Container Garden - Part 3

     Summer is winding down, and it's time to make the final report on the container garden project.  Here goes.

I began during the first week in March.  I cut a hole in the lid of a plastic bin and used Gorilla tape to attach a mylar window.  I drilled drainage holes in the bottom of the bin, added commercial potting soil, and planted radishes, lettuce, and spinach.  I left the bin outside, even during snow storms.  I had home grown salads at the end of April.     

What's better than a fresh green salad?

I like radishes, and I tended to pull them when they were very small.  I just couldn't wait. 

I saw this brainy idea on the internet - turning toilet paper and paper towel rolls into tiny seed starting pots.  You start the plants indoors.  Then you transfer the seedling into a bigger pot when the weather is warm enough to put the plants outside, and the paper roll is supposed to decompose during the growing season.  I found that the paper grew white, fuzzy mold.  Some articles said the mold was harmless, and other articles issued dire warnings.  Everyone agreed that the cure was to sprinkle cinnamon all over the soil and seedlings.  This worked like a charm and smelled nice, too.  Since my seedlings sat uncovered, under a sunny window, and were not over watered, I blame the mold on the toilet paper rolls.  My advice is forget about recycling TP and paper towel rolls.  Just start seeds in a bin of potting soil or use plastic cups.   

Two baby tomato plants and a corn stalk.

Green beans are the first plants to produce.  They flower and produce beans all summer long.

My zucchini plants were duds.  These plants produce male and female flowers.  Insects do the job of fertilizing the female blossoms or you can do it yourself by rubbing the male blossom onto the female blossom.  I had insect activity, and I also tried pollinating the flowers, but I had very few squash.

I had a bumper crop of parsley.  I inspected my plants every morning when I watered.  In August, I noticed an army of striped caterpillars devouring my parsley.  It turns out that the black swallow tail butterfly lays its eggs in carrots, parsley, and other herbs in this family of plants.  Since I had dedicated myself to raising plants without insecticides, I spent a good half hour picking these little nuisances off and tossing them into a plastic bag.  I found a few more caterpillars in the days to come, but no where near the numbers of that first infestation.  

My corn was a complete failure.  My eggplants are probably also a flop.  I'm still holding out hope that I might harvest one or two eggplants.

I had a lot of delicious tomatoes. 

Vine Ripened Maters

This is a tomato hornworm.  They attack tomato plants.  They are voracious eaters and can defoliate a plant quickly.  I picked a few of these guys off my tomato plants, using gloves, of course.  Big, green, and disgusting.

The pepper plants produced even more fruits than the tomatoes.  This pepper is almost finished turning from green to red. 

My Garden
I have to admit that this year's vegetables came at an outrageously high price.  Now that the garden is established, I will take the lessons I learned and grow a more productive garden next year.  How many years do you suppose it will take to break even?