Fortunately for this summer, gardening with polystyrene container has helped a lot in giving us harvest for kitchen supplies. We have one veggie patch (1metre wide X 7metre long) which is not suitable for growing almost anything during summer as it received sun whole during the day and the soil temperature must be more than 40 degree Celcius. We tried mulching it does not helped. But in winter this is the most happiest place for the plants to grow. So it is time to let that patch rest and let the polystyrene container do some talking or rambling. Our mini tropical garden; JAP pumpkin, cherry tomatoes, okra,bitter gourd, sweet potatoes, water spinach, ginger and others.
I was surprised to see watermelon seeds that I sowed less than 2 months ago have started to produce female flowers. I had trouble with watermelon seed germination this year as the weather were late to warm last spring.
Pak choi's family usually don't grow well here in Adelaide during mid-summer as we have really hot weather during the day. But Mei Qing F1 pak choi seems to be very heat tolerant.
Due to cool weather at night this summer, our okra's Clemson Spineless that grow so well last year is not growing healthily and growth are stunted. However, Okra Burgundy look promising as this can tolerate cooler weather from the information on the seed packet that I bought. Water spinach and okra grow well together.
Youngest batch of Green Gem Cucumber sowed in December has started to produce flowers.
May I know where can I get those polystyrene container?.
ReplyDeleteSowing, harvest...
ReplyDeleteand the cycle continues.
Hard work always brings happiness.
Diana I think you have the best container garden ever! Lovely containers, do you have to make holes underneath? Ive sown some of your coriander seeds but unfortunately none germinate. Must try again in a different medium.
ReplyDeleteYou have many vegetables growing in container! DO you mind sharing your knowledge in planting carrot? May be a post? i have bought a packet of the seeds. I think many other gardener shall find it useful too!
ReplyDeleteLove your poly containers and the idea of placing the wooden 'fence' for them to creep up to. Will use this idea of yours. Thank you! The corianders you sent me have already sprouted. But the red onions are not growing well. My neighbour (the one with the cats!) gave me some organic fertilizer that was highly recommended and 'for sure' your plant will boost in terms of growth, flowers and fruits! Well, let's just wait and see whether can this help the red onions! I have sowed the nastartium and komatsuna, waiting very impatiently for them to germinate! That's very good that your watermelon has female flowers, hopefully they will be pollinated and reward you with sweet, juicy melons. It would be heavenly to see watermelon growing in your own yard!
ReplyDeleteYou made your garden useful :-D You have roots, bulbs, stem/leaves vege... what have you not? haha... your passion in growing your own produce for your family amazes me! Kudos Diana ;-)
ReplyDeleteDo you make your own trellis? Looks so neat and nice. I made one ugly one last midnight for my japanese cucumber.
ReplyDeletep/s: Evening Sun Sunflowers are almost my height now and one is flowering!!
Everything looks wonderful, do you have good luck growing sweet potato? I've just started trying it out in my garden this year.
ReplyDeleteyou vegetable patch look so lushful.
ReplyDeleteLook so organised in those white containers.
I had once tried it planting in those foams but overtime they tend to disintergrate due to hot weather and rain. And I guess you can't really move it much around as they might tend to break.
Ow.. polystyrene container not suitable for hot weather?? oh no.. have to cancel my plan -_-..
ReplyDeleteIt's strange hearing you talk of it being too hot to grow things in the sun in summer - in winter our land is fairly bare until it is warm enough to grow anything!
ReplyDeleteYour container garden is very pretty and plants are all so healthy! I hope your watermelon flowers will produce some fruit. Our summers are not warm enough to grow watermelons.
ReplyDeleteGreat container garden! I'd lve to grow okra but it's never worked for me in Melbourne. Too cold perhaps...?
ReplyDeleteHafiz~ You can get it from Asian groceries or after Sunday market has closed before council cleaned up the market area.
ReplyDeleteRainfield61~ When the tummy is full with what you have grown, very bahagia feeling.
P3chandan~ If there is no hole, have to make hole. Maybe can compare notes with kitchen flavour as the coriander seeds that I posted to her germinated in a week. Coriander don't need very rich soil.
Malar~ I am still a beginner with carrots doing many trial on growing different variety of carrot to review which will be perfect to grow in certain season and soil. At the moment, I favor Red Kuroda and Topweight variety to grow during warm season. They have good germination during this time whereas other variety that I have grown before will be difficult to germinate when the temperature is so hot. Topweight are strong enough to penerate clay soil and can grow in partial area which is perfect for me. Another advantage of growing Topweight is they grow much faster than others that I have tested in our patch. I noticed that red Kuroda usually have fast germination compare with other variety that I have grown. I will think about doing a post about carrot Malar in the future. Don't worry even if you have clay soil carrot can still grow on it.
Kitchen flavour~ wah your neighbour very generous. I wonder which of the seeds will pop out first.
Stephanie~ I guess I am too paranoid of vegetables in the supermarket on how much pesticides have been sprayed on to it.
Milka~ I have home-made ugly trellis too in the garden (Note: photo 2, only cucumber leaves can be seen I edited the photo so the ugly trellis won't show)LOL. The white trellis in the pictures are the one I collected from sampah orang during council hard-waste collection week. We went driving in the night to see whether there are anything we can collect for the garden like unwanted pots and trellis.
Kat~ This is my first time too growing sweet potatoes. We grow them on ground and pots from tubers and shoots. Hopefully both of us have good luck with sweet potatoes.
James~ Just have to be careful holding the bottom gently and moving it around will be fine. They are much more lighter to carry than wood containers. I think for annual plant should be fine. But not for perennial.
CathJ~ Polystyrene container works well in hot weather. Don't worry;-). You can have fun painting them too.
Sue~It does sound strange isn't it. But we have extreme hot weather and very little water for the plants (water restriction too). We have so many heartache in summer where you see the plants scorched and died. If the plant received only morning sun it will be fine but exposed whole day it will barely survived. On the other hand, we can still grow many things in winter because we don't have snow and frost are rare. We can focus on growing alliums, root vegetables and some brassicas during winter.
vrtlarica ana~ I hope this year we have some watermelon. But it will be tricky to grow them as we don't have much water for their needs.
You proven that if you are persistent enough, you can grow in anything! I hope you get some watermelon....that would be tasty.
ReplyDeleteI will keep checking back to see how your leeks progress. I have great respect for whomever can grow those! I love leek soup.
Cm tanam pokok timun dalam bekas polystyrene yg Cm kutip kat pasar tempohari.Alhamdulillah mula tumbuh dengan bergayanya :)
ReplyDeleteEverything looks great, I can't wait to see your okra. We have been thinking about trying to grow it again this year. We had good luck with it one year but not the next so we kind of gave up on it for a while. That Burgundy Okra variety sounds pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice, to see, so much green vegetable in your garden.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Bok~ Maybe the summer in Melbourne is much milder than Adelaide. We did have a so-so Okra harvest previous summer because the weather was hot during the day and night as well. But this year we have cold night so it is a bit difficult to initiate fruiting for this okra. So far we only harvested about 10 okras.
ReplyDeleteRosey~ Our leek growing in the patch now is the one that has grown from winter. We need to wait for autumn to sow new seedlings.
Cikmanggis~ Nanti post perkembangannya;-).
Mr. H~We harvested some okra from the ones grown from home-saved seeds 'Clemson Spineless' not yet any from 'Burgundy" since this batch were sown in December. Waiting patiently for it to flower even though we spied some buds.
Ellada~All the snow white will be green again soon at your place.
Love reading about all the wonderful things you are managing to grow in containers. Especially watermelon and cucumber, always thought they needed lot of space. I think my next project will be a movable container garden so I can chase the sun :) Thanks for all the inspiration. Btw, is that a new header? Very colourful.
ReplyDelete