Container Garden 2016

[User 636]

Last year was my second year of gardening and my first productive one. This year, I am hoping to beat last. My land is my deck and my plants are in containers.



I planted my seeds at the end of February. March was super warm. I started hardening them off as soon as I could. I wanted them to get all of that delicious sunlight.



I even had to repot most of them. It was great and they grew and grew and grew.

I kicked them outside on April 16th.

[User 636]

The deck is densely planted. I have a bed of greens, and other projects like the cucumbers and the peas. The tomatoes are set up in two rows with the cherry tomatoes on the inside. Last year I had to climb a ladder to pick the over growth from the deck. I want to avoid doing that this year.

[User 636]

There are 21 tomato plants on the deck. It is very dense but I do a lot of pruning. The height means a regular breeze.

Black Krim x5. I grew this last year and the one plant only produced a few fruit but they were amazing. I started from seed this year and all of the plants are doing well.

Yellow Pear - I had a lot of this last year. One plant this year for making sauce. It goes amazing with chicken.

Red Currant Cherry - One plant. Its prolific and we eat them as snacks. Also started from seed.

Lemon Boy - Sweet, mild, and tasty. From local nursery.

Trying this year from seed:
Sungold
Michael Pollen (sounded cool)
Green Vernissage (seemed neat)
Yellow stuffing tomato (seems like a great snack)

From the nursery
Cherokee Purple
Brandywine Pink
Pineapple
Lemonboy

[User 636]

I also used Jobe's plant spikes this year. This has resulted in a lot of flowers and a lot of weird flower formations. I have wild trellis, flowers poking out of branches, and trellis with rogue leaves. I also use tomato tone and some miracle grow.

The cold, wet weather in Virginia this last month has not been kind. The peas have been fighting an aphid infestation and the red currant cherry something that looks like bacterial spec. I used the bleach spray treatment I read on here and that's taken care of a lot of the problem. Some rinsing and neem oil has worked with the aphids. The brussel sprouts had a cabbage moth problem but that has been resolved with diligence in picking them off.

As of today:

[Deborah]

I'm a balcony gardener-lemme tell ya, yours is truly impressive! Wow!

[habanero]

Second that! Impressive. I really love the black planter that has salad stuff in it. I have seen these things called "salad table" planters that would work great for my balcony. Good luck with your tomatoes!
habanero

[User 636]

First tomato of the season is going to be a Sungold. I brought it in to ripen on the counter top due to the things I have heard about splitting. We are due some rain this week (again).

[User 636]

Other plants are doing well. I lost my peas to an aphid infestation. The cramped conditions on the deck do work against me. My neighbors decided to install a fairy garden and suddenly, I'm over run with aphids and some other thin white insect as well as a tiny tan colored round thing I haven't figured out what it is. It is rather frustrating but I think I'm winning the battle.

[Gerardo]

looking awesome. Prune prune prune

[User 636]

Originally Posted by Gerardo

looking awesome. Prune prune prune

I have been. I go out once or twice a week on my days off with a trash bag and fill it. I'm amazed at how much green I'm pulling out of there every week. I do let the suckers grow and then strip off the non fruiting branches.