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Container Gardening
Organic Grower’s School March 7 & 8, 2015
• Lack of space does not have to prevent you from growing a flower, vegetable or herb garden
• Today we will talk about soil, nutrients, containers, plant selec>on, plan>ng and maintenance so you can create a successful container garden
Soil
• Do Not Use garden soil • Soil-‐Less PoEng Media best A blend of peat moss, perlite, ground pine bark and vermiculite. Use of shredded coir instead of peat moss found in some soil-‐less media.
Nutrients Espoma Organic Plant-‐tone with Bio-‐tones
• Derived from: Hydrolyzed Feather Meal, Pasteurized Poultry Manure, Bone Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Greensand, Humates, Sulfate of Potash, and Sulfate of Potash Magnesia.
• Contains 624 colony forming units (CFU’s) • per gram of the following species: • Bacillus licheniformis -‐ 208 CFU’s per gram • Bacillus megaterium-‐208 CFU’s per gram • Bacillus pumilus-‐208 CFU’s per gram
• Fish emulsion/sea weed fer>lizer – Neptune’s Harvest
• Vermicompos>ng Worm cas>ngs or tea from worm cas>ngs
• Compost – Ok to use but not standardized and may contain weed seeds
– Be sure prepared using proprer heat method so disease and seeds are not viable.
Containers
Anything that can hold soil can be a plant container. Buckets, barrels, metal, PoZery, clay, glazed, wooden, Plas>c, Window boxes, Self-‐watering, etc
Container ConsideraFons
• Adequate drainage holes • Depth • Too small= high maintenance • Weight • Black containers-‐ not so good • Clay pots • Sani>ze used containers
Plant SelecFon
• Size • Shade or sun • Water requirements • Herbs • Veggies • Fruit
Veggies/Herbs • Group according to growing requirements
– Water, sun, fer>lizer – Harvest >me
Now Create
• Flowers-‐ – Annuals – Periennials – Bulbs
• Mixing plant types – Texture – Color
• Foliage • Spillers, fillers and thrillers
Plan>ng
• Fill container with soil; water thoroughly • Remove plants from nursery pots; loosen roots
• Arrange aesthe>cally if crea>ng a pot of interest
• Final soil level
Maintenance
• Watering – Makes or breaks a container garden – Larger containers=less water – Water thoroughly; do not let containers completely dry out
– Self watering containers – Heat of summer-‐ daily
Maintenance
• Fer>lizing – Supplemental fer>lizer – Slow release – Liquid fer>lizer
Maintenance • Grooming – Dead head – Too leggy – Too tall – Disease
• Neem • Serenade
– Insects • Soapy water • Alcohol • Insec>cidal soap • Hand pick