It’s been two months since my last update regarding my garden. For the most part, things are going well. At this stage of things I am dealing with a few pests that have managed to get into the enclosed area I’m growing in. Other than that things have been growing wonderfully.
This was what most of the garden looked like back in May. We finally got all but two plants out of the starting containers we had them in. Everything then got placed into buckets or containers whatever I had that best fit the needs of the plant.
For things like tomatoes they went into the biggest container I have which are these blue buckets. Container size tends to have a huge impact on these things. In past years I know if I would have put them in something smaller they would not have gotten as big as they have since May.
This year all the first flowers of the plants were removed from the tomatoes. This was to give them more time to put energy into growing thicker vines. I am rather pleased that worked out quite well. As you will see in the photo below they got quite thick. Perhaps double the thickness in some cases over what I had last year.
There was also a lot more pruning this year. The first half a foot to a foot of leaves was also removed from the tomatoes. Along with some of the branching off the main stem was removed in certain areas. This is to allow the plant to have better airflow allowing it to dry out when it gets wet or there is a splashback from watering.
There are a few different kinds of diseases and rot that hopefully will not be such an issue this year. These are however beefsteak tomatoes so you can’t just prune them as hard as you would other types of tomatoes. As they can flower off the main branch vines.
All that added extra effort seems to have paid off and can be seen in late June. There are already some decent-sized tomatoes growing. Quite thick vines. Some of them are evening starting to grow over the cages being used. Soon they will be taller than I am.
In the photo, they do look quite wilted. That is because I just had to water them moments before taking the photo. They then tend to perk up an hour or so later for the rest of the day. It gets quite hot down here. It’s just an endless cycle I deal with. Not the best watering solution.
You can also see one of the cilantro trying to grow like a magical beanstalk. It wants an area less crowded. I ended up pruning it down by quite a bit since it keeps trying to flower. I don’t have a better place to move it without it being in the way of other things.
One crop that is starting to phase out in late June was the green beans. Most of the flower containers I had over a dozen in are starting to die off. I did end up getting at least a basket (15-20 green beans) weekly from harvesting for a few weeks now.
I have left some green beans on the plant itself to use for seeds later on. It is my first year attempting to do this. For the moment they have been picked and are drying out. Later in the year, I’ll be attempting to plant the seeds and see if it worked out.
I did have a bit of a setback with the basil getting eaten by something early on. Most of it has either grown back or the replanting of seeds after a couple of tries has finally yielded something.
This photo is about a week or so old. You can add a couple more sets of leaves to the basil since then. I started to prune them after the third set of real leaves. They are starting to get bushier yielding more each time I prune.
The last pruning harvest of the basil yielded a medium-sized Ziploc bag's worth. While I have not started to turn it into pesto just yet. It has been nice to have fresh basil on hand to toss into meals when needed.
The biggest issue however is some bugs have infested the basil. This is just an issue I keep having year after year. Other than washing what I pick well in some light vinegar water. Along with some basic attempts to curb the infestation. It’s just something I’ve gotten used to being an issue.
The cilantro on the lower containers is doing quite well. I have cut them back hard a couple of times now and some of them keep trying to flower. I’ll more than likely be drying out any excess and grinding it up to fit into a spice shaker for later use.
The one plant that has had the biggest issues this year is the three-year-old parsley. Since it’s quite old now and bitter it’s not something that I harvest to eat. I have been left outside of the area I grew in to see how I would fair. Something came along one night and ate the entire plant down to a nubbing.
I was hoping if it did well on its outside of the protective area I’m growing it. I might be able to expand at some point. That is not going to happen. We do have some massive things in the area you could take a baseball bat to that still might not take them out that can devastate an entire garden in a few hours.
All the peppers in the garden are doing great. I have a random assortment of bell peppers along with a single Jalapeno. They are in smaller containers than the tomatoes and seem to want a bit more space than I could give them this year.
It is still unknown mostly what kind of bell peppers we will be ending up with at this stage of things. It is looking like a least some greens and yellows. Nothing as crazy as the random chocolate one we got last year as of yet. Next month should be enough time to find out once the peppers have had more time to grow.
The Jalapeno plant has already produced 15 Jalapenos. They have been enjoyed filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. Each harvest cause even a larger batch to grow in the next round. It’s a good thing I only have one plant of them. I’ll be overrun soon enough with Jalapeno!
Final Thoughts
Outside of dealing with some bugs, worms, and other things. This growing session is starting to shape up nicely. It is a shame I had such a rough start. The garden would be so much further along. At least now I’m getting to harvest some things and the tomatoes and bell peppers will be ready soon enough.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.
Nice! Wish you a very good crop! Container size is crucial for the plants’ size. The bigger it is, the wider root system will be developed which results in a bigger plant. Last year I kept two of my pepper plants in smaller pots and the result was some midget pepper plants 😁 they still fruited, but not that much.
I had one pepper I ran out of containers for so it had to sit in the starter container for a while. Its root broke out of the bottom. A lot smaller than the rest of them. I hope it’s able to catch up somewhat over the long run. No way could it hold some of the bell peppers I have growing on the other plants without bending over in half.
Yup, and I have also noticed that as soon as the first leaves of the new plant show up, you have to put the plant in its final pot/container. Mid size containers do not make favor to the plants, because every time you move the plant, it needs some time for adjusting. 🙂
Dude I didn't expect you to have your place of comfort with your plants, who would have thought, from being a POE pro to being a good plant keeper.
I have a few hobbies I rarely talk about if at all. Gardening is my excuse to go outside for a short while daily.
nice job, My peppers and chili are my heaviest feeders in the garden i think... they LOVE fertilizer high in potassium... they seem to never have to much.
great job!
Thanks.
I did put some root fertilizer down in the holes before I planted the tomatoes. It is tempting to buy some for everything else. Will be waiting to see how big things like the peppers get first before I test around with it.
the tomato and pepper plants will love a high potassium fertilizer :-)
but they look nice and green. Its amazing what you can grow in containers when you dont have big garden beds. At the moment most of our stuff is in pots around the edge of a pool lol.
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Thanks for the support. Have a great weekend.
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