Hello everyone! All right so, the sun is setting it is absolutely a gorgeous sunset tonight,
and it's setting on a very busy weekend for me. I have been amending beds, re-mulching, working on
some irrigation, and I've been transplanting a lot. I have some seeds that have started,
some seeds that have been going a while, and I've really been working on some of my containers. So,
that's what I want to talk about, we're doing a lot more container gardening, and if you're new
to containers then I have a few tips for you to make you more successful at that. So, a couple of
things to consider when you're going to be growing in containers. One is the size of your container.
You want to make sure that whatever you want to grow you're growing it in the right size. So,
first I would make a list of fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, things you want to grow and then
I would look at what their needs are as far as depth, so what is their root system, how much
space does that root system need. You also want to look at the spread of the roots but the spread
of the plant itself. So you want to look at height and you want to look at width for your containers.
Really, really important. Kellogg Garden has a container gardening guide, the link will be in
the description, and you can go through that, it's got some phenomenal tips on container
gardening but it will talk about some of the different things like lettuces, your greens,
that don't need a really deep container as opposed to say, tomatoes, especially your larger,
beefier tomatoes that might need 24 inches to grow in. So, size first. Next is material. Think about
the material that you're gonna grow in, like this one is a felt pot, love growing in felt. It's got
some handles, it's pretty large, lots of airflow, great material to grow in. These are metal.
This one is a newer pot but it is painted, so that's something to consider.
If you were up cycling something that was pretty old then you might have to worry about lead in the
paint, but I'm not growing anything edible in it right now so I'm not as worried about it. That is
a great metal pot to grow in, it can get a little bit of rust on it, I'm not worried about that even
if I were growing an edible it would be down at the bottom and rust doesn't really affect you.
But it is, again, something to consider. Now, if you're growing in say, plastics, something darker,
it could heat up. I have a a metal raised container in the back that's black
and I've tested a few times and it doesn't really heat up, so that's nice.
If you're growing in plastic, also it might not be very breathable, so that's something to consider.
Terra cotta can be great, it is breathable, not as breathable as this,
and it doesn't heat up. So really look at the different material of the containers you want to
grow in. Next thing to think about is drainage. So now, this is just naturally, this felt pot,
is naturally going to drain, so that's phenomenal. Now, these didn't have drainage in them
so we drilled some drainage holes. You just don't want your roots to sit in really wet conditions,
you can get root rot and have other problems, so you want to make sure that it drains.
So, drainage is really important and we only drilled one hole in each of these,
and then two holes in that one, so I'm going to keep an eye on it in case I need
a little bit more drainage. They're pretty tall, so this one is about 14 inches, this one about 16,
that one's 20 inches. So, I'll just need to keep an eye on it and and check on that drainage. Now,
the other thing of course, that affects drainage is your soil, so using the proper soil for your
containers is really, really important. A potting mix or a raised bed mix has been cultivated to
have great drainage, the right nutrients, and the right ph for growing your fruits and vegetables,
herbs and flowers. If you were to take native soil and put it in a container, it's going to compress,
it's going to get compacted, it's not going to have that drainage, so be very careful about
doing that. Now in this pot, it's it's pretty deep and pretty wide, it's 20 inches wide,
so I've got some raised bed soil in the bottom and then I've got some potting soil at the on the top.
I could have put all raised bed in this and been fine. Now, of course I mix other things in like
my worm castings, I also put granular fertilizer mixed into the layers so it's a slow release
organic fertilizer, so over time it'll add more nutrients back in, and then my composted manure.
So, these babies are going to be phenomenal this season. All right, and the other thing
to remember in your containers is that you still want to mulch. Mulching isn't just for
ground gardening or for raised bed gardening. You want to mulch your containers as well.
One, it'll help retain moisture, really important, it can also help with temperature control
and it can help with pests, so right now I just got these planted and they'll be mulched next.
Now, watering in containers is a little bit different than say that raised bed, so in ground
watering, moisture lasts longer, then raised beds would be next the moisture and the water
doesn't last as long, and then these guys dry out the fastest. Right? Especially this one
because there's lots of airflow, so you are going to water more often on on these. And,
in container gardening especially if you have a lot of containers then that can be a lot of work,
making sure that you go out there and you regularly water all the containers.
So that raised bed there has a drip irrigation system in it and the line runs behind here. So
I'm just gonna tap into those lines, I'm gonna put some little bubblers or little drip irrigation
into each one of these, so I can water the whole thing at the same time. So, I'll have a video on
that and how I do it. It's just a basic setup and then it's got a little timer on it, so pretty easy
to do, and I'll let you guys know how I do that. So, that's pretty much it. Size, material,
drainage, soil, watering, and you know what the last one I would say is companion planting. Now,
you can companion plant with your planters with your containers or even inside of a container,
so don't forget about companion planting. I've got my flowers here, and that's to bring in my
pollinators, and it's going to help that raised bed and this container. And, in this container
I've got strawberries, peas, and I've got some lettuce. My strawberries can grow over the side,
my peas are gonna grow up this nice little teepee, and then my lettuce is gonna grow in the center,
and it'll probably end up that the lettuce will get spent first, and then I can replant something
there later, or I can just add more strawberries, or maybe my strawberry spread by then, and I don't
need something in in the center. You just want to make sure that when you space your plants that you
space them properly. Do they need three inches, six, eight, twelve inches apart? Sometimes I put
mine a little bit close and you wanna be careful with that because if you can't get good air flow
you could have problems with disease, like powdery mildew, or with pests, because you can't see them
and they kind of hide in there. So, be careful on that but companion planting is so important.
You can bring in your pollinators, you can help deter pests, and of course it just all looks
beautiful as it's all blooming together. So, that would be the last thing I would consider
is how to make sure that you're companion planting really well. So, I think that's it! I have a busy
week ahead so you'll probably see some more videos coming out. At the end of this video,
I'm gonna pop in Evan giving some advice and doing some drilling for me, because he's putting in some
drainage holes for me, so he'll tell you what bit he used, what tools he used, and then his
techniques on how he got that done. So, thanks again for joining me I, will see you guys again
soon. Happy Gardening! So, I'm using a quarter inch impact to drill the holes. Impacts are a
little easier to drill holes unlike a drill where it can catch kind of, you know, twist your wrist.
I also want to drill slow, when you're drawing through metal it's a little better to go slow.
It would just burn up the bit, it heats up a lot.
Let's get a little wobble so in case it does grab, the hole is a little bit
bigger. Use a 3/8 metal, or bi-metal bit, to drill the hole. I recommend going slower
when you do it, a slower speed. Most drills and impacts these days have the trigger, basically
the more you pull it in, the faster it goes. So, I just pull it in a little bit to kind
of get a slower speed, and wobble it just slightly that way in case it does all of a
sudden catch, it won't kind of jerk your hand. The impact is better to use because you won't
get as much of that jerk as you would with a drill. But everybody has an impact driver.
A drill will work but same same technique, wobble it a little bit, go slow, slow speed.