Category Archives: Container Gardening

Urban Gardening, Container Gardens, Container Gardening, Growing Vegetables in Containers, Gardening Tips

LoMo’s South Philly High Orchard Project

Posted on December 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

POD signed up for RecycleBank ages ago. It seemed like a great idea: earn rewards for something you’d do anyway! Like recycling! Win! Woo!

The catch, of course, is that said “rewards” usually involve spending money on things one wouldn’t really spend money on anyway: think $10 gift cards to Walmart, coupons for Fancy Feast, BOGO deals on Coke…you get the picture.

And so, POD’s Recyclebank balance balloons. Until recently, that is! Help the LoMo Civic Association out by donating points to their South Philly High Orchard Project. Now that sounds like a win to POD.

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Field Work

Posted on November 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

So, the Hurricane’s been reading all about caterpillars these days — both very hungry ones and ten little ones. Surely this gardener is scarring her daughter for life, but about half the time (which is to say, at least six times a day) the Very Hungry Caterpillar meets a squishing death and five of the Ten Little Caterpillars  never manage to turn into a beautiful butterflies (drowning, asphyxiation, bird snack, chicken chow, and fish food, respectively.)

Got a problem with that?

Those of us here at Plants on Deck feel it’s important to apply all that theory into real-world experience. And so, to that end, a certain hurricane put an end to the loopers devouring the last of POD’s chard.

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Rabbit Food

Posted on November 10, 2011 | 1 Comment

By the time November rolls around, the deck’s greenery is largely tucked away for a long winter’s nap. Despite lofty cool-weather intentions, increasingly (and depressingly) shorter days and a north-facing, shade-plagued exposure, puts quite the damper on gardening pleasures.

Hours in the day have been shrinking since early June (despite 4 a.m. tornado-siren wake-ups from a certain little hurricane), and what plants are on deck have been utterly and entirely neglected since their September 18 seeding.

So it’s a happy surprise that tonight’s dinner consists of a nice green salad, peppered with happy little radishes.

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September Progress

Posted on September 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

September rebootThe Little Hurricane has recently been redubbed Typhoid C.  You see, yesterday marked the one-month anniversary of our shared illnesses. That’s 30-odd days of hacking coughs, multi-colored mucus, razor-studded throats, viscous vomit, and booger crusts. Not to mention shared a  fever of 103. Yeah, yeah: hot-blooded. Got it. Still no fun.

What does a toddler’s discharge have to do with the health and well-being of the little blue deck? Everything, it seems. It’s like the deck doesn’t exist, let alone the computer upon which the deck is rendered public. All that matters is saline solution, honey, vomit dodging, and sleeping. This morning, though, despite a shocking lack of sleep and an abundance of the aforementioned symptoms, the deck’s disarray was too much for this sniffling gardener to handle. So while little Ms. Typhoid and her similarly afflicted father departed for the store and the playground, the deck got some half-assed love.

The final tomatoes were plucked and sad, tired plants were bagged. A smattering of cucumber beetles got smushed, just for the heck of it, and the C. Borealis (AKA french orange hybrid melon) upon which they were feasting gave up its last fruit.

September rebootWhat containers remain have been haphazardly scatter-seeded with lettuce, winter cress (AKA creasy creens courtesy of Bartram’s Garden), radishes, kale, and kohlrabi (courtesy of Startin Yer Garten).

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Posted in Container Gardening, Melons & Cucumbers, Tomatoes

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A Final Accounting

Posted on September 13, 2011 | 2 Comments

saucy tomatoesIt’s been a good year, and despite the late-season arrival of whiteflies, earthquakes, hurricanes (we’re not talking about the toddler variety, here, but rather the other, even more devastating type), floods, and mildews, Plants on Deck endured. And endured well, actually.

It shames this gardener to admit it, but nearly a dozen White Wonder cucumbers got composted after slowing deflating in the crisper into a gushy goo and a half dozen others are still withering away in the office fridge (come on, colleagues, eat up!). Over 40 cucumbers, all told, were harvested from a single vine. And, despite early reports of a dry, squashy texture and flavor, later-season fruits weren’t too bad.

And it was with great delight that over 15 pounds of tomatoes were plucked. Fret not, none of those went to waste. They weren’t the prettiest girls at the party (as you can see above), but we’re firm believers here at POD that it’s what’s under the pock-marked skin that matters. And these particular ladies were pretty dreamy in this simple, no-frills sauce.

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Posted in Container Gardening, Dinner's On, Tomatoes

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Soil Saga

Posted on September 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

refundAlthough POD lost some tomatoes and a bunch of beans to a batch of faulty soil, a nice little refund check hit the coffers not too long ago. And so ends the saga of the soil.

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August Progress

Posted on August 19, 2011 | 2 Comments

As you can see (to the left), the soil-afflicted Tomande and the Sweetheart of the Patio have bit the dust. One of the two Gold Nuggets became a feast for the white flies,  leaving one heat- and storm-battered Tomande and the Patio Princess and remaining Gold Nugget valiantly fighting off white fly attacks of their own. Next year, come July, white fly traps really have to make an appearance to help out the beleaguered and overwhelmed marigolds.

Still, you’ll hear no complaints here. This has been a great summer for POD and with any luck, those vacated pots will be seeded with peas, chard and lettuce before the weekend is out.

The cucumbers are still pouring in — at last count: Spacemaster: 14, Adam F1: 13 (RIP), White Wonder: 32. That’s not a typo, people. Nearly nine pounds of tomatoes and counting!  Not to mention 20 adorable (and strangely hot) little poblanos, gobs of basil, herbs, chard, and two delightful C. Borealis melons.

Squirrels? They suck, but they’ve sucked much less this year than usual. See that tomato on the railing (squint, you’ll see it, top right)? You’d think the least the greedy SOB could do is finish the thing.

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It Disappeared!

Posted on August 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

The super handy seed-starting guide disappeared from the Penn State Cooperative Extension’s much prettier (but much less useful, for POD, at least) website. Oh no!

Fortunately or not, things never really die online, they just require a little more dedicated Googling. A little gift from POD to the gardeners of Philadelphia:

SEED CHART (All plants are from seeds unless noted)

Mid-March to Mid-April: Peas, Onions, Leeks, Garlic, White Potatoes, Turnips, Cabbage, Greens, (Collard, Kale, Mustard)

Late March to Mid-May: Lettuce**, Radishes**, Beets**, Carrots**

Late March to late April: Shallots, Spinach**, Bok choy, Parsley (Plants: Leeks, Onions, Cabbage, Broccoli, Greens)

Early April to mid-June: Swiss chard, beets

Mid April to mid-May: Celery

Early May to mid-June: Watermelons, Melons, Winter squash, Summer squash, Cucumbers, Pumpkins (Plants: Sweet Potato)

Mid May to late June: Okra, Chinese cabbage, Corn, Peanuts, Lima beans

Mid May to mid-July: Beans (bush, pole, shell, dried)**

Mid May to late June: Black eyed peas (Plants: Eggplant, Peppers, Basil, Tomato)

Mid June to early July: Collards, Cabbage family, Celery

Early July to mid-August: Carrots, Beets, Swiss chard, (Plants: Cabbage, Broccoli, Greens)

Mid July to September: Radish**, Spinach**

Early August to September: Salad greens**, Greens (Mustard, etc.), Peas

Early September to early October: Garlic (For spring harvest)

** To extend harvest, plant every two weeks.

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Oh, August. Oh, Melon.

Posted on August 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

Hello, C. Borealis (AKA French Orange Hybrid Melon).

C. Borealis, Ornage French Hybrid MelonHello, delicious.

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Posted in Container Gardening, Melons & Cucumbers

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Mistake

Posted on August 9, 2011 | 3 Comments

Staking tomatoes is a pain (it seems like every time a new tether gets added, a branch gets knocked off, fruit tumbles to its death, wind gets tomande tomato, stakedmisjudged, stakes lean like Pisa, and curses fly)  and cages take up a lot of space. So one of the attractions to planting hybrids designed for small spaces was the notion that not all plants would need to be staked or caged.

Like, for instance, the “petite” Patio Princess Hybrid and the supposedly 18″ Tomande. In POD’s case, evidently, we’re talking a well-endowed plus-size petite and a 36-inch 18″er… Both of which toppled over one recent gusty day.

patio princess unstaked, plants on deckAs caging tomatoes after they’ve hit maturity is pretty much like telling a rabidly teething one-year-old that she doesn’t really want to chew on that piece of grubby-feet-spiced rubberized mulch from the playground’s “ground,” your best bet is to cage or stage every damn tomato the minute they hit the ground in May or June.

So noted.

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Posted in Container Gardening, Tomatoes

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