i have a hopeless black thumb :( and even though i live in florida i can't grow anything :cry: I have limited space/light and a VERY tiny deck kinda thing.... is there ANY hope i can have a container garden or would i just kill more defenseless plants??

Now, now, dry your tears, blow your nose, I’m sure you are not the one who killed uncle Fred.

Yes, you can grow lovely container plants on a tiny deck with less then ideal light situations.

Many perennial herbs are a good tough choice. The different thymes love heat and containers.

Patio cucumbers, patio tomatoes, peppers, will do fine in a container on the porch or deck. They long to be visited daily and fussed over with water and love.

Petunias are usually a good first choice for containers.

Houseplants on a lowlight deck like to be outside for the summer. Caution, I am in Washington state where we actually have a cold wet spell we call winter, I'm not sure you have that in Florida.

Chin up, try again.

Petunias do well in containers but don't they usually like a lot of light to bloom...this has been my experience anyway. How about some impatients...they like a lot of shade?

But of course you can have a container garden on your deck! :D

How much light and space do you have exactly?

For food plants, lettuce and spinach, as well as several herbs can be grown in less the ideal light condition.

well *sniff* *sniff* my "deck" for want of a better word...is about 7 ft long and 3 ft wide (it's more like a walkway to get downstairs but we never use that door so....it's a deck!) we get some cold in FL (30's) but it does not last more than a couple days. could i *really* start tomatoes (:lick: ) this late in the year? herbs sound good too....i think i still have some clay pots left from the last plant massacre....... the orchids were NOT a pretty sight (the horror, the horror)

ugh - orchids (I have no luck with them either)

I empathize with you on the space and light thing. I've dealt with that in the past.

Mint grows pretty good in partial shade (and it is nice in hanging pots - I have some on my balcony).

It's hard to kill the mother in laws tongue plant (I don't know the latin name for it). Rubber tree is pretty sturdy too.

When people tell me they have a black thumb I tell them to be sure not to over-water or over-fertilize (so many people tend to do this).... though it's hard to over-water veggies :)

the only plant that has survived the last plant massacree is the bamboo plant i got at the chinese restaurant. it's still on my dining room table and we just add water to its bowl every few days..... i got a periodical on container gardening yesterday and it all looks so beautiful! I think i'm going to try some herbs and maybe a tomato or pepper plant on the back "deck" ...pray for my poor little plants! they'll need all the help they can get :D.

also the mag said to use soilless potting mix since it holds water better.....since i'm in FL should i use that? the sun does get kinda intense here...don't want to bake my veggies before i can eat them ;)

You know, I am a recovered plant killer. The only thing that used to survive my care and presence were those vine things (can't recall the name right now) that live through anything.

But, I am doing terrifically my first year of REAL container gardening. Most of my vegetables are out on the fire escape (tomatoes, peppers, basil, cilantro, and cantaloupe which I'm trying to grow to transfer to a tiny plot downstairs on the side of our building). I also have cucumbers and flowers on my deck out front. Check out my cucumber plants in the creative container contest (if you haven't already). The real secret to container gardening is absurdly frequent watering. Everything is getting doused twice a day right now because of the heat...just sucks the water right out of those plants. And if you want a decent harvest I've heard, fertilizer is a must. I am using several different kinds of 'water holding' so they say anyway, potting mix currently, but I'm still watering twice a day if I want my tomato plants not to keel over.

You know, for so long I was intimidated by the entire prospect of gardening (my grannies were VERY successful and knowledgeable), but I really am beginning to enjoy it...and to know what to do with my plants. Also building up quite the collection of pots in different sizes. I have repotted one tomato plant three times. It was knocked off the fire escape in a storm and I rescued it from under the shards of pot, repotted it and watched it come back after a few days, repotted again in a giant pot a month later and that thing is my biggest plant.

I'd say start small and from seed. My first sense of success was in watching those babies hatch from their seeds, pop out of the ground and stand no more than a half inch tall. I'm about to start some jalepeno seeds that I pulled out of a jalepeno just today.

Oh, good luck! Hope you love it as much as I do.

B

My container garden book says tomatoes can even have a second harvest in the SE...fallish, so I'm positive it's not too late to start them.

Orchids tend to be somewhat...well ugly anyway, after those blooms start to whither (ick, that sent shivers up my spine).

Originally posted by bethanie
My container garden book says tomatoes can even have a second harvest in the SE...fallish, so I'm positive it's not too late to start them.

I don't think it's too late.
The hard thing about "late" planting is having something start to produce in the blazing heat of summer when the insects are full force :) If you time it right they can start to product just when things are starting to cool down a little.

I'm going to do a second planting of cucumbers this year. Probably around the end of July.

well, i know what i'm doing at lunch today!!! i needed to get some puffed millet but...i'm going to go to the garden store next door and check stuff out...and i'm off tomorrow too!!! happy happy joy joy!!!!! i can start tomorrow!!!!

well, i've got soil, got containers....now if i can only find some *&*^%^ seeds!!!!

i could not find seeds ANYWHERE this weekend :( And i LOOKED. i have one last place to go to in town today before i have to make a pilgrimage to tampa :mad: (i HATE going to tampa). got my soil and already had my pots (some of them anyway). i'm ready.....i think

got my seeds and i'm ready:D

When are you going to get started?

Oh, and do you know you can get seeds from actual vegetables? ;)

My daughter and I tried this with a few things (cantaloupe for one). The cantaloupe is coming up, and I've just started jalepenos from a pepper I bought last week.

Originally posted by bethanie
When are you going to get started?

Oh, and do you know you can get seeds from actual vegetables? ;)

My daughter and I tried this with a few things (cantaloupe for one). The cantaloupe is coming up, and I've just started jalepenos from a pepper I bought last week.

i WAS going to start yesterday but did not get home till almost 9pm. so...tonight i am going to repot the basil plant i bought and plant some tomato, cucumber, thyme, chives, impatiens and sunflower seeds my husband bought me. :D all he said to me on the subject was that he spent 12 bucks on seeds and i better not kill this batch!

do you have to do anything to the seeds you get from veggies.....i'd like to plant peppers and zucchini as well :)

I'll let you know about the peppers (if they come up)...the watermelon hasn't worked (they come up and keel over, don't know what I'm doing). But the second attempt with the cantaloupe went well. Those I didn't dry, but just took someone's advice and put them in after taking them out of the melon. They came up and are growing nicely. The first time I started them inside (not enough sun) they came up and grew quite long because they were looking for sun, and the day I put them outside they got too much sun and died. Ah well, you live you learn.

B

so i should just take them and immediately stick'em in pots?

Originally posted by bethanie
Oh, and do you know you can get seeds from actual vegetables? ;)

This only works well with "regular" veggies I think. Hybrids etc. can't be grown from their own seed (or something like that).

oh....ok. i'll have to try.

i bought a basil plant the other night and now my whole kitchen smells like basil!!! it's kinda neat. i didn't realize how much of a fragrance fresh basil had...i'm used to dried in jars! :)

well, i planted thyme, impatiens, zucchini, green beans and tomatoes yesterday. it looks kinda sad...all these pots of dirt but....hopefully they won't be just pots of dirt for too long :) sent the husband out this morning to get me more pots so i can plant the rest of the seeds.....wish me (and the poor defenseless plants) luck!

sandiemac, the jalepeno's I planted from a pepper seed are coming up. Just wanted you to know.

They won't be pots for long. It's going to be so exciting for you when those babies start popping up!

i know i'm so excited. i bought bell pepper and broccoli seeds yesterday too! plus an impatiens plant and a marigold so *soemthing* will be green!! I would LOVE to try my hand at roses but.....i hear they're hard