Autumn Garden: A Season of Review

I just finished watering my front and back yards. The front looks fine, lawn is still green and my various bushes and plants are thriving. That’s the good news.
The bad news? My back yard had a combination of hits and misses.
The hits:  Most of my roses (primarily hybrid tea) are standing strong (a few perished), [...]

Eggplant in Container, Thriving

I”m happy to report that one of my Black Beauty eggplant plants, started from seed, is thriving in its container. So leafy! I’m hopeful that this plant will be productive, to yield delicious eggplants to enjoy!

Carrot Seedlings, in My Container!

After a few failed efforts at growing carrots in containers (they have not grown very large in the past), I’m making another attempt this season. Check out the carrot seedlings at the top and the bottom of the photo (the one in the middle is an errant grass weed!). Started from seed, I’m hopeful that [...]

Slow Summer Crops This Year

It’s been a very odd year for my container garden. I finished tending to my garden chores for the day about an hour ago. Though I started planting my tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapeno pepper early in the summer, most plants, especially the tomato plants, have been as slow as molasses to grow bigger or [...]

Waltham Butternut Squash Seedlings!

Wow!  It’s been about one week since I planted Waltham butternut squash seeds in three containers, and already two of the three containers have one squash seedling each. I’m so surprised at the speediness with which these seedlings appeared.
I have seeds for additional cold season vegetables that I will be planting in containers this coming [...]

Waltham Butternut Squash Seeds

SHOPPING TIP: Oh, my gosh, earlier today, I scored one packet (1.0 gram) of Waltham butternut squash seeds at the 99 Cents Only Store for the princely sum of 11 cents! I will be planting them within the hour in three separate containers. Yay!

Green Bell Peppers in a Container

And they’re looking might fine! In my garden, green bell peppers often arrive fashionably late, but they’re reliably delicious – worth the wait!

Eggplant Seedlings!

Several weeks ago, I sprinkled a few seeds into one of my containers and now I am happy to post a photo of my first eggplant seedlings!  I’ve never grown eggplant before. The variety is called Black Beauty, one of the more popular.
Assuming that I will have two plants, I will transplant one of them [...]

Autumn Container Garden Planning

Because my summer container garden did not become active with seedlings until mid-summer, I’m now having to plan on planting my autumn garden at the same time that my summer crops will begin to fruit – not a bad situation to be in, but I’ll have to gather up my remaining empty 5-gallon containers.
I’ll be [...]

Red Leaf Lettuce, Bolting

This red leaf lettuce has bolted, meaning that the seed stalk has elongated  and will soon produce flowers. The leaves on bolted lettuce are rendered bitter, so the plant should be discarded. Lantana are pictured on the right of the lettuce.
For detailed information on lettuce bolting and its prevention, please refer to: http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1994/4-6-1994/let.html
CONSUMER ALERT UPDATE: Lantana is highly [...]