Just Thinking Out Loud About Potted Tomatoes…

A few weeks ago, Hugh, a fellow Flickr friend told me about the website Global Buckets which showed how to make a self watering pot or a global bucket (as they called it) using two 5 gallon buckets, PVC Pipe and a plastic cup. I thought this was a good idea, but I didn’t have anything to plant in it…

…Until I saw a photo by Meighan, another Flickr friend, who was growing Tomatoes in pots. This gave me an idea… How about if I grew some Tomatoes in a self water 5 gallon pot so I could move it around. Maybe even put it in a spot in the front yard that gets more sun than in the back yard.

Tomato Plants
Tomato Plants by Meighan

I think I’ll try this next year, but I’m kinda anxious to make a self watering pot, so maybe I can test it out with two extra Lemon Cucumber plants that was left (no more space in the veggie bed to plant them).

[Update] ooohh, I just thought of something!.. I can plant my Pepino Dulce in one! (I have a new project to do tomorrow) :)

March 14 Gardening…

I’ve been away from home for a few days and got back this afternoon and started planting.

First thing my Mom told me when I stepped out into the backyard was that our Zygopetalum Orchid opened it’s first bloom. This made me really happy. We purchased this as a bare root Orchid at the Pacific Orchid Expo three years ago.

First Zygopetalum Blooms

I purchased a Asiatic Lily called Tango Blend from OSH in El Cerrito. There was an spot in the front yard filled with weeds, so I removed what I can, added new soil and planted all six bulbs. I also planted some Agrostemma in clusters here and in two other locations in our front yard.

I planted two of the three Pepino Dulce into 5 gallon pots which will be placed in the front yard. Here, they will get full sun and hopefully produce a lot of fruits. I’ll plant the third one into the SFG soon.

In a continuing effort to incorporate veggies into our front yard, I planted all the Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ seedlings into the two big clay pots, which now has the Sweet Peas and Agrostemmas. I think this will make a nice and colorful filler for the pot and also provide some veggies!

Lotsa Gardening Done…

I had a day off today and it was a nice day… so I was motivated to get a lot of gardening done before it starts to rain again.

I started the day off by taking the Horseradish and some seedlings ( Cerinthe Folia, Butter Daisy, Tweedia, Alyssum, Tidy Tips, Bells of Ireland and Larkspur ) from the grow lights in my bedroom outside to harden off. This made more room for the Tomato and Pepper seedlings, which I raise up higher and placed directly under the growlights.

I divided the seven Cerinthe Folia and potted them into four pots. I looked around the garden to find a future home for the Cerinthe and I noticed that there where about 5 volunteers Folia where they grew last year… so I think I may plant these seedlings in the front yard once they get bigger.

I also took out Pepino Dulce Folia cutting because they were way overdue to be potted up. I placed them into three 5″ pots before I figure out where to plant them.

Many of the winter veggies seedlings (Bok Choy, Dwarf Blue Curled Kale and Dinosaur Kale) are getting too big for the cell-packs so I divided them and placed them into drinking cup pots.

In the front garden, I planted a few of the Agrostemma and Early Gigantea Sweet Peas seedlings into the two big clay pots. I think I’ll also plant the Cerinth and Bright Lights Swiss Chard here to really fill these pots.

In the SFG Veggie Beds, I planted a square with the Daikon. They were really tiny and I was afraid slugs may eat them, so I overed them with clear plastic drinking cups (with holes for ventilation). I also planted one and half squares of the Broad Leaf Mustard. They looked like they were getting ready to bolt… Hopefully, they won’t. I also planted two Green Lucullus Swiss Chard into half a square.

I planted the Cilantro into it’s own pot and hope it would fill out. To help this out, I also planted some more Cilantro seeds between the plants and mulched it with cocoa mulch.

I also sowed a succession planting of the Super Snappy Pea seeds between the existing Super Snappy Peas which are already flowering and fruiting even though they are only about a foot tall. Hmm? I wonder if they will get taller like our usual 5+ foot tall Snap Peas.

Not much has happened in the Wintersowing bins, but I did see a few sprouts from the Subaru Wildflower Mix.

Purple Potatoes

It was getting dark and as I putting thing away, I found the Purple Potatoes that I harvested from last year and noticed they were sprouting. I got to get them into the soil soon.

Harvested Green Onions

My Mom also harvested a few Green Onion stalks for tonights dinner. It’s great to be able to harvest veggies straight from the garden when you need it.

Pepino Dulce cutting…

Last year, I wanted to get a Pepino Dulce from Annie’s Annuals, but they didn’t have any in stock. Luckily, I spotted some branches at the 2011 CRFG Scion Exchange. I grabbed a big branch so I can root it.

Pepino Dulce Cutting

I cut the branch into three smaller pieces and set it in water to root.