Micro Gardening

[Tadpole]

Here are some pictures that might encourage someone who doesn't have room for a regular garden--or who doesn't have time to manage one--to enjoy micro gardening. If all you have is a balcony, you can still grow all the tomatoes and cucumbers your family can eat, with plenty to give to the neighbors.

I have plenty of space, but just find container and square foot gardening fascinating.

Two "dwarf" cucumber vines growing vertically in a pot, with winter squash in the foreground. Close-up of baby cucumber.

Close-up of one of the baby squash. I have four varieties of winter squash in four different pots to keep them from hogging my square foot garden space. The squash will need to be trained vertically soon as they are starting to sprawl.

There are two varieties of tomatoes growing in this pot. They are both loaded with blossoms and baby tomatoes.

This 4' square has New Zealand Spinach (loves hot weather), beets, scallions, 3 varieties of carrots (yellow, orange and red), cilantro and savory. The bugs hit the beets pretty hard, but they are making a comeback.

I have two other 4' squares and other containers, but they aren't in a photogenic stage right now.

 

[Gingergirl]

Those are wonderful pictures. Very professional looking. As good as any I've seen in the gardening books.

 

[Tadpole]

Thanks Gingergirl. What a special comment!

They were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 2500.

 

[blueberry]

I am impressed! I wish my garden looked half as good as yours

 

[rb.]

Tadpole, your container gardens look great! We moved into our house last year at the end of June, and containers were all I had time for. I'd never done it before, but thought I'd give it a shot. The results were great! We stuck just to tomatoes and peppers because I was still unpacking. I love the cucumber idea. We put in an 18 x 5 raised bed this year, but I just didn't want to give up the space to pumpkins or cukes. I will try the cukes next year in a container.

My goal is for our raised bed to be totally perennial within a few years, so containers would be great for the annuals. We currently have 3 blueberry bushes, 5 x 5 of everbearing strawberries, and chives. In the fall I will add garlic. I think we're going to go with artichoke (that's the speary thing, right? dunno, DH likes it), add more blueberries, and move a shaded, sickly rhubarb in there, too.

So, have you ever grown lettuce, or roots like carrots, onions, or peas in smaller containers? Say 1 x 3? I have some planters that size, and they would work great around the edge of my deck. Best sun in the yard.

 

[Tadpole]

Blueberry, camera angle helps a lot!

rb, I even have watermelons growing in a big tub with the vines going up a trellis! I don't like anything that sprawls in my small gardens.

I haven't found any vegetable that won't grow well in containers. One year I grew pole beans in a row of 4 containers and it worked great! You could probably grow them in a large round tub with a tipi type support, too.

I have read that you can grow summer squash and zucchini in tubs, but I've never tried as you can't train them vertically.

Your perenniel garden idea sounds great!

I grew garlic last year and just harvested it a couple of weeks ago. I didn't wait for the leaves to completely die back, so it kept trying to sprout after I cut it. I have it stored in the refrigerator. I doubt it will last too long that way.

I haven't tried carrots, peas or lettuce in containers, but I have grown clumping green onions in a large container, and they thrived. Some even made it though the winter here in Georgia and got the tiny little bulblets on top the next spring before I pulled them up.

I grew mesclun mix in one of my square foot gardens last year and had the most wonderful salads for weeks. I don't see why it wouldn't grow well in containers.

 

[ShepInTheValley]

Excellent pictures!

 

[TerriHaute]

Ok, I have to ask. How did you embed the photos in your message? I am still trying to figure out how to do pictures in the messages and so far have had success with attaching a photo at the end.

Terri in Indiana

 

[Tadpole]

TerriHaute, if you want to embed pictures, you need to upload your pictures to the web first. I have web space that I paid for, but someone else might be able to tell you places where you can upload your photos free.

After you get your photos uploaded to the web, you just put the url with

behind it in your message, and the image will automatically load the picture when the page is viewed.

Does that help?

 

[TerriHaute]

TerriHaute, if you want to embed pictures, you need to upload your pictures to the web first. I have web space that I paid for, but someone else might be able to tell you places where you can upload your photos free.

After you get your photos uploaded to the web, you just put the url with

behind it in your message, and the image will automatically load the picture when the page is viewed.

Does that help?

It does help! I'll have to think about where to put some photos to try it.

Thanks,
Terri in Indiana

 

[summerthyme]

Tadpole- great pics and plants!

About zuchinni and summer squash- they do grow well in tubs, and you don't HAVE TO train them, because they grow in "bush" form. Just a large bushy plant about 3' across and maybe 2' high. I'd consider it if you like those veggies, because they give you a LOT of fruit for one plant.

Also, there is a bush form of Delicata winter squash which I recommend highly. These little squashes are wonderful- sweet, tender and keep for 4-6 months in our basement. Each plant produces between 5 and 10 fruits, and each fruit is large enough for 2 servings (for squash lovers). No waste involved- my kids used to microwave them for an after school snack. Cut in half, scoop out the seeds, add pure maple syrup and butter, cover and nuke for 6-10 minutes (depending on your microwave power and the age of the squash)

This squash variety is open pollinated (save your own seed, as long as you didn't grow pumpkins or gourds the same year close by), and matures even in our short season area. You can grow the regular version (not the bush type) and trellis it, too.

Summerthyme

 

[Tadpole]

Summerthyme, THANKS for that information! I just assumed that the summer squash would sprawl too much. Now I wish I had tried them anyway.

I will put Delicata Bush on my list for when I order next year's seeds. I love the idea of a "two person" squash--especially an open-pollinated one. A good size acorn squash is too much for the two of us.

Down here it is too warm and damp for root cellars, but I read that people used to keep sweet potatoes by burying them above ground, not touching, in heavy layers of straw covered over with dirt. I guess that is kind of like a root cellar (southern style, anyway). I wonder if the squash would do better in something like that or just at indoor room temperature. I haven't grown winter squash before, so don't know anything about storing them.

The kid's snack idea is making my mouth water. I usually microwave acorn squash with butter, brown sugar and nutmeg or cinnamon. I wouldn't have thought of maple syrup.

Yummmmm... there goes the South Beach Diet!

I am trying to save seeds on all my annual vegetables. It's easy with the herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers, but I usually get impatient with the others and pull them up when they start to bolt. I did let some cilantro go to seed last year, but I must have planted the wrong variety because the seeds were tiny, not like the coriander I expected.

I am having more fun with the little gardens than I ever had with conventional gardens. For the past few years I had enjoyed 3 4'x8' beds that were only 6" high. I took them out this spring and replaced them with 3 4'x4' beds that are 12" high and I am much happier with them.

And I get such a kick out of growing unexpected vegetables in containers. It is sheer enjoyment.... kind of like "playing" garden!

 

[Flagwaver]

This got me thinking. Some people have gardens with lots of rocks in the ground and they're forever having to mess with getting them out.

Would vegetables thrive if put in a good soil mixture (like the one recommended in the Square Foot Gardening book) - then put the soil mix in 5 gallon buckets put down into the ground? Maybe some holes drilled in the bottom and sides to help with drainage?

So the buckets are underneath the ground with the plant sticking above soil level.

I can see drilling holes in the sides and bottom of the buckets. I can see digging a hole to put the bucket in, then adding the soil mixture. Then the plant. Laying mulch around the top. Rocks stay out.

I keep hearing that if you plant where there are rocks you're forever digging them out. Maybe this would be one way of keeping them out? This could keep critters from digging as much in the garden maybe?

Could this possibly help people with rocky gardens?

 

[Tadpole]

Flagwaver, the reason I have my raised bed gardens and containers is that our soil is solid clay and rocks.

It sounds to me like digging a hole to bury the containers would be a LOT of unnecessary work. You would still have to contend with the rocks, and if you have heavy soil that doesn't drain well, cutting holes in the buckets wouldn't help a lot because the water wouldn't have anywhere to go.

So raised beds or above ground containers would seem to make a lot more sense in your case. And yes, using the soil mixture that the Square Foot Gardening book recommends would be ideal.

Raised beds and containers dry out faster than in-ground gardens. The way I get around that is to mix some of those water-absorbing polymer crystals into my soil and also mulch if they start drying out too fast. I also have to water the containers a lot more frequently.... in extremely hot dry weather at least once a day for some of them. The raised square foot gardens don't require as much water as the containers.