#container growing

[behaemoth]

Started my own little balcony veg garden this year & im hoping for success! The spinach is doing really well so I’m hopeful!

[howlmountain]

The cucumber vines are getting spotty and a little bare on one side, but from the other side it’s all fruits ready to pickle (now that I have dill again)

[growingthings]

[Image description: A photo showing a newly opened sunflower, some of the petals still curled inwards.]

[pumpkin-patch]

If growing inground isn't an option do you have any suggestions as to what kind of above ground set up could best accomadate pumpkins?

Whatever you use, the key is depth! Pumpkins want as much space and as much soil depth as you can possibly give them. Most guides recommend 2-3 feet. I’ve grown them in anywhere between 1 and 4 feet of soil and can absolutely confirm that the deeper they can go, the better harvest you get. So whatever your setup, every extra inch of root depth you can possibly give it is worth it - if you’re going to cheap out, don’t bother (I’ve tried). I’d consider 1 foot to the absolute minimum soil depth that’s even worth bothering to plant a miniature variety in that you might get a pumpkin or two. 2 feet gives you a better shot and some more small-standard varieties are on the table. 3 feet starts to get kind of unrealistic but if you can manage it somehow, great.

Pots, planters, stock tanks etc. that deep do exist, but can be expensive (especially considering this would be one vine per pot). A few bloggers have reported ok (not great) results with big cloth grow bags.

If raised beds are an option that’s much better.

Quick distinction: with a pot/planter, the roots would be contained entirely inside it, and you could set this on your patio or balcony. 

A raised bed can be built directly on the ground, with no bottom, allowing roots to grow down through the bed and extend into the ground however much they can - so typically you would dig and amend what few inches of ground you can before building the bed. Thus raised beds don’t need to be as tall as the soil depth you’re aiming for, if they are an addition to some more ground depth.

You can build nice raised beds out of lumber, interlocking blocks designed specifically for that purpose, corrugated metal, cinder blocks, or there are lots of pre-made kits on the market. 

If you don’t care about it being pretty or long-lived, you can get more creative. Kiddie pools always pop up as a suggestion (you’d need to cut out the bottom).  I’ve seen people arrange hay bales in a square and fill the middle with soil. There’s a guy I like on youtube who grew pumpkins in old tires and another guy who just cut holes in both sides of a big bag of commercial soil, plops that on the ground, and plants in that. You could use a heavyduty trash can or storage tub with some holes drilled in the bottom (be aware something made of plastic won’t hold up to years in the sun). Really, anything that can hold a large volume of soil without falling apart would potentially be fine.

[modfarm]

National Organic Standards Board Decrees That Hydroponic Can Be Organic

A battle for the soul of the organic movement has been settled. The winners are the corporations, as usual.

[howlmountain]

The pepper in the middle is twice as big now, but the two plants surrounding it are lambsquarter that we ate in a pasta dish shortly after taking this photo. The pepper, predictably, grew a lot faster once those two other plants were harvested. They definitely have more flavor than spinach.

[growingthings]

Endless tomatoes! Last year got none bc blight and the 2 years before just ended up with tons of green ones so I'm super happy :•)

[growingthings]

Further proof idk what the fuck I'm doing, runner beans (left) are all falling off! The bean appearing after bud is called setting and it not happening is usually due to poor pollination or heat so at least I've learnt something! Dwarf beans (right) are totally fine so I won't be beanless 😁