Container Gardening Must Haves and How to Fertilize Them

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Y’all, let’s do our unboxing, shall we? We [Music] shall. Hey everybody, welcome back to my channel. I am so glad that you are here. Today we are doing something very exciting. We are setting up a new green stalk and the newest product that they just launched. And y’all, I cannot wait for you to see this because it is absolutely beautiful. So, if you’re brand new here, I live in Tennessee in zone 7B. We um homestead um and preserve food, um cook from scratch, DIY, we do all the things. And today, I’m sitting in my backyard, which is where I have my green stalks. So, I want to make a quick announcement as we go through and set up our newest green stock. New color, new style, everything new. And just to tell you that the Green Stock is having their Mother’s Day sale, which is by far the biggest sale in terms of orders and volume throughout the entire year. So you want to run, not walk, to go get your green stock so that you can get it in time for Mother’s Day and you can be on the list for early delivery. If you were one of the special ones that saw my post on Wednesday, I announced they were having an early access. So they actually opened the doors early. The official sale started on May the 1st, but they opened the doors early on April the 30th. All you had to do is put in your email so you can be one of the first ones to grab your green stalk. Y’all, if you don’t know what a green stockalk is, it’s a vertical gardening system where you can literally garden on your patio, on your deck, on your backyard, and literally 2 feet of space. It is a great great gift if there’s someone in your life that loves gardening, that wants to get into gardening. It could be a parent that maybe doesn’t have the mobility to um stoop to raise beds. It may be someone who has very little space, a sister, a cousin or aunt. Take advantage of this Mother’s Day sale. The things that are on sale are the original um green stock, which is the five tier. I’m going to show you when I get over to mine. It is on sale, the basic and the basket weed 109. You can use my code for an extra $10 off. This is going to be the lowest price you will ever get a green stock. You’re going to be able to get it for $99 the five tier basic and ba basket weave or in the basic smooth finish 109. Also, they just launched or relaunched I should say their three tier green stock and y’all that’s what we’re setting up today. This is my first time seeing a three- tier green stock and I cannot wait to set her up. She is cute and she is all the things. Okay. Okay. And you can get that three tier for $79. And then with my $10 off code, you can get an additional $10 off. My code is LFF10. It’ll be down in the description below as well as up on the screen. So again, run don’t walk. If you’ve been wanting, if you’ve been eyeing a green stock, this is the time to get it. So in this video, we’re going to set up our three tier green stock. I’m going to show you how my other green stocks are doing. And then we’re also going to fertilize our green stocks. But I want to talk about fertilization when it comes to container gardening because it is extremely important that you fertilize when you are gardening in containers. So we’re going to talk about that on this video. Okay. So here are my three green stalks that I have right now. I have two in the evergreen color and then I have one in lilac. So let me just run through the differences really really quick so that way you know exactly what you are getting. So this green stock here is the one that is on sale. This is the original. It is five tiers. There’s six pockets on each tier for a total of 30 planting pockets. Y’all, you can crank out a lot of food in just 2 ft of space by using one of these. So, this is the basic. It has the smooth finish as you can see. Um, and like I said, this is on sale for 109. You use my code for an extra $10 off. You get it for $99. Um, I also encourage you to go ahead and get the ultimate spinner kit that does not come with it. That is extra, but that’s what allows me to move this around. And so I can spin it around when I want to get to a certain area. I can spin it around to make sure that all everything is getting enough sun. But you can see that my green stalk is doing quite well. The um parsley is like, “Hey, come get me.” Um and then I have in here various herbs. There’s some rosemary down there on the bottom. Then I have it um some patunias. And then up at the top I have onions. So this is the original and basic. This right here is the original in the lilac color. And this is the basket weave. So you can see that it has a little bit of texture to it. Um, and that is what they call the basket weave. So again, five pockets, excuse me, six pockets, five tiers for a total of 30 planting pockets. This right here in the middle is actually the leaf. This one is not on sale, but certainly if you want this, you can go ahead and grab it um and use my code. The leaf has seven tiers, six pockets, pure tier for a total of 42 pockets. So, one of the things that I want to point out, the difference between the Leaf and the original is that the Leaf has shorter pockets. The depth is seven um inches versus the um original has 10 in depth. So, these are for the original, the ones that’s on sale right now are for your bigger items like tomatoes, um eggplant, peppers, and things like that. The leaf is perfect for your leafy greens, your kale, your spinach, your lettuce, and all of your herbs. You can see again I have more parsley coming out here. I have sage, lettuce, onions at the top, some thyme here, ntoriums, more lettuce. Um, so you can see, look at that patunia that just bloomed. Isn’t she pretty? So you can see you can fit more stuff in because you have more pockets, but the depth is much shorter. So now let’s talk about the new product that also launched um during this sale, which is the three tier green stock. My understanding is that they used to have this um some years ago. I think it was before I even became a gardener and now they’re relaunching it. And so it comes in all the colors, the lilac, the evergreen, um, and the stone and cherry blossom. So, it is basically the same as the original except instead of five tiers, it is three tiers. I think y’all, this would be so perfect if you have a daughter or son that wants to get into gardening and they can have their own little mini green stalk. Now, my kids are past that age, but I’m telling you, man, if I had a little girl that was into gardening, I would sew or a son. I think that would be so cute that you could have your green stock, they could have their green stalk also. It’s just um again, if you want to have some height difference in terms of an aesthetic, it’s, you know, you can do that as well. So, y’all, let’s do our unboxing, shall we? We shall. We shall. Okay, so I told you new color. Not new color to green salt, just new color to me. We’re gonna add a little bit more color to the mix. So, here’s my box. Let’s do a drum roll when I reveal the color that I got. Here she is. Look at her. Look at y’all. Y’all cherry blossom. Cherry blossom. Is she not beautiful? She is beautiful. That’s the top. And then let’s get her. So, it’s just three tiers. It’s the original size, which is the um 10 in 10 in depth. And so, I’ll have 18 pockets instead of 30 because it’s just the three tiers, right? So, less soil, not gonna take a long time to put together, but we’re about to put her all the way together. Y’all, these are all of the flowers and things that we’re going to put in the green stock. So, this green stall is going to be mostly um aesthetic. So, it’s just going to be flowers, herbs, um and that’s pretty much it. Not much food. Hey y’all. I have all three filled up. You want to make sure that your soil is all the way to the top and I’m going to go ahead and plant them before I put them together. So, let’s go over here and take a look at our little plant table and see what we have to plant. So, one of the things I was mentioning when it comes to when you’re doing your green stalk um containers, you want to fill it with some quality um potting soil and fill it all the way up to the very very top so that way um it has enough soil in the depth of the container. Now, for me, I use um back toe or happy frog typically when I plant my green stalks. Today, I use backtoe and then another like off-brand um raised bed mix. And that’s only because one, I had it left over from something we had bought for something else. It’s been like lit literally on the side of my driveway for probably months. Um, but because I’m not doing food, um, then I’m I’m less particular about the soil. Meaning, if I was doing food, I would want the highest premium soil because again, I’m producing food that we’re going to eat. But this um green stock is really just for aesthetics because I have plenty food in these three green stalks right here. Um and so this is going to be flowers and a couple of herbs and that’s it. So let’s take a look and see what we have um on our little plant table. So we have some purple basil that’s really again just for de for decor. We have some Thai basil for greenery. We have some merry goals and that’s left over from um the seeds that I started. I have two trays of patunias from seeds that I started. Um we have some dusty miller that I picked up at Home Depot. This was like $1.98. So I got a couple of these. Um and then I got a couple of these just for color. This is a Mexican heather. And again, I’m going to split this like in two to get more out of it cuz this was like $6. So I’m going to get two for the price of one. Um, and then this is some basil. And then this right here, I think is oregano. I’m not really sure. It’s something that um seeded and took off, but it’s something that I didn’t plant. I don’t know what it is. I think it’s oregano. I think a seed got into a cup or something. But y’all, that’s it. So, we’re just going to plant it out. And again, I’m going for more variety of colors and aesthetics. So, I’m going to lay everything out and then we’re going to put it in the ground. and I’ll show you what we do. I must say I had so much fun doing this. I think there was um an element that I was able to kind of just be creative and not necessarily worry so much about the outcome. Meaning when you’re planting food, then you have the food that you want in there. You’re trying to find everything. um a space, you’re particular about where stuff goes. And this was just like a a fun project for me to do because it wasn’t necessarily food related. I wasn’t dependent on this green stock for production. It was really just for beauty. Um to have flowers mostly and a few herbs and just be able to plant it out without thinking about what vegetables going to go where, was it going to work, was it going to fit, all that good stuff. So, I really just had a good time just playing around. So, I just grabbed all my plants and I just started laying them, you know, where I wanted them to go. I was trying to make an emphasis on having um each tier to have um some elements of color of of different color. So, um a green, a purple, um a white, um a a pink, you know, whatever it is that I had. I didn’t want all green on one level and all of the flowers on one level. I wanted it kind of mixed in. So now so no matter which way I spun it around um I would be able to just see beauty. So this was just really a fun fun project for me. I really enjoyed it. And I think sometimes it’s important to have those projects in the garden that just don’t matter. Meaning it’s okay if it doesn’t look the best. It’s okay if it doesn’t fail. It’s okay that it’s not production. It could just be something purely for beauty. something that makes you happy when you look at it. I think we all need that in our gardens. Um, as you know, garden is hard work and so yes, we want to produce food for our families. We want to have abundance in that. But I think sometimes to just get in the garden all of these not going to happen. Maybe we’ll do that in the fall when we’re not planting in the green stalks and then we can rearrange and do something like that. But I think that she is so cute and pretty. So, I got to get me a lid. I do have an extra lid, but she doesn’t match. But we’ll put the lid on there for now. Um, which is a green lid of the old style. But I’ll get the new style pink lid. And y’all, I forgot I don’t have a um spinner kit for this. So, I got to get a spinner kit and a lid. But she’s sitting just fine on the PA and the base. So, now that we have our green stalk set up, let’s talk a little bit when it comes to fertilizing your containers. if you are primarily or if you have any type of container gardening and I know many of you that’s all that you do are is container gardening. It’s important that you fertilize and I thought it’d be a good um topic to talk about cuz I was um talking to someone at our planting planting party this past weekend and she was telling me that she was gardening the containers and that her stuff wasn’t growing. And so I said, “Well, how often are you fertilizing?” And she had the most puzzled look on her face and just said, “Well, I fertilize it when I put it in there.” And I’m like, “Well, that’s that’s not enough. So let’s talk about it. So when you are fertilizing, excuse me, when you are growing in containers, two things that you need to make be very very mindful of is moisture level and fertilization. In containers, the soil dries out much quicker than when it’s in the ground or in a raised bed. And so you have to really stay on top of watering. That is the downside of growing in containers, if I have to say a downside, just because you do have to water more frequently, especially depending on what type of container medium you’re using. If you’re using a grow bag that is porous, that’s going to be a little bit more porous and less resistant to drying out than, let’s say, you know, one of those steel metal um containers or a 5gallon bucket or something like that. But either way, you need to make sure that you stay on top of your watering, especially when the temperatures start to rise and it gets really hot. You may actually have to water twice a day. The other thing when it comes to containers is that you do have to fertilize more often. One, because the container is small, so it can only get nutrients from that medium of the container. So if you’re in a five gallon bucket or in a grow a five gallon grow bag, it only has that space to get available nutrients versus if I’m planting in the ground, it is getting available nutrients from a much wider area and a much wider space. Now in the summertime, I still fertilize my garden every single week, if not every week, than every other week if I’m traveling or if things get behind. I’m doing that and I am growing in primarily outside in raised beds in the ground or in a high tunnel. If you are in containers, you need to go ahead and just get your mind right, especially during the summer if you live in the south or in an area that gets really high heat and high humidity to fertilize every single week. Put it on your calendar. Make a note. Make a reminder so that you don’t forget. Now, when it comes to fertilizing in the green sauce, that’s the same thing. This is a vertical gardening system. It is it is container gardening. So you need to fertilize every single week. What I recommend is that you fertilize with worm castings. That’s one thing that you can use. Get you a liquid worm casting. Make you some worm casting tea or a compost tea. That’s one way to fertilize. The other thing that I use is rev um.com. I’ve showed you guys that before. Rev is Rev is a great product um that is organic, that is a natural fertilizer, and it does wonders. I have a link in my description box and with Rev, you can actually try them out for free. If you go to that website, they will send you a free 4 oz bottle for free. All you have to do is pay for shipping and 1 oz goes to one gallon. So, you can literally make four gallons for free to try the product out. It is wonderful. I have been using it for the last 18 months. It does great. The other fertilizer that I use is something from Fox Farm. Now, I have two from Fox Farm that I use. Um, for these onions on top, I’m going to use um Oh, I don’t know. Remember that. I’ll try to go get a picture of it or bring it out here. It is one that’s specifically for phosphorus development. I’m going to use that in the top of my onions and actually fertilize them directly versus putting it in the top like I do everything else because onions are a root crop and I want them to bulb up. So, I’m going to give them some extra phosphorus. But for everything else in the containers or in the green stock, I will be using either either Rev worm castings or farm fox farm grow big. Those are the three that I normally do. Now, my green stocks, you can see how they look and they’re looking pretty good. Like, no complaints whatsoever. But they have not been fertilized in two weeks just because in my area it has been raining nonstop. And so I did not want to come out here um with more water and more fertilizer uh when they were already soaking wet. So they probably look good because they’ve had a lot of rain water, but they haven’t been fertilized. So let’s go ahead and get our stuff ready to fertilize the green stocks. And I’m going to show you how I do it. These are the two products. So this is the Rev. Um you can see um it’s organic growth stimulant. And then this is the one from Fox Farm that I use for phosphorus. You can see it’s a 284. So the middle number is phosphorus. So, I’m going to use this just for the onions on top. Everything else is going to get the rev. So, I’m just going to fill up my two gallon um bucket here with water. We’ll start with um this right here for the onions. And then we’re going to pour this directly into the onions. And then everything else we’re going to pour in the top. Now, it’s really important when you are fertilizing your garden, whether it’s a container or in the ground, that this is not the time to go rope. You need to follow the directions for the amounts um that you need for the fertilizer, depending on what size container you’re using or what size space you are fertilizing. So, for this, I think it’s 1 oz um or excuse me, one teaspoon per gallon. And so, you can see I’m just eyeballing it here. And I if I’m going to go more or less, I’m going to always um go less. You don’t want to overfertilize your um plants just because you feel like oh, you know, the more is better. In this case, more is not better. Just follow the recommended amounts and you’ll be safe. Also, you want to make sure that you’re not fertilizing in the heat of the day. You want to make sure that it is um at the top of the morning when it’s cool or in the evening when the sun has gone back behind the clouds. But do not go out and fertilize your plants or do any type of insect treatment when it’s like 90 plus degrees outside because it’ll just burn your plants and they won’t be able to kind of uptake the available nutrients. So you just see me here. I am pouring it directly into the source. Meaning instead of me going at the top of the tunnel, excuse me, top of the greenhouse, top of the green stalk, I am pouring it in the actual pocket because this right here is just for the onion specifically for root development with this phosphorous lid off. And once I pour it in the top, it’s just going to trickle down until the individual pockets. And usually I have to do this two or three times depending on how dry it is. But I will know that it’s done when I start to see water come out of the bottom of the green stock. Um it’ll just keep trickling down. If you’ve never had a green stock before, there are little um plates for lack of a better like a little reservoir that goes on each tier. The water drips out into each of these pockets and eventually it’ll come down at the bottom. That’s when you know it’s done. So, I’m just going to keep filling up, keep fertilizing, and doing this for these three, and then we’ll be done. [Music] [Music] Okay, guys. We got the new green stock planted. We have all of them um fertiliz Well, I didn’t fertilize the new one just because I just planted that one. So, that’ll be on the weekly rotation next time. But, it’s all done. The only space that I have left to plant for the summer are the spaces behind me. But we can’t do that until our onions and garlic are ready to be harvested, which they probably have another 30 days. But after that, we’ll be able to plant this space back here and then we can officially say that every garden space is planted. But thank you guys so much for joining me. Remember to go grab your green stock. The sale is on the green stock sale is going on until May the 15th. But if especially if you wanted to give it as a gift for Mother’s Day, go ahead and order it now so that you can be first um one of the first people in line. You can get your delivery on time. It is the biggest sell of the year when it comes to orders and volume. So use my code LF10 and let me know in the comments what Greenstalk do you have, how many you have, or whatever um um antidote that you want to leave me. I hope that you are part of the Greenstalk Sisters Club. If it’s a brother watching, you can be part of the club, too. But are you part of the Green Stock Sisters Club? I want to know. Remember, gardening is a journey. Let’s grow together. I’ll see you next time, friend.