Hi Nicole, the pollinators are quite numerous. I see honey bees, bumble bees and few mason bees. Ton of wasps, not to mention those hover flies. Here is a bumble bee visiting one of the male flowers.
Second pix there are other flowers in the garden to attract those pollinators. Problem is the female flowers were self-aborted very early, when they were small, and not mature enough to be hand pollinated.
1. Calabar Balsamic spinach ready for harvest.
2 & 3 Balsamic spinach dish served along with talapia on rice.
Ooops, editted for typing errors.
This message was edited Jul 23, 2013 4:59 PM
I have an entire pot garden getto on my sunny driveway where I grow heat lovers. I have cantalope. okra, eggplants and lots of zucchini and squash.
Those look great Rita. I'd a few Clemson spineless okra in the mix with my veggies dish tonight. How big will Clemson spineless okra get to be before they become tough, if you've grown them?
Last year, our community garden in the neighborhood grew a type of okra that were tall, and large. The okras were quite large and still were tender. I wished I knew what they were.
The first pic. is my 'Clemson spineless' in container. The 2 last pics. are those of the small 'community garden' in our neighborhood. Their tomatoes look really battered by rain this year.
Sorry, I don't really know anything about okra. I never grew it before. I have a mini okra especially for a pot I bought from Burpee. So far no flowers yet although I do see buds forming.
Nice little community garden, Lily - even in the rain. It's broiling here and everything is wilting. I pulled the last of the onions in pots yesterday. Another 100° day today with the heat index. I did a little watering but it's too hot to be out much. Tough on the containers and difficult to keep some things watered. It's this time of year that I always vow to quit container gardening. ;-) I didn't get out to take any pictures.
Like your driveway ghetto garden, Rita. :)
As hot and humid here also but I am out there every day no matter what watering my pots of veggies. Not about to let them get stressed. That driveway veggie garden pot getto has my heat lovers. So as long as they have plenty of water they are plenty happy out there.
I'm glad you can do that. Not everyone can. :)
True. I am always home. The pot getto wouldn't work well for anyone that needs to be away during the day.
Rita - how large are the pots in your garden ghetto? I have a level area in front of the garage that gets all-day sun.
Vaious sizes. From 15 inch to 20 inch. I have four 20 inch pots and my eggplants are in 15 inch pots. Summer Squash mostly in 17 1/2 inch pots. Next year I am bumping up all my eggpplants into the 17 1/2 inch pots. I have melons in 20 inch pots now and working well so will be doing more pots of melons of more varieties next year. The compact varieties of squash are good in the 17 1/2 inch pots but the bigger squash plants such as Cavilli really should be in a bigger pot than that 17 1/2 inch pot.
Plus you need to be a person that stays home mostly so that you can water every day. You can not grow veggies by letting them get bone dry. I figgure the squash would die and the eggplants would be bitter and not edible.
But for me, it is all working out really well.
I agreed with Rita about the need of keeping the container grown plants well watered. Especially those smaller containers. I've found that 5 gallons and larger containers can sustain the heat pretty well. My one-gallons specimens get dried out pretty quick if not being monitored closely.
We just had another soaking rain; this time of year. The garden is really benefiting from all these moisture. I'm very pleased to find out my vines are growing at such a fast pace. In 3 weeks time, and the vines are topping my arbor and trellis. And my 'Clemson spineless' okras, a few of them that I've planted are ready to be picked.
Rita - I'm home most of the time, so watering early morning and/or late evening is not a problem. I have a rain barrel sitting outside the garage door, so I wouldn't have to carry water very far.
Thanks for the info. Sounds as though the 20 inch pots would be a good size. I'll try to find some that are attractive seeing as they will be seen from the road out front of the house.
Sounds like a veggie pot getto would work well for you. My heat lovers just thrive. Cauliflower cooked but Summer Squash and Egglants love it.
Rita = I'm thinking vining plants would not only do well, they could shade the area and help keep that end of the house a little cooler.
Yes, the cantalopes love it also. Setting more fruit than I have ever seen before.
Sounds wonderful. We just had another rain overnight. That's 7 or 8 inches already in July. And cooler temps. Unusual for July and August. Things are growing well and I haven't had to water much. Yay!
Rita = Yes, I was thinking melons would do well in the area I'm thinking of. They would be resting on concrete, instead of soil.
If I get really ambitious, I could erect some kind of trellis against
the south wall, and they could climb up the side of the house.
Cville_Gardener = it's been cool enough here that we have not needed to turn on our air conditioner. A far cry from the
triple-digits we experienced last summer.
Wow, no AC. That's great, Honeybee. We have had to use ours, sometimes just to dehumidify the house though. Yes, those triple-digits last year were killer. I hope August continues this way.
The driveway pot getto this morning. Mostly summer squashes and eggplant with a pot of melons and some okra. Last picture my spagetti squash. At least in my limited experience these veggies do very well on pots.
Look at your containers garden! Everything is looking great. The spaghetti squash looks to be about ready to pick? Awwww!
That is what my neightbor told me this morning, that the spagetti squash is ready. I am not sure. I have noticed that it turned from green to yellow but not sure how yellow it should get before picking.
Rita - I just had a thought...
We have deer that wander all through our neighborhood. Now I'm wondering if they would eat anything I grew in the driveway.
Is your veggie garden fenced and they can't get in there? Deer do like to eat some veggies from what I understand. But there are no deer here so I only know what I read about deer in other peoples gardens.
Rita - the back yard garden is fenced and the deer have never jumped in.
The front yard is very open, so I'm wondering if deer would eat any potted vegetables I might set out in front of the garage. They definitely like to eat my neighbors' grass across the street because I see them there frequently. A herd of seven a few weeks back.
Oh oh. That doesn't sound good!
So what's today? July 27th. I planted my fall crop of peas today just now. No where near as many peas as I did in the spring but it will be plenty. I only planted the Sugar Lace II snap peas although I did have plenty of pea seed varieties to choose from. Will just be planting more varieties in the spring, these are enough for now.
This spring I had 10 pots of peas, some of them snaps and some snow. But I have reused some of those (especially the bigger) pots for summer veggies so had 5 pots at the ready. In my garage I do have more pots but I decided that 5 pots of fall peas will be plenty.
I have deer, too. Why they don't hop a 3' fence and raid my garden, I don't know. Perhaps there are easier pickings elsewhere, and perhaps the dog doing her business in the yard and even the smell of the two indoor cats who get a supervised walk outside from time to time is also helpful.
Oh my! Deers isn't a problem here (I'd love to see some however), though we've other critters that could potentially be a problem to the veggies garden. We've rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, luckily we've quite a few fruits trees around such as crape apples, pears which they prefer at this time of year. Thanks goodness. Wow, Fall planting apparently is underway ladies? I don't like it to acknowledge summer is almost over. :((
One thing, I'm glad we've bees and other insects that help pollinate the garden. Last night after sunset, I went out in the garden and was taken by surprise how the night is full of activity out there, moths of various sizes (no SVB moth seen--thanks goodness) and spiders all were active.
1. My very 1st cantaloupe-to be. ^_^
2. Various herbs and ornamentals combo and 'loco' pepper, those that look like Christmas lighting.
This message was edited Jul 27, 2013 6:34 PM
Beautiful, especially with the water in the backround.
Thanks Rita for the compliment. Here is an update, the containers culture progression. Remember the trillis I started out with, back on 1st week of July? Here 3 weeks later. That trellis is supporting 3 vines and some pot fillers ornamental. 1 of the 3 vines is Luffa and it's producing fruits.
Thus far bugs isn't a big problem (yet), I've found a handful of spotted and stripped cucumber beetles in the garden which I try to hand pick them. I noticed those stripped cucumber beetles seem to NOT only enjoying the veggies' pollens, but they ALSO chew on the petals. I learned that they are vectors of bacterial wilt diseases? Bad, bad bugs!
Yes, Lily, I concur. Cucumber beetles are bad bugs!
They gave my cucumbers a wilt disease a couple of years ago. I decided I could live without growing cucumbers!
Other bad beetles are: Japanese beetles and Mexican bean beetles.
Yes. kill all spotted and striped cucumber beetles and also all striped colorado potato beetles you find.
Hah, I'll need to do some research on those various beetles such as the colorado patato beetles, and the Mexican bean beetles you have mentioned. HoneybeeNC, Japanese beetles are bad news. Luckily milkyspore treatment has been a big help. Plus, un-informed neighbors who put up JB traps in the their gardens, helped lured all the bugs all around to their yards. I've to admit, I've made that same mistake years ago. Experience is BEST teacher sometime. Japanese beetles usually emerge from the ground in 3rd week of May around here. They're so distasteful that fish won't even eat them when I drop 'em into the water. lol
For the past few years, their number has been declined here. But, let me tell you, we've a new type of nuisant bugs to be dealt with. The kudzu bugs. Yike!
Cavilli (light green) and Elite zucchini from my container garden. I really like this growing of squash and zucchini on containers. What with the battle with SVB this really works best for me.
Hi you all, I am hoping to get some answers someplace, and thought I would try you.
I have Blue Lake Pole Beans in an earthbox. They are up to about 8 feet tall. No flowers, no beans. Nothing, but leaves. I gave them some bloom fertilizer with 52 in the P slot. For NPK. That was a couple weeks ago. Still nothing.
I checked the package and the were packed for 2013. Don't have a clue. Jen
Good morning Jen. Welcome to our thread. I've no clue as to what the problem maybe causing your BLPB to be non-productive. Maybe Rita may have some experience to share? What say you Rita?
This morning I discovered quite a few more pest-problems around my veggies garden, all in container culture. I think I'll be heading over to my County extension office for help.
I've found my very first SVB problem, discovered pickleworm for the 1st time yesterday. Also found out about cucumber beetles ravenous appetites. One of my okra has some kine of fruit borer that deforms the okra and made the fruit to curl and reveals a gaping wound exposing the seeds. Luckily, this only confined to one container, others (okras) so far are unaffected. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Jnette, sorry about your Blue Lake with no flowers. Honestly, I don't know what the problem might be. I have grown Blue Lake Beans for years but never had any problems with them.
Usually with vegtables, lush folliage with no blossoms means too much nitrogen. But it also could be that they are just not reasy to flower yet. Though 8 feet tall sure seems like they should be flowering.
Just had a thought, maybe they are too crowded?
Currently I've a wave of pickworms invasion. My hand pollinated calabash is looking healthy. I hope that the worms will leave this fruit alone. Quite a few cucumber beetles are also quite bothersome. I cooked some okra and eggplants today. The okra, well is good as usual. But my 'pot black' eggplants, they looks to be more suitable for ornaments rather than eaten. The taste is wee bit bitter, eventhough the skin is still tender on those eggplants.
Fairy Tale Eggplants and Golden Egg Yellow squash. I just love both of these. So pretty and taste great too. All my squash and all my eggplants are in containers.
