The good, The bad, and The stinky!

Category: My first Gardening experiences | Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 1:08 am

I am so absolutely thrilled with my container garden. I do miss having a huge yard to grow whatever and however many plants I want. But the bonus about the containers are that you can move an unhealthy plant away from the others until you either chuck it (it happens) or bring it back to good standing. The pain is that you need a lot of pots (well I do) and big pots. I did a lot of upgrades (transplant) to bigger pots the past couple weeks. But this is a learning experience still so next year I will full on fledge know what to expect. Sshhhh or that's what id like people to believe. :)
So I have been trying to learn as much as possible to help ensure a good harvest and also I like to retain as much information as possible on whatever projects I have on hand. And over the past year I've tried different methods and learned some stuff from some fellow Stewbies and google. And I kinda mixed them a bit to work for me. So here's what works for me in my climate 9b.

My special blend compost booster ( photo / image / picture from Mrs. Galeassi's Garden )

This is my special compost blend. I sometimes don't put all the kitchen compost in the bin and I make this which I take some coffee grounds, egg shells(boiled to sanitize), bananas and peels, and sometimes other fruits and veggies all chopped up real small and put in a pyrex with lid for a few days. Then I go put it in the ground near the plants once its all rotten.

Homemade composter ( photo / image / picture from Mrs. Galeassi's Garden )

This is the homemade composter I made. A simple garbage can with holes cut into it. I found the idea looking for a small composter. I was supposed to glue screen over the holes but that hasn't happend. I normally just lay it on its side and roll it to mix it up.. I recently had something growing out of it. :)

Germinated seeds getting ready for planting ( photo / image / picture from Mrs. Galeassi's Garden )

I have tried different methods for germinating and I pretty much now can tell from the seed how it should be germinated, some do need a good soaking first or just a warm damp towel. These little reusable pots are awesome. I just use them over and over again. I bought the ones that are biodegradable but they were more of a pain then any help. And I totally love compost with poo. It stinks bad too! :( When you first use it is when it smells and there are flies for a couple days. But after all goes back to normal. Eeewww gross I know but it seems to keep some bad bugs away. Weird right? But the plants love it.

What i use sometimes ( photo / image / picture from Mrs. Galeassi's Garden )

Now I try to stay on the green side. But I'm not going to lie, I occassionally use this spray on my ornamentals, very light misting and only when needed. I don't use any on my veggie plants. It does work wonders though. The fertilizer is just a general 10-10-10 veggie and flower fertilizer. I use a spoon and sprinkle it around the plants every so often. I don't time it, but id say like once a month. I use watered down milk in a spray bottle, thanks to an awesome stewbie, to treat white powdery mildew. And every few days I add a couple drops of dish soap to my watering. I water only in the early morning and I don't wet the leaves of my veggie plants to much to try and prevent mildew/mold/fungus and rust.
This is the stuff that works for me. I hope maybe that I can help someone by sharing, and thanks again for reading my blog. Have a great night :)

This blog entry has been viewed 254 times

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment