalk set up for its first year with strawberries 🍓 I got it after watching your video last year and I’m so excited to have berries this year! I’m new to gardening and have a small yard but I’m determined to grow as much food and flowers as I can! Thank you for sharing what you’ve learned and your encouragement it means so much 💜
Hello again. We grow our lettuce in containers, garlic,lemon, weed, everything does really well. In Las Vegas it’s important plants can be moved 😊
Ah bugs, nature's way of making sure we get enough protein. :D
I grew herbs, lettuce greens, strawberries, and flowers last year in leaf greenstalks with great success! I added worm castings with potting soil on every level at first set up then watered once a month with fish fertilizer over the summer even with granular fertilizer mixed in the soil. I bought extra water tops and ultimate bases to make towers shorter for easier watering/seeing past them around the yard/porch. I put 5 gallon paint can strainers over the water top to keep debris out of the center flow space. 😊
I had 2 half wins of crummy years but got enough to excite me then my 3rd year was amazing!!! This year I have high hopes and high goals!
2023 was my first with a Greenstalk. Lifelong gardener but for me there must be a learning curve. You had some helpful tips I will bear in mind. The rest of my gardening is in raised beds and upcycled pots. The pots work well for our 1/3 acre with evergreen trees nearby as I can move them around for optimal sun exposure. Currently, they are topped off with chicken manure, worm castings and meadow grass fed cow manure for the red wigglers to process.
I've had great success growing peppers in containers.
Thank you so much for going over container care, especially watering. I am moving to where I have little in soil yard area. So I am digging up plants/bulbs, etc and filling pots. This means so much. Thank you.
Soaking banana peels in water and diluting it down is also a good fertilizer ❤
Herbs do great for me in containers. Of course, strawberries and lettuce do too. I keep my herbs in containers on my back deck by my kitchen because I found that I use them that way. Containers are a great way to get started and continue to garden successfully anywhere.
‘I’m pretty sure I just swallowed a bug’ 🤣🤣🤣❤️❤️❤️
Just ordered my greenstalk. I have been threatening to get one for the past several years and with the sale they are having and your code, it was a no brainer. Love your channel. GOD bless
I live in the desert southwest, and had trouble with my greenstalks drying out despited watering as directed. Last year, I started watering twice daily and into each pocket instead of the top. It worked great and the plants were beautiful!
As Ben stated, “they work better.” 🍓😂 little man’s logic led me to my first purchase and now I’m working on starting my 5th GreenStalk. Thanks for the consistently heartwarming, inspirational, and educational content.
I absolutely love my green stalks that I purchased because of you. I so enjoyed fresh leaf lettuce that I was able to just walk out on my deck and cut for a salad with dinner last year. I hope to be able to do it again and for a longer amount of time this year. Thank you so much for all the information you share! ❤
M mom had a worm farm. She had hydrangeas the size of your head. She had Geranium heads a the size of grapefruits. She credited it to the worm tea. My sister bought it for her and I for Christmas one year. I still have it but currently in storage. Worms were left with sister. Maybe I can put it out this summer. Just got to find the right place. Not sure that will work through winter. I need a heated garage or shed. I rent and have a new landlord. Will have to see what he willl let me do. For now I am on the deck in containers as soon as the snow melts. Struggling plants in the bathroom. Hurry up spring.
Herbs, herbs,herbs, tomatoes,strawberries,and dahlias ❤ this year I’m doing the tomatoes and jalapeños in grow bags 😊
❤️❤️ For a long time now I’ve had to grow in containers due to back issues. I’ve grown all the things. Tomatoes, radish, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, potatoes, peppers and my blueberries are in containers. This year I added a trellis to 3 of my containers and planted 3 different kinds of peas. I definitely didn’t think they would get so big 🤣🤣, I’ve had to tie them down so the wind wouldn’t blow them over. But they are beautiful and taste so good. I’ve even shared some with 3 of my neighbors. I have lots planned for this year. I hope everything goes smoothly. Have a blessed day. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️👩🏻🌾
May I ask what type of containers you use?
I grow in containers on chairs to confuse my many gophers and ground squirrels.
I love growing tomatoes in buckets because the squirrels leave them alone. I am getting more strawberries to grow in containers this year, too because the ones around my asparagus get stolen.
This is exactly why I subscribe and why you came to my attention. Practical information. I love you for this. All the other things and you all know what I mean, not so much, but I accept it. It comes from your heart I get it. Why do I say this? Because I think you need to hear it. If anyone takes this in a negative way, then you need to take a good look at yourself.
i find this so interesting, because i have gardened for 44 years and i have tried container gardening many times and i think container gardening is always harder. i love to in ground garden and let mother nature take care of it. And having to try figure out feeding it, hard pass. when u have a choice, just garden in the ground,
Finally ordered my GreenStalk!!! Thanks for the discount Jess❤
Other than some flower bulbs bought at winco and tossed in at a rental place, my first adult garden was on my balcony in my first apartment.
When I moved and the landlady said "do whatever you want" we took over a sad section of yard that was overgrown, uneven and awful. We dug bricks out of the soil. Her son had put them there to "keep the dog from digging" when he lived there.
It was in ground mixed with containers. I found things to plant in, I drilled holes in galvanized tubs I found that she told me to help myself to. I had so much fun redoing all the areas. When we left it was an oasis. I'm disinclined to believe her son and DIL kept it up, but not my problem.
We moved into our first home and we had...containers. that's what I brought with me so I used them and had a tiny garden that year. I was sad, but started planning. We have increased the space each year happily.
I have containers and raised beds for access, ease, and aesthetics. I add containers because I run out of room every year. I refresh soil and end up having leftover so I'll grab another container fill it and then put something in it. We have a great abundance of joy and food. I don't think I could handle not having a garden. Even in the dead of winter when my son wants me to play minecraft with him I garden. I design flower and veggie patches around our buildings. I only lament they don't have more choices of plants and crops to use.
One of my goals is to plan a fertilizing schedule this year. I have been lax or used spikes in the past but I want to do better this year.
Happy gardening Jess!
Love it when my day off means early watching a new R&R video ❤️
Girl! I am first! Woo hoo!
I love containers (grow bags) for hot peppers. It keeps the roots warmer sooner, and if we get a cold, late cold night here in eastern Va, I can put the griw bags inside my little greenhouse for the night. When it gets hot, I can move the bag into the shade. I like to be able to pull up all my roots like beets and wait until my cucumbers and indeterminants get bigger to see where it'll be sunny enough with enough afternoon shade. Then I put the peppers into the ground starting with the larger ones first like the pablanos. Jalapenos and havaneros are often content in the grow bag for the whole season, but they do produce more in the raised beds with the worms. I put worms in my grow bags when I find them, but I think they don't stay there. I never use the previous year's soil. I dump it in my new compist bin and pull compost from the older pile to add to potting mix with some perlite when I start a new grow bag. Coconut coir is in there already from starting the seeds. Last year the peppers ended up next to the okra and got some good shade. Those were too thick of a spine but I saved the seeds for flowers. I'm trying another variety with a more tender spine to eat. The previous time the okra was tall and nit bushy. This one didnt taste great but was bushy enough for some shade. Okra flowers are pretty like hibiscus.
I grow in ground and in containers. I try to stay alert to the weather and if a hailstorm is headed our way, we move the containers into the garage. If hail totals the in ground stuff, at least I have a few things fresh from the potted stuff. Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, various peppers, eggplants and herbs do well for me in containers.
For hydrophobic soil in smaller containers I've taken the container and put it into a tote or bucket and filled it about 3/4 of the way with water and just soak it until the pot sinks (it will float if its really dry). This also works of the plant is rootbound and not able to get enough water. You can add a little dish soap if you choose, I've used epsom salt & coffee grounds or even fertilizer (or just water!). Then once its rehydrated I add compost so it doesn't happen again.
I love hearing all your animals they are all happy 😊 don’t worry we can still hear you 🙂
I have started buying Earthboxes. It's been making my gardening much easier.
I just ordered my Greenstalk Leaf yesterday!! So timely.