ENJOY SOME CONTAINER GARDENING (PART 1)!

Greetings all. I posted the above apple blossom from one of my apple trees as a way to capture your attention for this post on container gardening. It is always nice to have a beautiful flower to begin any post. I have been asked numerous times about doing a post on container growing of flowers and vegetables. I use a variety of techniques and it brings a dilemma as to where to begin. If all goes according to plan I will do an ongoing series of container growing.

As noted in previous posts I have plenty of land to raise vegetables and flowers, but have been experimenting with different techniques of using containers. I do this both indoors during our winter months , as well as outdoors during late Spring to early Fall. Some are grown in a small greenhouse and some outside. I started doing the container gardening primarily as an indoor project, but it carried over to much more. Now it is a way to show people how they can grow vegetables (and flowers) even if they do not have a lot of space. I also started thinking that maybe when I get into my 90's I will find it easier to keep growing food this way.

I would like to begin with growing micro-greens. I have used variations of this over the years, but this past winter and even now in the Spring I am growing micro-greens outside. This first photograph is showing the start of the process, which is seeding. There are ways to grow micro-greens without soil but I find an organic potting mix works best for me. When I am finished with the soil I add it to my garden, and I believe it is less expensive. Here I plant the seeds thicker than I would planting on rows in the garden. I press them into the potting mix with a piece of wood and then I will add a layer of potting mix on top of the seeds. I also press the soil down using the block of wood showing. In these flats are buckwheat, sunflower, beets, salad mix from the cabbage family, and peas. Once planted I cover with cardboard so they do not dry out.

The next two photographs show some of the greens ready to start cutting for salads. I have also juiced them, and have used them in soups. The first set of flats are after a couple of weeks, and the second a little longer. Most are ready to start cutting for salads. The beets keep growing new leaves and the peas grow more and I get a second cutting.

The next photo is showing lettuce plants in pots, then radish (which are ready to start pulling a few small ones to thin the planting, and then I am experimenting with scallions in a container.

I am editing and adding this photograph of a few cucumbers I grew in containers. They are developed for container growing. They range form 5 inches to 8 inches long.

I mentioned in my weekend post that I had been working on potting flowering plants in pots for my wife on Mother's Day. To make it easier to move the pots around I built small platforms with casters to better push the pots around. The smaller pots are easy to move the larger pots can get heavy. I have two more pots that I am planting seeds, and these will be larger pots. The first photo shows the bottom of the platform and the second photo I am trying to capture the essence of the flowers (I will have more photos of each flower in future posts):

This post just touches on container growing. I am hoping to do a series of post with different methods and material I use. I hope you will enjoy this series that I am starting. I am hoping to this series during the week and keep my weekend post the same as it has been.

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I would remind everyone that the issues in Venezuela are far from over. Here are a couple of links for programs in Venezuela that can still use our aid. I plan on adding them as partial beneficiaries to this post (it is not a lot, but every little bit adds up over time):

I continue to add each of these projects as beneficiaries to sharing in a portion of the earnings from my post.

https://steemit.com/@aid.venezuela
https://fundition.io/#!/@aid.venezuela/30wfgrql0 (They continue to accept donation through Fundition until their new program begins)

https://steemit.com/@arrozymangophoto (the children seem to be really enjoying building their puppets)
https://fundition.io/#!/@arrozymangophoto/z31fxh41j (new Fundition program building off of first one)

They are providing good documentation of what they are doing through video, photographs, and narrative). Please take the time and check them out.

There are two other programs located in Bangladesh that I have tried to support as well, and both can always use assistance. Each has an important role to play in their community.

https://steemit.com/@schoolforsdg4
https://steemit.com/@womenempowerment

Check all their blogs for more information on the excellent work they have been doing.

There is another user (https://steemit.com/@theunion) that is trying to help Spanish speaking peoples in the Americas. If I am understanding correctly they will also support users who's first language is other than Spanish.

Here is a quote from their recent post:

The @theunion project was created to reward and contribute to the growth of steemit users, who publish 100% original content, helping us to have greater visibility on the platform, always using the slogan "The Union Makes the Force", whose base is mutual support When you click on the image, you will access the original publication, then the curated images will be presented on 14/05/19.