Patio Garden

[KiwiBerry]

I finished planting my patio garden this week. I use BIG pots and grow potatoes, tomatoes, sugar peas, onions, squash, cucumbers and herbs. The plants are beautiful all summer so there isn't really a reason to plant flowers, except for my hummingbirds and bees. They have two plants that I purchased with blooms and help to pollenate the tomatoes.

My tip for pollenating, use a tomato cage and paint just the TOP rim with bright, yellow outdoor paint (Michael's sell little bottles for a couple of dollars). I came up with this idea last year and the bees swarmed the plants and I had TONS of tomatoes. So easy and so simple.

Planted potatoes on St. Patrick's Day for 'good luck throughout the year' and they are already a foot and a half tall. I love sticking my hand in the soil and pulling our the fresh potatoes, but I have to wait until the green plants start to die off. Then you know they are ready for harvest.

So if you are short on space, think about planting a patio garden. It's very rewarding!

 

[Dawgluver]

Container gardens are a blast! They dry out quickly, so you need to keep a watch out, but are so pretty and convenient.

 

[GLC]

Colors work. My bees sometimes come over and follow my orange Kuboda tractor, and I've learned not to wear a red bandana sweat band. And there's a tendency for the whole hive to use the same nectar source, once one is discovered.

 

[Kayelle]

My tip for pollenating, use a tomato cage and paint just the TOP rim with bright, yellow outdoor paint (Michael's sell little bottles for a couple of dollars). I came up with this idea last year and the bees swarmed the plants and I had TONS of tomatoes. So easy and so simple.

What a great tip, and thank you! I have the perfect little bottle of yellow craft paint.

BTW.....welcome to DC Kiwi..