Early June Garden and Container Update

Container Garden going well.  Plants were treated yesterday to a couple of 8 oz cups of my compost tea to the soil.  First time ever doing this, so lets see what happens!  Will be treating them about every week or so this way.

Plants are in various containers using a combination of organic potting soil, peat moss, organic fertilizer, and compost.  No plant has the same exact combination of medium.  So there are no real controls of my compost tea experiment on them.  As I  always say, there are so many variables in gardening:  soil, weather, seeds, insects, watering, etc. you cannot possibly say that any experiment is the real word on any treatment given to plants.  Just go with whatever comes and if you get some food from it.....that's really the point, isn't it?

Early Pepper.  Wish I knew the variety...but in the process of hardening off and replanting many of my vegetables, I lost the stick that had the variety on it.  Ha!  Lot's of surprises coming this summer!

Early first tomato.  Again, don't know the variety.  Will have to wait and see.

Containers are mobile which is a great reason to use them when your sunlight seems to move away from the plants during the day.  You can move the plants back into the sun, or move them out of the bad weather and against the house to protect them somewhat from the wind.  There are plusses and minuses with container gardening. 

Mint, Chocolate Mint and Basil.  

Some late plantings....just because I wanted to.

Carrots, a sunflower, and watermelon seeds.

 Potato Update.

Growing well and had to add more soil to the top of the bucket to keep any potatoes growing at the top of the soil under the soil and away from sunlight.  I will keep adding soil as the plants grow because the potatoes form along the root system close to the top of the soil.    I have protected the plants from the digging squirrels with the chicken wire, but I don't know how much longer this is going to work with the growing plants. 

Strawberries coming along.  I have had a few already and there are more on this plant ready to eat.  This is the first year I am able to actually eat the fruit because the squirrel and birds always got to them first.  Hooray for chicken wire!

Beans in pots.  First year doing this.  I have been adding compost tea and granular organic fertilizer because they are growing in a small container and are using up any nutrients quickly in there. 

Making Compost Tea

 

My You Tube Video on how I made Compost Tea for the very first time!

Equipment Used to make Compost Tea

holes drilled into side of bucket to put the airline tubes through

Knee high stocking used to hold the compost.  1" bubblers placed inside of stocking.  Add 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of Molasses to water so the bacteria has something to eat.

5 inch bubblers attached to air tubing using a valve connector

Aerating compost making beneficial bacteria.  Compost Tea done after 24 hours of running air pump and bubblers.  Tea must be used immediately on plants.  Compost Tea when finished smells earthy and sweet.  It should not smell bad, if it does, it was not made correctly and should not be put on plants.

Keep air pump up and away from bucket and the lid on the bucket to keep animals and pets out!

Garden Fertilizer Experiment

Garden Experiment 2013

My bush bean garden experiment this year is to treat different parts of my garden with different fertilizers and see what happens.  There are so many different variables in gardening that nothing is done in a perfect controlled environment, so this experiment is really just for fun.  So let's see what happens as the summer goes on.

Splitting my garden in thirds....


The left third of my garden plants were treated with my organic compost.  I placed a couple large handfuls of compost from my compost pile around the base of each plant.  

Garden was watered before and after the placement of all fertilizers.

The middle third of the garden was treated with organic granular vegetable food 
around the base of each  plant.  


 

Fish Fertilizer applied to right third of garden according to directions on package.