You can grow anything in containers, anything from tiny herbs to monster tomatoes, it all depends on the container size and compost quality. The better the compost, the healthier the plants.
The carrots growing in containers did better than the ones in the bigger beds. The reason is the compost quality.
For me, winter gardening has been all about leafy greens, I found that these do extremely well in our very cold winter!
Things like Kale, spinach, rocket, Swiss chard, parsley, cilantro, carrots, mustard, and lettuce did really well!
On the other hand, a lot of plants suffered from the cold nights, like tomatoes. If you had success with tomatoes this season, you’re one lucky gardener! Tomatoes love sun and warmth, and there’s been too little of both to keep tomatoes going. Basil plants suffered from the lack of sunshine too, this resulted in small leaves and premature bolting.
As the cold winter season is coming to an end soon, I started working on my ‘spring’ garden. I am starting the seeds indoors in peat cups, which I place under the warm lights of my Aerogarden. The soil is: Seed Starter by Espoma from Truevalue
If you like the tomato variety you’re growing, you have a great opportunity to grow duplicates. All you’ll need is a large container (5 gallons or bigger), compost, peat moss, perlite. You can of course grow the plant directly in the ground too, just make sure you amend the soil.
This is the easiest way to grow tomatoes, you don’t go through the hassle of planting seeds.
The main rule is to clip of the branches on the sucker’s stem, and to bury it until its very top leaves. Water generously the first time, but don’t drown the plant or else the roots will rot.
The most important thing to remember with tomatoes is that they are heavy feeding monsters when it comes to soil nutrition and water, so the need lots of room and really good compost. Never plant them in anything smaller than a 5 gallon container, and always keep feeding with compost.
The common thing with basil is that you have to keep picking the tops off to prevent the plant from ‘bolting’, which is going to seed. I usually follow this, but since it’s been such a cold and cloudy season, my basil hasn’t been doing so great.
Basil loves the sun, and so will stop growing large, bushy leaves when it’s cold.
I’m letting my basil plants bolt because I ran out of seeds for spring, and the leaves are too small to enjoy anyway. The seeds form very quickly so I don’t have to wait for long.
Today I am harvesting cosmic purple carrots. They smell amazing as I am pulling them out!
These grew in Albustan compost, I think the ones grown in my own compost will be bigger.
The carrots were really sweet! I roasted them in the oven, covered in foil.
They were really tender and sweet!
I’m going to grow carrots every winter after this!
Kale
basil
Cosmic purple carrotsMustard greens
making new compost
True Value is a good place to find organic gardening supplies, I like to shop at the one in Alrai near the Infiniti Showroom.
Here is a nice touch they’ve added at the soils section:
I think its a great way to encourage people to grow herbs. Well done True Value!
Plant foods and soil additives
