What Happened In My Garden This Week? – Week 25

My interest in gardening

I have been pursuing self-sufficiency for the better part of my twenties, and one of the ways I’ve been doing so is by growing my own food. I have a survival container garden, as I like to call it, that is completely made up by containers. I have used many types of containers over the years. Whatever I have been able to get my hands on, I have tried to grow food in. And for the most part, this “method” has worked very well. There are only a few types of foods that I have yet to crack the code on how to grow them well in containers. And trust me, I have tried a lot of things over the years.

In my survival garden, I have a light greenhouse where I keep my seedlings, the annuals that require more of a controlled climate and the baby perennials that need to be covered up a bit more snugly during winter.

My first perennials

I purchased my first perennials about 5-10 years ago and I have never looked back. I propagate my plants every year and I acquire a few more varieties every year. I use the word ‘acquire’ since I have several different methods for acquiring more plants. Purchasing them from a nursery is just one of the ways. I trade plants with others, I grow plants from seeds, I sometimes get cuttings from others that I then turn into plants and sometimes when I pick fruit during summer, I take a cutting and turn it into my very own plant.

While it is true that all of my plants take up no more room than two thirds of a front yard, I have a lot of varieties and they are all thriving. A few years ago, as I was beginning to write my book about container gardening, I had a list of which perennials I wanted to grow, as well as how many plants I’d need of each variety.

Last year I completed my ‘to acquire’-list and I now have all the varieties that I feel I need for food security purposes and/or varieties I feel will bring value to my life. That’s not to say I won’t still acquire new ones. I do enjoy trying new varieties of fruits and berries, and propagating them to share them with others. But it is a nice comfort to know that I have all the plants I feel I need, and now I can simply enjoy myself, maintain what I have and allow myself to experiment with whatever else I fancy growing.

Lessons learned

Go with your gut

I have gotten gardening advice from many people over the years. Some of the advice – a lot of it – has been very helpful, but there were also the occasional negative advice from ‘nothing is possible’-types of people. In retrospect, I am very glad that I stuck to my goals instead of listening to the people who thought what I wanted to do was impossible.

I’ve been told repeatedly that you can’t successfully grow food in containers, that perennials such as fruits and berries won’t grow well in containers and that you will have a poor yield simply because they’re not planted directly into the soil. Yes, it will require effort and you will have to look after your plants well, and water them a bit more, when you grow them in containers. But you should always look after your plants well, no matter where you’ve planted them.

I can safely say that it is definitely possible to grow food in containers, to grow perennials in containers, and to get a good yield.

Growing food doesn’t need to cost money

I have tried many containers over the years, but the ones I like the most are the black fabric grow bags with handles. However, there are so many unique and creative solutions out there. No matter what your circumstances are, and what kind of environment and space you have access to, there is a way for you to grow food in containers.

I have grown food in saw dust, straw, soil and even water. I know how to get growing mediums, compost, containers and fertilisers for free. There are so many ways to get creative with it, and up cycling is a great way to start.

Most of my soil now comes from my own mix, and it is such a good soil. I did start off my soil blend by purchasing some premium quality organic soil originally, but over the years, the ratio has shifted. Through the use of my own fertiliser, bokashi compost, by burying foods and garden waste in the soil, and growing a wide range of plants, my soil is now more nutritious than any store bought soil. I combine growing mediums and I keep my soil purchases to a limit. I use cardboard, paper waste, straw and other mediums in the garden, and that means I can make the soil I do have last longer.

New techniques this year

Vertical systems

I have wanted to explore vertical gardening for years, and this year I finally got started. I now grow Korean red pepper, three kinds of spinach and various herbs in vertical growing systems in the green house. You stack them on top of each other and you can also connect them to a wall. They also have an add on-watering system that you could purchase to have them automatically watered through drip irrigation.

I also keep shelves in the green house and in the garden, and I consider that to be a form of vertical gardening as well. I grow potatoes in pots and thanks to the shelves, I can grow a much greater amount by placing two pots on each shelf. In the same type of pots, I grow cabbage. I found out this year that my cabbage absolutely loves growing in that type of container, so naturally I planted a few in some leftover potato pots.

My Survival Container Garden 2023

Theme of the season – Kimchi

My main focus this year is kimchi and growing my own ingredients for kimchi. I dreamed of one day owning my own onggi – ceramic fermentation pots from Korea – and last year, my dream came true. I found a seller on Etsy and I was able to purchase a few. This year I filled one with kimchi and one with gochujang, which is a Korean chili paste. I also have a smaller one with the doenjang – Korean soybean paste – from 2022.

I still have my European fermentation vessels and I have a few smaller ones indoors, a 10-15 litre one outside where I make soy sauce each year, and a smaller one for the garden, where I ferment my own fertiliser.

Cabbage

For my kimchi, I like to use cabbage, black kale when available and a lot of radishes. I am growing Napa cabbage, pixie cabbage and a Chinese cabbage this year. As well as Korean radishes, daikon radishes and my favourite variety of small black radishes. I believe that variety may have come from Spain originally.

Other vegetables

I also have a lot of green onions and leeks planted that will do very well in the kimchi. I hope to also use some pumpkin leaves, squash leaves and possibly even radish pods in my kimchi.The goal is to fill the entire container – roughly 35 litre – with kimchi made from only homegrown ingredients. I have over twenty Korean red pepper plants to help me grow and grind at least some of my own red pepper powder.

Broth

For my broth, I use kitchen scraps as well as mushrooms, and I grow the mushrooms myself. As a sweetener in the paste, I use apples or apple sauce, which I also get from my garden.

Weather & pest control

We had rain several times this week, and the garden loved it. No surprise there. Earlier this week I had issues with aphids, and after dealing with them, followed by quite a bit of rain, they seem to be staying away for now. Sprinkling garlic cloves around my containers this season has kept slugs at bay, and I hope that will continue. I’ve noticed aphids has been a bit of an issue in general in nature this year. I’ve even seen weeds covered with them. I’m not sure what to make of that, but I think it has something to do with the hot weather and the previous lack of rain.

Sowing seeds

As recommended by Mark from Self Sufficient Me, I am going to oversow my plants to be able to harvest more food over the season. Rather than thinning them out and just tossing the plants, I will be able to harvest young plants regularly until the remaining ones have the room to grow large. That means an ongoing supply of food starting only a week or two from now.

I have also sown succession plants and some of them are ready to be planted in the soil. Some beets were planted around the cabbages and the black kale was planted in its own pot. I think the time has come for me to place a protective cloth over the cabbage varieties. Something seems to be feasting on a few of them, and I want that to stop. It might be a fly of some sort, and hopefully the cloth will help with that.

Annuals

Alliums

Last year I grew a lot of alliums, and as spring emerged, I found that they had all survived the winter. Thanks to that, I have been harvesting leeks and green onions every day for weeks. I’ve even had enough to preserve some and turn it into seasoning.

Brassica

A few cabbage plants have been claimed by pests, so I planted a few extra this week. I also decided to plant another black kale plant, or a few more, to make sure I am covered in case the pests decide to feast again.

Micro greens

I’ve decided to grow micro greens again, to make sure I get a decent amount of greens every day, while still being able to preserve most of what I grow in the garden.

Peppers

Apart from the Korean chili, I grow a handful of other chili varieties. I companion plant most of what I grow, and I hope to get a greater yield and less plants lost to pests that way. I also have a few cucumber plants, an artichoke, an aubergine-plant, and a good variety of alliums here and there.

Squash and pumpkins

I grow pumpkins and squash every year, but last year they did not grow well. It was an off year for growing food. This year, I planted other plants around them – the three sisters method – and I hope that will make them grow stronger with a greater yield. I will also increase their fertiliser to twice a week.

Tomatoes

I settled for growing ‘Marmande’ tomatoes this year. I planted them from seeds, along with some purple tomatillos, and I wasn’t sure if they would do well or grow quickly enough to produce a good yield. So I got a few other tomato plants from a neighbour. And now my own tomato plants are thriving, so I have to figure out how and where to get fifteen to twenty of them planted next week.

Some tomato plants were repotted, some were companion planted and I gave some away.

I rearranged the green house so that I can fit more plants and so that I can fill a rectangular container on one of the shelves with spinach, other leafy greens and Asian greens. Hopefully I can do the same on another shelf and grow carrots in that one.

Perennials

Berries

My honey berries have produced two harvests this week. My strawberries are still white, but they are growing well and I think that the alliums planted in the same pot have deterred pests from coming near them. The wild strawberries have yet to produce berries this year, but it may just be early.

Fruit trees

I have four apple trees, one cherry tree, two elder trees, a plum tree, a damson tree right now. I had a white peach tree, but it wasn’t doing well when I got it and it did not make it through the winter. This isn’t the ideal climate for it, and I think it was just too small.

The remaining trees are all doing well. Most of them will be repotted into larger containers at the end of the season, and I am sure they will appreciate being able to stretch their roots further. They will likely increase in both weight, height and width after that, which is why I had to hold off repotting them for some time. They are fertilised every week and watered almost every day during this part of summer. Each one has herbs planted in the same pot to protect them from pests. Both the herbs and the trees are thriving.

Some of my fruit trees and my berry bushes are still too young to produce a larger amount of fruit, but they are all following their milestones and growing well.

Opal plum tree

My plum tree took a hit during a storm in 2021 and it spent all of 2022 recovering. It is much smaller than it once was, but this year it is positively thriving. It has also not had any issues with aphids this year, and that is a first. Both my cherry tree and plum tree have had issues with aphids in the past since they’re prone attracting such pests when young. This year they’re both doing well, and that makes me very happy.

The plum tree is of a variety called ‘Opal’ and it is not a tree that will get very large, so it is very suitable for those who have little to no room to grow perennials. It may be a short king, but this year the branches have grown thick and sturdy, and they are all covered in green leaves. I am fairly sure it will bloom and bear fruit again next year. I’m relieved that it has recovered so well. I was worried I would have to replace it and now thankfully I won’t have to.

Fertiliser & compost

Bokashi

Last week, some of my perennials had yellowing leaves. After a bit more watering, they are now doing well again. But this week I saw that some of my pumpkin/squash plants had yellowing leaves. I will be increasing the fertiliser in those containers and hopefully that will sort them out. Pumpkins tend to be heavy feeders, and squash as well.

I like to use the bokashi-method and that is how I get my compost and my fertiliser. This year however, I have mainly focused on watering with watered down urine, also known as golden water. It has worked immensely well. Less urine gets flushed down the toilet, it is completely free and the plants – both perennial and annual – love it. Some that require extra fertiliser get both watered down bokashi tea and golden water.

To do list for next week:

• Repot the rest of the tomatoes and tomatillos

• Keep harvesting berries

• Fertilise everything on Monday

• Apply fabric to all cabbage plants to keep pests away

• Keep a close eye on the fruit trees to make sure the aphids don’t take over

• Plant herbs for my medicinal garden

• Directly sow Asian greens and leafy greens

• Directly sow more spinach

• Directly sow carrots

• Sow more succession plants in pots

• Propagate my gooseberries and honeyberries

Have a great week ahead!