Container Garden Expansion 2015

"It no longer feels like it's still winter in CA. That groundhog was completely wrong this year."

I was shopping around OSH last night to get some new paint strainer bags for my next batch of beer, when I got distracted by all the cool new things in the garden section. I ended up leaving the store with a lot more than just paint strainer bags.

Testing the layout to see how it will all fit together

I didn't spend too much on this expansion. Here's a short list of what I bought:

19 Gallon blue round tub -- $12
3 Cu feet Soil -- $9
3 Tomato plant starts -- $3

Total: $24

I'm not letting my tomato plants turn into a rice patty

Following the advice from my previous "How to start a Container Garden for less than $25" guide, I setout to drill some holes in my new tub. I err on the side of caution to not cause too many cracks in the plastic, as they can grow and shatter the whole container later in the future (but it's no good at holding ice to keep beverages cold anymore; best off keeping the soil in it)

Filling this with soil was indeed the hard part.

After drilling the holes, I needed to fill up the tub with my soil. It's been a while since I unloaded one of those large bags of soil, and I nearly almost spilled it (that would have been very bad).

There will be an abundance of tomatoes again this year.

I picked out 3 different tomato varieties to plant in my container. 2 different cherry tomato varieties, and 1 full sized variety. (Sweet 100, Red Cherry, and Big Beef respectively). Currently I do not have a tomato cage setup to support these plants, but I'll install one once they grow a bit taller (a month or so maybe).

(On a side note, I was a bit surprised to see some vendors at the local Farmer's market selling some vine ripe tomatoes. I think they must have been grown in a greenhouse)

What's a little Italy without basil?

Not wanting any growing potential to go to waste, I planted some new seeds in the old plant start containers. Most of these were basil, but I also included a Fresno plant and a Swiss Chard.

Everything is coming back to life this Spring!

Now that this yard work (hard work!) is over, I can prepare for making some new beer tomorrow.