12-29-2012 Update

Did some more planting and now have 30 flower pots going.  My home faces the south and my backyard is fully shaded.  So this is what the front entrance of my home looks like.


In the top pot is a cherry tomato plant and 6 onions from a set.  The bottom pot is a patio hybrid bought from a Home Depot.  This one came in a biodegradable pot.  You are supposed to be able to plant the pot and everything but I have better luck taking them out of the pot.  The two terracotta pots have sweet onions also bought from Home Depot.  There is also a few pots to fill.


This is the other side of the entryway.  The 17 gallon tub has a bunch of sweet onions in it.


This is a close up of the main cluster of pots.  On the top in the big blue pot is a green bell pepper.  In the small lime green is an onion from the set.  Next to it in the olive green pot is garlic and onions from the set.  On the bottom row right hand side is picklebush cucumbers.  Small blue is an onion, lime green has a cherry tomato.  In the blue is another onion and behind it is dill.  The lime green has orange mint.  The small one below it has another onion then a sweet basil and parsley.


What I have done here will probably be considered sacrilege among the Weber grill enthusiast.  I used two old Weber Smokey Joe grills as planters.  In the top grill/planter is hot oregano, cilantro, and chives.  Strawberries are in the other one.

Cold weather and potting seedlings

One nice thing about a container garden is if it gets too cold you can move it indoors.  The only bad part is moving it.  I don't have much growing yet but moved in some of my pots inside when it got down to 39º.


The big pot in the back is a cherry tomato and several sweet onions planted from a set.  Next to it in the light green is another cherry tomato.  Up front in the dark green is picklebush cucumbers.  Blue and silver is sweet onion.

Potting seedlings
 
I was not expecting every seed planted was going to survive.  Now I have a couple leftover cherry tomato seedlings and a Roma tomato need to be moved to pots.


Planting the seedlings in the Grodan rockwool blocks is super easy.  When roots start coming out the sides of the rockwool it is time to go into the dirt, hydroponic or aquaponic system.  Put a thin layer of rocks in the bottom. Then fill up the pot with dirt then place the cube on the dirt.


Make sure the tomatoes are in deep so when you backfill with dirt only a little bit of the stem is visible. I place a thin layer of mulch on top as well.

Container garden

With all the problems between code enforcement and the raised garden I have decided to go back to container gardening.  I already have a good collection of pots so I went through them.  The cheap thin plastic ones have dry rotted in the Florida sun.  Those will be discarded.  Some of the 'self watering' pots are still good and will be used.  The fiberglass pots have all lost there color and the terracotta have mildew on them.  So after washing them all they all received a coat of paint.


Different shades of green were used with some blue just for fun.  Rustoleum paints were used.  One pot with heavy was even painted with 'hammered' paint.  Still have a strawberry pot to clean and paint but for the most part everything is done.


Going forward terracotta pots will be bought.  Those will last for ever unless dropped.  The plastic ones will always look cheap and don't last in the Florida sun.  Fiberglass while it looks nice and sometimes fancy lasts longer than plastic but will fall victim to the sun as well.

Change of garden

So since the City of Cape Coral shut me down I have taken my operation inside.  Having tried hydroponics I feel it is time to start with aquaponics.  So I will be gardening inside over at J6P-Aquaponics.  My internet alter-ego is Joe 6 Pack and the site will be my old hydroponics site now repurposed to aquaponics.  Aquaponics is similar to hydroponics as the plants are not grown in dirt.  But unlike hydroponics we do not use chemicals for the plants nutrients.  We use the fish waste as the nutrients.  By filtering the fishes waste through the plants grow bed we clean the water for the fish.  Other than adding water and feeding the fish we have no need for chemicals.  Check it out.

Thanks

Code enforcement shut me down

So I have not updated in several months but I have been gardening.  That was until last month.  It seems the City of Cape Coral - Code Enforcement division thinks the raised bed garden is an outdoor structure.  They gave me 3 days notice to take it down or face being fined.  That is not even enough time to plead my case to the city council.  So torn apart it was.  I have lived in the City of Cape Coral since 1982 and the city government has always treated the citizens terribly.  Cape Coral is a beautiful city but I would not recommend anyone move here.  So sorry but this blog is on hold til I find a way to garden that satisfies our ridiculous city codes. 

Work got in the way.

My apologies to those that follow this blog.  I have not gotten to do anything with the garden since November.  An unbelievably busy tourist season here in Florida has taken most of my time the past few months.   A lot of growing time has been lost.  The nice thing about Florida is you can grow year round.  But since I have vacation time this week I can once again work on this.  Hopefully in the next couple days I can fill this thing with topsoil and plants.  In the meantime you can check on some of my indoor gardening.  Some of the plants I will be putting in the planter will have come from this.