June 8, 2012: Preparing a container garden.

Hello!  In addition to my vegetable garden and raised flower bed, I looked into container gardening and became interested in creating my own.  I wasn’t sure if container gardening may be suitable for flowering plants, especially since the bulbs and rhizomes require much room for root development and growth as well as adequate water drainage.  The onset of disease may also be an issue, especially for flowers.  Naturally, in-ground planting may be a more suitable way to go.

However, after a little research, I realized that with proper care and maintenance, container gardening can be successful and add a significant aesthetic theme around the home.  I decided to go for it.  I started out by purchasing 4 different flower bulbs from Home Depot (on sale for 50% off).  I also purchased about 8 planting containers from a local dollar store for about $12 total (some were more than $1).  It was as simple as dropping the bulbs into the container and filling them to the top with garden soil (instead of potting soil, since I’m keeping the containers outside).  Anyway, check out the pics below!

Dahlia Hawaii and Dahlia penelope.

Dahlia cactus mix and Dahlia dinnerplate mix.

I’ll split these 4 packs of bulbs into these 8 containers.

The finished product…

April 29, 2012: Buying vegetable plants – starter plants in peat pots.

I went to Home Depot and purchased a few Bonnie vegetable starter plants (already in peat pots for easy planting).  I also bought two bags of Sta-Green garden soil (2 cubic feet) and mixed it into my tilled area (it was the cheapest garden soil bag per cubic feet).  I immediately transplanted the Bonnie plants into my garden.  Here’s the list:

• Red beefsteak tomato
• Parks whopper hybrid tomato Atkinson tomato
• Early girl hybrid tomato
• Better bush hybrid tomato
• Beef master hybrid tomato
• Cherokee purple heirloom tomato
• Big beef hybrid tomato
• Eggplant black beauty
• Ichiban egg Japanese eggplant
• White eggplant
• Giant Marconi sweet pepper
• Big Bertha bell pepper
• Bonnie green bell sweet hybrid pepper
• Yellow bell sweet pepper
• Cayenne hot pepper
• Sweet banana hybrid pepper
• Mammoth jalapeño giant jalapeño pepper
• Yummy bell petite bell pepper
• Arden salsa hot pepper
• Yummy snacking sweet pepper
• Hot banana hybrid pepper
• Allstate strawberries
• Quinalt strawberries
• Sequoia strawberries

Bonnie plants in peat pots, planted.

Side view.

I added 6 plant cages around the eggplants.

Another side view (with plant cages).