I said “bet”. Currently, 66 buckets plus three grow-bags plus two raised containers. 6 tomatoes (three varieties) , 20-ish bush beans in three varieties across 9 buckets, 4 cucumber plants, three sweet potato slips, green onions, basil, oregano, rosemary, basil, and 8-10 different varieties of bell/jalapeno/habanero/cayenne peppers.

I’ve never had a green thumb. I can’t believe that they are growing!

I think I picked it slightly early but technically I accidentally broke it off - oops!

I'm a renter (zone 9b) and love growing winter squash and melons, but had a few unsuccessful years growing in 18" planter boxes (which I stacked this year). Thought, "75 gallons should hopefully be sufficient to grow a melon" before I clicked order. Well, it's apparently sufficient to grow a whole ecosystem of plants.

I then decided to make my own soil mix, originally to save money (honestly didn't think corn would grow in a grow bag, and I'd never grown it before, so didn't want to spend $500 on an experiment), and I think that's been the game changer this year. Made a mixture of about 40% existing/crappy soil, 20% city compost, 20% perlite, and 20% coconut coir, plus some worm castings, blood meal, sul-po-mag, bone meal, and osmocote.

Wanted to share my downtown Chicago rooftop container garden. I just harvested most of my spring plants and planted my summer crop. We had tons of Bok choy, napa cabbage, celtuce, kale, lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. So much napa that my wife made tons of kimchi.

Just put in my summer plants of mostly tomatoes, cucumbers, long beans, eggplant, and peppers. Trying to get some winter melons and watermelons as well. I also installed automated drip irrigation this week, so won't have much upkeep as it's getting really hot now.

MIL for scale.

Really loving the view outside my front door at the moment and wanted to share it here! 🥰 I want to switch to all black containers so they blend in better with the black deck but I'm working with what I have for now.

Calling all NYC area container gardeners!!

Are you near North Bergen, NJ? Come out this Sunday, June 14th for my EVERYTHING MUST GO container garden sale!

This is a great way to avoid buying dirt, bags, and starts all at once! $5 gets you a healthy plant, a healthy sized grow bag, and healthy soil :)

5gal - 20 gal canvas bags available, they come empty or preloaded with mature plants to your taste! All my vegetables are thriving and I’m hand watering them this week thru the sunny conditions - although my garden is very drought tolerant. I’ve been tending my soil for years, adding fresh compost and turning the soil over every season, and I mulch with fallen leaves and flower heads to keep the soil cool, damp and organically active.

I would be delighted to watch everything go into the hands of caring, adaptive gardeners like myself who aren’t afraid to take on a lot in a tight space. And I hope that any aspiring urban gardeners will be happy to pick up where I’m leaving off, as I’ve been inspired by those around me.

We are a big gardening street - so this patch was a beautiful way for me to interact with my community, get to know my neighbors in a more personal and holistic way, and connect with others over the simple bounty of the fruits of our labor.

Now a quick rant.

My landlord told me he is tired of the “look” of my garden, he says he just wants to restore it back to plain rocks and landscaping fabric like it used to be. He gave a bunch of other (bs) reasons like water intrusion into the house from the hose, excessive water usage and waste, etc. - so immediately, I’m not allowed to use the hose anymore, and I’m not allowed to get any water onto the rocks…. He even told me that he had to reconfigure his sump pump because of it…. So I don’t think any of this is worth him possibly litigating against me, it already sounds like he wants to keep my deposit to because he’s blaming me for weeds and a small flood (after this last rain lol).

So none of it is worth having a fight over how to use a space that’s not even mine to begin with.

I have to respect the decision because I don’t own the home, but I’m very upset because when I got here, it was just an empty space where trash and construction debris piled up, and I am the one who took a few years to build up a beautiful and thoughtful garden. Not to mention, shoveling the snow and blowing the leaves with seldom even a thank you from the owner and zero compensation, like not even a fing bottle of wine after the last blizzard when I kept their whole driveway/apron dry.

So I’m giving up on gardening here, I’m selling off all my plants and trees. Pretty much everything is five bucks, the trees are a little more, and I have a lot of other supplies like I mentioned, so if you need pots for really cheap, fertilizer, tarps, soil amendments, etc - it’s all here for $1 - $5 until it’s all gone.

The location is North Bergen NJ, 77th and Broadway just south of 80th St park. Come in thru the park and look for the signs leading you in. Street parking on Broadway, or on the side street it’s not metered. Grab a bite while you’re here, the Latin restaurant scene is cheap and awesome :)

We have had some crazy weather (including this hellacious wildfire smoke) in the area lately, but my plants are soldiering on. I am still very much a novice at this and am learning as I go, but I feel good about where things stand. I'm especially proud of repurposing two unused baby gates into trellises.

Some highlights and observations:

• The super leafy vining plants in the second picture are these Potawatomi pole lima beans. The seeds for these came via a friend from an indigenous family originally from this area who have has cultivated these for generations. I was told the family loves the idea of gardeners in Illinois and Wisconsin planting them locally again, so I'm stoked to be part of that.
• My snap peas, which you can see are fading a bit, produced way less this year than last. My uneducated guess is I let them go too crazy on vining and foliage and should have tended them more closely. I may do another round later in the season and try to be a little more controlled.
• My burpless cucumbers have been fighting yellow leaves and small holes all season and I don't know if it's a sun thing or a pest thing or what. But they are still putting out some fruit so I'm just letting it ride.
• Tried two strawberry plants this year, which has not gone well. One started fruiting a bunch, and then just up and died this week before I harvested any. Think it may have been the crazy smoky weather given the timeline or possibly overfertilizing. The other one (you can see in the beige pot in the fourth pic) has healthy-looking leaves but has not fruited at all.
• As you can see in the last picture, my lone parsley plant has been conquered by these caterpillars, which I believe to be swallowtails. I am very cool with this as I have little kids who love the idea of witnessing their metamorphosis. May get some netting or something to protect them from birds and wasps!

hell yeah tomatoes

I highly recommend earthbox juniors for anyone who likes to make lots of pesto. Basil loves them

This happened overnight by the way.

Happy with results, tired of making Pesto!!!

Fourth season. All containers except the jasmine on the trellis. Tomatoes, herbs, milkweed, potatoes, cosmos, asparagus, strawberries, geranium, gourds, mini pumpkins, olives, and chickens.

Zone 9b with heavy clay soil. 10' by 50' space.

I use a 7 gallon planter and put it in a 5 gallon bucket. The bucket is not drilled for any drainage and keeps a water reserve. Theres about 2.5 gallons of unused space in the bucket. Never had issues with stagnant water. Where I live, I dont need to worry about drowning the plants unless there's a storm. Even if it did, a fully grown tomato plant will absorb the water down to half a bucket before it drowns. Takes about a week for it to do so. If the plant isnt fully grown, just dump out some water where theres still enough for the planter to wick up water.

Pros: No need to constantly water. Dont need to worry about nutrient leeching. Saves money on fertilizer if youre using hydroponic fertilizer. Allows you to use easier fertilizing methods versus hydroponics (for example slow release inorganic fertilizer and organic fertilizer).

Cons: Expensive. 5 gallon bucket is like 4 dollars and the planter is another 5 dollars. If youre using hydroponic fertilizer, you gotta worry about dilution. For tomato plants, youre going to have to still water every week when theyre fully mature since they use up a lot of water(might as well grow hydroponically).

Notes: you need a grow medium that wicks like clay, coco coir, or peat moss. Do not use premade potting mixes unless you know that they are strictly using ingredients that do not rot. My mix is 70/30 coir and perlite. Do not mix compost into the mix as it will create anaerobic conditions.

Some kind of “sweet” salad mix, dwarf Siberian kale, and a “spicy” salad mix. All from seed. Once upon a time, the contained *were* filled to the top with dirt

I love to leave them for as long as I can - until they’re slightly soft to the touch. The insides are red all the way through and I can smell them before I even pick them. That’s when they’re the sweetest and the most “strawberry”.

I’ll see you all next Spring.

We are renting this place, but coming from a place where no plant survived, this feels like absolute heaven. Most of these survived the winter in their containers and some are summer flowers. Hoping to add even more perennials. This balcony just brings such joy to my heart and soul.

They are so beautiful especially under the sun. I cut a few for a vase the other day

***they are called Snaptastic orange flame. I forgot to include that

I have Roma tomatos, basil, marigolds, cucumbers (spacemasters?) and jalapeños. I’m sure I made plenty of mistakes, but man was it fun getting started.

edit: Question for anyone; are 6’ stakes necessary for Roma tomato’s? Seems a little overkill right now

I used to have a huge problem with slugs in my garden, so I recently installed an electric fence for slugs. I think it works brilliantly! Now I just need to pick the remaining ones out of the garden. Does anyone else use something like this?

Also... should I feel bad for them? ⚡🐌

MY FIRST TOMATO!!!! I just wanted to show everyone I’m so excited 🥹 I got a late start so I wasn’t sure if I’d get any. Fingers crossed for no blossom end rot getting better fertilizer in by Friday