Keeping It Contained

This is definitely one of my favourite times of year, when everything is springing into life again. Everywhere I look at the moment, there's fresh splashes of colour as new flowers and blossoms break out. Tiny green leaves are forming all over what, only a few short weeks ago, looked like a bunch of dead branches. More and more bees are being spotted amongst the flowers... and in the middle of all this new life, my garden is rapidly filling up with various types of veges as different shaped leaves start pushing their way up through the soil.

One of my grape seedlings.

With all this new life sprouting up, I've begun the mad dash to keep up with the constant supply of containers needed to house them all. Not an easy task on a tight budget with a mostly potted garden! Especially not when my dream goal is to one day be self-sufficient, at least on the fruit and veges side of things anyway. Sure, a rather big goal for a container garden, but one I will have a lot of fun trying to achieve! So now pretty much everything even resembling a type of container is being eyed up for its plant pot potential. Our recycling bin has never looked so empty each week!

Yoghurt pots, McDonald ice-cream sundae containers, juice/milk/soft drink bottles, margarine containers, old cage or bunk bed pieces (great to use for climbing plants)... even old shoes and drawers are getting eyed up as something I could possibly stick a plant in. Things like empty cardboard toilet rolls, egg trays, and even egg shells are also getting used for growing seeds in, especially for things that don't transplant too well (coriander is one that can throw a bit of a fit if you repot it, as it hates having the roots disturbed, also any root vegetables like beetroot, carrots, etc), as you don't have to remove these "containers" when you plant them due to them being biodegradable.

Part of my potted garden on the front porch.

As things get bigger and outgrow their recycled housing, I do end up buying pots, and my 3 favourites would have to be: the standard 10ltr bucket you can usually find for 99c-$2, the 40ltr flexi tubs that people often use for storing toys or use as washing baskets (the Warehouse usually has these for about $7 each), and the black 35ltr recycled plastic pots from the Warehouse for $7.99 (I use these mostly for my fruit trees/plants). The 10ltr buckets will be what each of my capsicum and tomato seedlings go into (1 per bucket), and the bigger pots will be used for pretty much everything else. When money gets a bit too tight and I need big containers for my veges, I've also started using polystyrene bins, which can often be gotten for FREE at some supermarkets in their fish section if you ask nicely.

Knowing that a lot of the Summer fruit and vege plants I'm now starting to grow are very heavy drinkers (tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis, eggplants, capsicums/chillies, pretty much all berry plants, etc), and just how bad water restrictions can get over Summer, I've also started looking into wicking and self-watering systems. There's a few different ones I want to try, but at the moment I'm just adding a coke bottle with several holes poked into it into every single big pot I do up, which I'm finding keeps the soil watered for longer, so the plants aren't needing to be watered as often. It's now that I'm starting to be almost thankful for my partner's love of soft drinks, plus the amount of juice and milk the kids and I consume, which used to seem like a lot, is now suddenly not enough!
Drink faster people, I need the bottles!!!

I use large plastic rubbish bags as liners, and the boards as a base
(you could use chicken wire instead, but I don't have any) in the tyre
to make each tyre into a portable garden.

My flower garden is also slowly growing (or not so slowly as the case may be, thanks to a lot of kind and generous gardeners from the Facebook groups), but with my main focus at the moment being on my food crops, I've had to find other options for good sized containers to house all my decorative plants, so that I can keep the good ones for my edibles. Easy solution: old tyres! Asking around at car yards etc, it wasn't long before I'd built up quite a good wee stash of old tyres that I'm now working my way through, turning them into mini flower gardens that brighten up patches around the front yard quite nicely.

They actually fit quite a few plants in each and can be fun to arrange into bigger gardens, but the bigger garden ideas I have for them may have to wait until I have somewhere with more space. I know some people use them for planting edibles as well, but after reading mixed opinions about the toxins in the rubber leeching into the soil, I personally don't want to take the risk of them potentially also leeching into my food crops and therefore end up eating them, so they're for flowers and other decorative plants only here.

Of course, if you've got the space, then there's all sorts of other things that can be used as well. I've seen people turn old window frames into cold frames, old bikes become something for climbing plants to latch onto, old baths/hollowed out logs/kids' outgrown trolleys turned into planters, ladders covered in pots with hanging plants, wooden pallets turned into all sorts of different shaped planters... even old swimming pools (both the proper adult sized ones and the kiddie sized clam shell shaped paddling pools) have been turned into gardens! The only limit really is making sure it hasn't previously contained toxic chemicals, and definitely make sure it's food safe if you're planting edibles (eg: don't use something that's covered in lead paint or had petrol in it before to plant your veges in!), and making sure you can put drainage holes in it. 

I'm learning that gardening, even in containers, doesn't have to be expensive! All you really need to create a garden, whether to brighten up your yard or put food on the table, is a bit of creativity, good resources, and the willingness to try. Check your local library's garden section, visit garden centers, see if there are any community gardens nearby (most towns seem to have at least one or two of these now, which is fantastic to see!), get to know other gardeners, browse the internet to find other ideas for containers or join some of the gardening groups on Facebook or elsewhere on the Net. Just jump in and give it a try... before long you'll be enjoying homegrown veges and/or flowers, and if you are anything like me, constantly trying to figure out where you can fit in "just one more plant"!

Soiled

As the sun starts to wake up a little earlier and shine a bit warmer each day, keen gardeners all around New Zealand are champing at the bit to get outside and into their gardens or potting sheds to start planting. Myself included! One of the most commonly asked questions that I'm seeing at the moment on the various gardening groups I'm in is "What can I plant NOW?". As a newbie to gardening (I only started last November), this is something I too have been asking, especially as there are just so many things I very much want to be growing now... but a little restraint is still needed.

Here in the Waikato in NZ it's starting to get quite warm most days, with the occasional day that gives you an icy slap in the face to show that Lord Winter hasn't actually left the building just yet. In lower parts of the country, there's still snow and the definite need for thermals... not exactly the ideal environment for planting sun-loving tomatoes and chillies! So what can be planted right now can depend greatly on where in the country you are, but even that can be changed a bit with the help of things like cloches, glasshouses, sunrooms, and sunny windowsills. An old empty fish tank, the white wheelie storage tubs you can get at the Warehouse, or even the little plastic tubs that tomatoes or kiwifruit sometimes come in can be used as miniature hothouses to start off a few seeds.

As for me, I've taken the risk and planted a few seeds of an apparently reasonably cold tolerant variety of tomato called "Subarctic Plenty", plus a few other types, a couple of zucchinis, and even some cape gooseberries, all of which I've popped into my little portable hothouse which I picked up cheap last Summer through one of the daily deal sites. I also did up a mix of different varieties of beetroot, radish, lettuce, spring onions and carrots, with a few marigold seeds thrown in too, and then just scattered them randomly across our one small garden strip. A few of them have already sprouted, which is rather exciting, so I'm keeping a close eye on them to see just what has actually popped up to say hi. Over the next few weeks, there will be a lot more sowing of seeds as I work on filling up my hothouse, 2 fish tanks, windowsills, and whatever else I can find to help keep the seeds warm and encourage them to sprout.

When I first started looking at getting into gardening, the cost of getting started almost put me off. It just seemed so expensive... more so because of wanting to do a container garden, as our property isn't huge, plus we're renting. The idea of putting in all the hard work and money to create a garden, only to have to leave it behind if we moved house, is just not something I'm willing to consider!

One of the first things I had to sort out was my soil, and with planting in pots, that required buying many MANY bags of potting mix, compost, mulch etc. This alone had me doing hours of research, and going from garden center to garden center to stare in confusion at all these piles of different brands and varieties of potting mix. There's your "budget" brands, mixes by Tui and Daltons, organic mixes... and then you start getting down to all the "specialist" mixes, like herb mix, vege mix, strawberry mix, potatoe mix, tomato mix. Argggg! It really does get quite mind boggling! In the end, we went with Tui vege mix, considering most of what I was planting at that stage was veges and herbs, with the occasional bag of All Purpose mix for my potted flower garden, and my slowly growing potted orchard.

After a while this started getting too pricey, so we switched to the cheaper, but apparently just as good, Daltons Vege Mix for a while until my garden was getting big enough that even that was getting too expensive. It was time to start looking into other options! Talking to some of the other gardeners in the gardening groups, I was quickly pointed to a nearby sawmill that has a huge pile of well rotted sawdust with a sign telling you to help yourself (for those of you in Hamilton who are interested, go check out the sawmill on Tasman Road, next to the Pavlovich Coachlines bus depot). This has now become my main potting mix, and often comes with a few helpful worms too! Mixed in with compost (bought bags of the cheapest variety for now, but hopefully soon my own homemade stuff), and a few different types of suitable animal poo (never thought I would actually be happy to be given poo! Rabbit, chicken, sheep, cow, and horse poo are all extremely suitable), I'm hoping that I won't have to buy any more potting mixes of any type again.

It was also strongly recommended that I become a farmer... of worms! Worm farms are not only a great way for dealing with all of the food scraps (except any citrus, onions, or meat), but when you water your worm farm, you get worm "wees", which is full of great nutrients that plants love. After a while, you've also got their vermicast (worm poo) which can be used like compost and mixed in with your soil/potting mix. Having a look around online and at the ones offered at Bunnings, Mitre 10 etc, it was definitely the cheaper option to make my own. A quick trip to the Warehouse to pick up 4 good solid stacking tubs (with a lid for the top one), and a plastic tap (to go in the bottom tub to make it easier to access the worm "wees"), and a bit of drilling (put holes in the bottoms of all the tubs EXCEPT the one that will be at the bottom to catch all that wonderful liquid plant food), and I had a worm farm!

Now to find the worms. I learned that the worms you find in the garden aren't actually suitable for living in a worm farm... I needed either tiger or red worms for my farm. When I mentioned I was setting this all up, I had several lovely people offer me free worms and it wasn't long before I had a couple of ice cream container lots of the little wrigglers to plonk into the stacking bins, along with a bit of compost, shredded paper, grass clippings, and of course, the food scraps. A thick bit of cardboard (a bit of carpet works well too) to keep things nice and dark, and we were set. With the occasional watering whenever I need the worm wee food for the plants (usually once a week, which helps keep the worms nice and damp), and regular additions of food scraps etc, it doesn't take much work to set up or maintain, and in maybe about 3 months, I should have all that lovely vermicast to start mixing into my pots.

If you're in New Zealand, into gardening at all, or even thinking about starting one, feel free to come and join some of the gardening groups over on Facebook. I have already learned so much from all the wonderful people in there, and they are great sources for seed and plant swapping! Here's a few of my favourites:

NZ VEGE GARDENERS: https://www.facebook.com/groups/91183770081/
NZ FLOWER GARDENERS: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nzflowergardeners/
NEW ZEALAND PLANT TRADERS: https://www.facebook.com/groups/331049733674446/
and if you're in the WAIKATO region, there's the GARDENING GROUP HAMILTON NZ: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GardenHamilton/

Bitten by the gardening bug!

I've always had a quiet love for plants, and for many years have wanted my own garden. I've tried several times to get one going, or even just have a few pot plants around the house... but they have rapidly shown me, time and time again, that my thumb isn't even brown... it's BLACK! Or so I thought. I can't even remember what set things off this time, but first I planted some of the (expired!) tomato, capsicum, and basil seeds that had been sitting around in the cupboard for years, untouched. A month later and I was getting ready to give up and just throw them out when I spotted several little hints of green. Something was growing!! And that was it! Next thing, there's a flurry of buying pots, potting mix, seedlings, root blast, etc, and I've got a small vegetable and herb container garden started... all because some seeds managed to sprout! So I was still thinking that this was probably a lot of money that was just basically getting thrown away, considering my previous attempts at trying to keep any kind of plant alive.
Over the last month I've watched both my little seedlings and my garden grow... and I've become thoroughly addicted! I never ever thought I would get THIS obsessed with gardening! Before, all my spare $$ were going on my craft addiction, but in this last month it's been ALL about the plants! There's barely been any crafting done as I've usually got my nose buried deep in gardening books, or I'm at a gardening shop (it's rather dangerous having one of those right across the road I tell ya!), or I'm out there planting more stuff.
The back deck is slowly being taken over, and the "garden" now contains: Parsley, Rosemary, Mint, Pizza Thyme, Basil, Chives, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Zucchini, Eggplant, Capsicum, Lavender, and Marigolds. The Cucumber and the single "Sweet 100s" cherry tomato plant (that I bought as a seedling) are already "fruiting"... never thought I'd be calling baby veges CUTE! All of the "Grosse Lisse" tomato plants (again, bought as seedlings) are flowering, (except for the one I had to remove as the leaves were going yellow and the whole plant was wilting and refused to recover), along with the capsicums. The Marigolds and lavender are growing extra blooms, the chives and basil are growing madly no matter how often I take bits to use in cooking (DAMN but I LOVE this being able to use my own home-grown herbs for my meals thing!!), and I'm just falling more and more in love with gardening! I'm even wanting to start getting a small fruit and flower garden going, both again being container gardens, as we don't have much in the way of garden space we're actually allowed to plant in here.
With so many types of potting mixes, plant foods, etc out there, it's been hard trying to work out which ones to go with, but I've started with Tui's Vegetable potting mix, and been doing well with that, so thinking I may stick with their products for most things. So many things to learn with gardening... potting mixes, foods/fertilisers, types of plants, diseases, companion planting, etc.. it makes my head swim! So far I've been trying to keep things as "Organic" as possible, which means I've been trying to bring companion planting into it wherever I can. The "marigolds with everything" rule I've come across in a couple of the gardening books is one I've been working with... so there are gorgeous splashes of yellows, reds, and oranges throughout almost all of my vege tubs now. Never knew there were so many different colours of marigolds before! Also hoping to add pansies and sweet peas too for a bit of variety.

I'm very much looking forward to continuing this journey now it's started, and I will be sharing regular photos and updates of my garden, as well as any good tips, ideas, recipes, etc I find along the way. :o)