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my happy little combination container/ground garden
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Posted by
dbfirewife (
My Page) on
Mon, Jun 3, 13 at 20:24
| I posted earlier in the season asking advice on growing tomatoes in containers. Due to having surgery I could not prepare the ground like I wanted. This is in a flower bed that I took a huge shrub out of, sprayed the stump with round up. I planted 5 tomatoes in Lowe's buckets with Miracle Grow potting soil. Actually, the 11 year old granddaughter planted them for me, she helped put the soil in the buckets then planted the plants by herself after me telling her how. I left them on the deck for about a month so I could water them easier, with a pitcher and water from my water garden. I had my husband set them out in this flower bed for me.. then I got to worrying I did not have enough plants so I stuck two in the ground in between two of the buckets. Then just for fun I stuck two cucumber plants in between two other buckets... then just for more fun planted two bush green bean plants. This little garden seems to be very happy..... the tomatoes are growing leaps and bounds, blooming and producing tomatoes like crazy. Either this fall or next spring I intend to have some raised beds built, but for this summer it seems to be working... |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| I could not figure out how to get both pictures in the original post. It's hard to see exactly how many tomatoes are on the plants, they are under all the leaves and most are in groups of 5. |
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| Wow! Your tomatoes look great! Do you fertilize them? How often do you water? |
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| db, I'd like to know the answer to fireduck's question as well. Your plants look incredibly healthy and robust in their containers. Gary |
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| I planted them in Miracle Grow potting soil. I believe I planted them around the 3rd week in April. Just last week I gave them some more fertilizer. I used Vigoro Tomato and Vegetable fertilizer with Calcium. It's in a smaller size pouch and is granular. The plants in the ground have not been planted that long and they are not looking as good, not producing many blooms either. I knew that the dirt in that area was not the best quality and needed work is why I did not plant all of them in the ground, surgery really limited me....As for watering, it's sporadic. I live in Oklahoma around the area where all the tornado's have been. We have had a lot of rain and cool weather. I just dig in the soil a little and if they are dry, I water. Once this rainy weather clears up and the heat is on I am sure it will take more then I've been giving them. There are several drain holes drilled in the bottom outside edges of the buckets. I wanted to be able to see the water drain out, so I would know I wasn't drowning them and thought it would run out more freely with the holes drilled into the sides of the buckets rather then the bottom. In this area of the yard they do not get full sunlight. They get it from about mid morning till 6pm maybe. As you can probably see in the pictures I did not cage them, even tho they are determinate's they still need a little support so I tore old sheets into strips and fasten the strips to the fence, that's handy. The plants in the ground are Interminate's. I am thinking the fence might come in handy in mid summer it the sun is too brutal, I can fasten some cheese cloth to shade them with. I do not have one single secret to share, these are truly just an experiment..... I could not stand to go without fresh tomatoes this summer and did a lot of research on growing them in containers. Some people have great luck with them, some do not. Thought I didn't have much to lose by trying and it seems to be working.... |
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| Nice! What varieties do you have there? They look similar to my Husky Cherry plants...deep green and sturdy with tidy-looking leaves. |
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| The middle bucket has a celebrity, the two buckets left of that are just called "patio tomatoes", the two other buckets are called Better Bush maybe?... I will look at the tags next time I go out to make sure. The Better Bush are by far the best producers so far. The celebrity has a ton of blooms and a few small tomatoes so far. The Patio's have a ton of blooms and a lot of small tomatoes. The ones in the ground are Better Boy's and so far they are not doing as good. Hopefully the new round of fertilizer will prod them on.....They are very sturdy plants and such a deep green color. The green bean plants are still pretty small but they are producing green beans. The cucumbers have not bloomed yet and seem to be slow growing, could be because they are somewhat in the shady part, in between the buckets maybe....but it is what it is.. lol and still fun. I can see a lot of fresh tomatoes and salsa in my future |
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| that one in the corner looks smaller. mayber b/c of less sun? |
RE: my happy little combination container/ground garden
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| RB.. the one in the corner is a different variety, it's a Celebrity...It was also smaller then the other's when I bought it... and actually the two biggest ones get less sun then all the others. |
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