Monday, April 11, 2011

Fall Container Gardening clean up time

It is really difficult to decide which container has to be clear up now as everything look so messy. There are several containers that warm season plants were not producing much or dying. Now making way for new plants. I have replenish the soil with some manure. For deep containers I have direct-sowed cool season root vegetable seeds and shallow container with Asian greens.
This area which I grow vegetables in containers have been totally taken over by sweet potatoes vines that were actually planted in one container. The sweet potato plants are choking leeks, bush bean and capsicum. But sweet potato foliage made a good ground cover during summer to retain the soil moisture for other plants to survive extreme weather for them. Not sure whether it is the right time to start harvest sweet potatoes or not. Sweet potatoes nodes have already grown some roots in other plant containers. I was thinking of harvesting sweet potatoes from the main plant pots maybe end of this month or early next month depending on the weather. Then tidy up some of the foliage and left some of the new-rooted nodes from the sweet potato vein in other containers. Some of the beans on the plant are left to dry to collect seeds from it. I did not intend to collect any bush bean seeds initially but I accidently left some too mature as I cannot see it amidst those sweet potato vines. The JAP pumpkin that were experimentally plant in container have to make a long walk to grow around the container area and it has grown more than 7 metres. So far, we are only confidant on getting one harvest from this plant. Not about to give up hope yet waiting for some more please.


A chili plant that is fruiting sharing a pot with ginger and spring onions. I hope we get lucky with the chili plant harvesting some chili through winter as I have position it near the brick wall that will absorb some heat. Waiting for Bayam (Chinese Spinach/ Leaf Amaranth) to complete it life cycle and I can harvest some seeds for it. It does make the area less boring with their red flowers. Two jicama plants which is getting entangle with bayam.
Okra burgundy plants does not look green and healthy but they still produce some pods.  They were under attack by aphids at one stage but I have been collecting lady bird or grasshopper and made them live on these okra plants. Aphids disapeared few weeks later. We have trained jicama plants on okra plants.

18 comments:

~TastyTravels~ said...

I love how successful your container gardening has been. That pic with the pumpkin is adorable!

cikmanggis said...

terkenang....my container gardening gagal sama sekali:( .Insyallah akan cuba lagi nanti.

CathJ said...

messy but I love to see it here.. :D

Kelli said...

Looks very healthy, nice variety of plants, thanks for sharing, quite inspirational!

Anonymous said...

Its amazing what you are growing in containers.

rainfield61 said...

Messy, but fruitful.

Malar said...

The sweet potato vines are overflowing! I have no luck with pumpkin. Hope the pumpkin grew big for you to harvest!
Many varieties of summer plants! Hwo is the temperature like now?

Pam's English Garden said...

Dear Malay-Kadazan girl, Your container garden is growing very luxuriantly. You are an inspiration. P x

Patricia said...

I love reading your blog...you are preparing for winter gardening and I am preparing for the summer!! I have never tried sweet potatoes. I will have to keep that in mind.

One said...

Pumpkins can become heavy. I wonder, how it manages to stay up there. But it sure looks cute. Imagine having a few orange pumpkins hanging in the air. How nice. Vines can become impossible. I've pruned my passion fruit vine. I removed my kangkung a few months ago as it climbed up the willow tree.

Stephanie said...

I like your trick of getting ladybird and grasshoppers to get rid of aphid. So logical and cool thing to do ;-)

miruku said...

I see your pumpkin hanging so nicely up there. I let mine crawling on the ground everywhere and it is not as happy as yours, no fruit :(

Hughbert said...

Shame about the pumpkins this season... last year I had lots, this year only a few, and some of them have been damaged by the wet :-( I suppose it's the price we pay for having good apples and stone fruit...

Sue Garrett said...

That pumpkin has lovely leaves

littlekarstar said...

You have such a productive garden! We have very little space that actually has any sunshine and I think I'm going to get inspired by you and start growing in containers in the small space that actually gets sunlight!
I'm like you, I move good bugs about my garden :D I've been moving preying mantis about. Sadly no ladybirds live here that I've seen...

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Holly~ We only had just a few containers initially when we started growing veggies in containers. Suddenly from last spring the number of container have quadruplet???

Cikmanggis ~ Jangan putus asa! Cuba tanaman lain pula tengok mana sesuai. Container ni yang kena hati-hati jangan terlampau basah tanah sangat pun sayur-sayuran tak berapa gemar.

CathJ, Why I garden, Elsie May, Rainfield61~ Thank you.

Malar~ The temperature keep on changing this month. During the day average about mid-20 and night fiftheenish degree Celcius?

Pam~ I was kind of nervous when I started my container gardening last Spring but happy now that at the end some of it work out well.

Patricia~ I hope you give potato or sweet potato a go this summer.

One~ I guess the trellis if giving some support for the pumpkin to lean on.

Stephanie~ What I do without the help from ladybird. They have done their job very well that many of our okras and capsicum were saved.

Milka~ I don't know why it chose to fruit there up on the trellis. Had several grown big as ping pong ball but gone yellow and rotten.

Hughbert~ I only had one this year and look like this year one too:(. Any tips growing them here in Adelaide?

Sue~It is interesting that pumpkin foliage sometime can be very different from other variety.

Mrs Bok~Oh we don't have many praying mantis but a decent number of ladybirds. But grasshopper number were much more than last year.

shaz said...

You have such a great variety of green things growing. Very well done. I managed to harvest 3 golden nugget pumpkins this season. I didn't realise I needed to hand pollinate them until it was too late, so I only managed to get 3 :) I must try to grow some bayam, it looks so pretty.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Shaz~ Our golden nugget pumpkin seedlings were attacked by the birds several time. None of them survived. Congratulation on your harvest!