Wednesday Inspiration: Veggie Garden at Harvest

We are in the middle of our warm season harvest and I am realizing that I need to change up how I do my container garden.  I love having a bunch of flowers mixed in, but it is a detriment to harvest quantities.  Next year, my garden will look more like this with flower dedicated containers instead of intermixing.   I am little bummed because Pamela Crawford is my container garden inspiration.  Unfortunately, living in Colorado makes this style less of an option.  She lives in Florida which has a much longer growing season with more moisture (obviously, right?).  

If anything, I may run into the same issues as this year, but at least it will take out a variable. 

Okra Yumminess!

Holy Okra!!  I am excited because that is the one plant that is producing right now.  Okra loves the heat and doesn't mind getting a little bit dry.  I have fertilized it about every two weeks.  It is just seems to be really happy on the roof which I am so thankful for.  I am still surprised with how easy it was to grow for me in such challenging heat conditions this year.   Also,  I realize how important it is to have this in a very large container.  Not only does it look cool, but the plant just needs the space.

These pictures were taken over a few weeks time.

My okra rooftop container

My first okra harvest.  It took me by surprise and thus the reason why it is so large.

The next round

Pretty Okra bloom!

So many more to come!

Wednesday Inspiration: Vertical Space with Veggies

I love this space.  There is a lot of visual interest and textures from all sorts of edible plants!  This gets me to consider only using edibles in my garden next year.  I have always been "you have to throw in flowers somewhere" kind of girl, but some much of this is producing and it is still pretty!

hmmmmmm....  Sorry flowers, you may get tossed out next year.

Vegetable Garden with Vertical Growing & Container in late spring, including peas on wire trellis, herbs fennel, red and green leaf lettuce, gourmet salad greens, spinach, wall with vertical plantings in small space food gardening

Plant Death... With Good News!

We have all experienced some sort of plant death in our gardening careers.  If you are just starting out, be prepared that sometimes-even with the best intentions-you will have some plant death.  Admittedly, I was a bit cocky this year because I had taken all of my Colorado Master Gardener classes which automatically creates the most beautiful container garden on the block!!  Right??

Reality has bitten me in the butt.  Now, my whole garden hasn't died, but I did take it all very personally when a plant decided to pass to the plant after life.

I feel an important factor in these deaths is the heat.  It is rare when we are experiencing 100 degree weather in June, but it happened 6 times in a row.  To add to the mix we had 17 days of 90+ heat in June.  My cool season veggies were #$#@&^.  However, I have friends with in ground gardens that are experiencing gardening abundance.  Is it my microclimate?  Or is it something I am doing?

May all my lovely plants RIP, I am sorry you died so soon....
Veggie Deaths:
My first death was my jalapeño pepper.  It hit maturity early and then petered out early.  Two fruit did appear right before it died, but they were so little I wouldn't have been able to do anything with them.

The kale went shortly after the aphid attack.  It is still attempting to be around, but it is a skeletal version of its original self.  I keep thinking that it MIGHT come back once it cools off.  I keep holding on because there is new growth!

Skeletal Kale

My carrots were sad.  I only got a few out of the row I planted in my window box.  When I pulled them a few weeks ago they didn't get very large.  I did plant a variety that is known to produce small fruit, but these were pathetic.

Arugula and spinach I feel saw their untimely death due to the weather.  They barely lasted a few weeks after they started producing.

Herb Death:
Cilantro barely made it 3 weeks.  Being that this herb likes cooler temps, I might do another planting in late August.

Flower Death:
I am also a marigold killer... how in the heck could that be possible?!?!  I thought they were like weeds.  Not in my house this year.  All that I have planted have died and it is very frustrating because they are MARIGOLDS!  I have no clue what happened.

The Baby's breath choked so quickly.  It is supposed to be super heat tolerant and I put it on the roof looking forward to how pretty it would be on the table.  Nope, it was not meant to be.

Fruit Death:
The strawberries...  I love them, but I have lost a few plants.  The rest of them don't look that great either.  Plus, the fruit is barely the size of a marble.  I look at them everyday scratching my head.

Strawberry - RIP

The Good news!!
It isn't all bad.  My okra is loving life!  It is doing so well that I expect to be getting fruit from it in the next few weeks!  I can't wait to pickle or fry some up!

Fabulous Okra container

If you have a need for a flower that will spread, is heat tolerant, and still looks fairly pretty the strawflower is your plant.  Holy Moly!!  This plant LOVES my roof!  Check it below and in the picture above with my okra.

Strawflower

I also learned this year that the flowers I plant with my veggies have good and bad points.  The bad is that I am starting to think they may be sucking the nutrients from my veggies.  This is a just a hunch I have floating in my head.

The good is that they protect the soil from drying out too quickly.  My cucumber is in a container that is not as overloaded with flowers and it dries out super fast.  Where as my okra container doesn't have this problem thanks to the strawflowers.

What plant death have you experienced this year?  What are you learning?

Meeting Flea Beetles

A few weeks ago I was volunteering with Colorado Master Gardeners at the Cherry Creek Farmers Market when the subject of flea beetles arose.  One of the other master gardeners knew more about this insect so I was able to learn what these little guys do to the garden.  Basically, they don't make your garden the envy of the block.  They are jumpy little suckers that eat little tiny holes in the leaves, stunt plant growth and in extreme cases kill the plant.  Awesome, right?  I was thankful that I hadn't experienced these until.....

I was swearing at bugs again!  I made sure to have my outburst when the neighbors were inside and no one was walking by!  Here is what the little black buggers look like and the damage they have done to my alyssum on my balcony container garden.  They were only hanging around my lavender and thankfully not eating it.

Mitigation plans.... Well, I love my organic insecticide.  I know it is a little lame, but I like to see them die.  This time I diluted it so I would avoid burning the leaves on the plant and it worked!  The bugs have three life cycles so I will have to spray three times.  However, I am not sure how long each lifecycle is so I don't know when I will have to spray again.  I will have to keep an eye out.

My other plan is to buy catnip or peppermint.  They don't like these plants and it helps keep them away if you place them next to your plants.  I have read different opinions about this, but I figured I would give it a try.

Other items of interest with these guys, they particularly like seedlings, young plants, organic waste and dead leaves.  So keep your pots clean and maybe use row covers on the young plants until they are mature.  Also, it helps to raise your containers up a few feet off the ground because they can't jump high enough to get to the plant.  

My other worry are my neighbors gardens.  I am hoping they haven't jumped their way over to their balconies.  I might have to warn them...    

Wednesday Inspiration: Brick wall

I mean brick wall literally not figuratively!  I don't have a brick wall on my roof, but a stucco wall that I regularly wonder what I can do to make it a green wall with out breaking HOA rules.  I am not sure how bamboo would do in an outdoor container and if it would ever get to this height.  Also, I have a tendency to kill bamboo inside, which I realize is absurd since I have a partial green thumb.  hmmm, I guess I need to some experimenting!

Rees Roberts and Partners, LLC

I Hate Aphids... HATE

Last week I decided to bust into my kale.  I didn't bust into it earlier because I was optimistically thinking the leaves would get bigger.   I know that being a container gardener the veggies will not get as big, but I was hoping for crazy success!  Anyway, I decided my lunch would be perfect with some sautéed kale.  I am washing my kale thinking about how I am going to season it when I stopped in disgust.  I have APHIDS!!!!!

I swore... A LOT!

I kept thinking about how my husband wouldn't touch the kale with a 10 foot pole if he knew there were little tiny bugs eating and breeding on my plant.  He hates bugs near his food because it grosses him out.  He didn't grow up with fresh veggies in his garden so he isn't accustomed to situations such as these so I am 100% sympathetic.

I head out to look at the damage.  I am also creeped out and disgusted by the infestation.  AND I am mad....  Mad at myself for not practicing what I preach regarding checking your plants every time you water them.  Mad at the lady bugs for not appearing to eat them.  Mad at the aphids existence.  Mad...  Okay, mostly mad at myself.

During my lunch I created my plan of action.  I have a jet stream function on my sprayer on the roof.  This means I will have to move the plant through the house, but I am going to have to risk it.  If you spray them off they are dumb enough that they can't figure out how to climb back on the plant.  Then if that isn't succeeding I will use my favorite organic pesticide.  The particular product I use contains neem oil which has a big risk of burning the leaves which means I could lose the leaves, but it won't kill the plant.

Here are pictures from the pre-water spraying.

Sad news...  I had to use the pesticide spray and my kale is a skeleton of its former self.  I am hoping it will leaf out again before it gets too hot, but I don't have a lot of faith.  

Lesson of the day, practice what I preach.  The plant would have been saved if I would have kept better eye on it.