This is so exciting, the 11 garlic plants growing in the foam ice chest all sent out scapes.
Container Garlic – German Red
Harvested all the scapes. I will now sit back and wait to harvest heads of garlic (around mid July). Click here to learn more about garlic and when to harvest.
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Container celery is doing well also. I started the seeds in cell packs around end of February. The seeds were slow to germinate and the seedlings grew even slower. It was over 2 months when the seedlings were large enough to be transplanted.
Golden Pascal Celery
This is my first time growing celery. Not knowing what to expect, imagine my excitement to find the plants have grown to 16+ inches tall and forming nice thick ribs (photo above).
Golden Pascal Celery is an heirloom variety that self-blanch. It is supposed to have thick solid ribs that are crisp, sweet and tender. Am tempted to cut a few ribs but will wait.
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Few weeks ago when I harvested my window box lettuces I cut the heads at soil level as I did not want to nor had the time to deal with the roots and soil at that time.
Had planned to remove the roots at a later date but never got around to doing so.
Surprise! Look what I saw growing in the window boxes. Real heads of lettuces! The largest side shoot of the Bronze Mignonette (above photo, left) is about 7 inches across, the largest side shoot of the Forellenschluss (above photo right) is 9+ inches tall. Both were sweet and tender, not at all affected by the heat (high 80’s – 90+F).
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The napa cabbage is showing signs of bolting due to the heat. So decided to harvest it, weight 2+ pounds.
Minuet Napa Cabbage
While removing the yellowed and green outer leaves I discovered a number of earwigs (10-12) had decided to make the head of cabbage their home, living happily among the leaves where it is cooler and not needing to travel for food.
Minuet Napa Cabbage
After removing the outer leaves I was left with ½+ pound. Not a great result. Will try again in the fall to see if a fall crop will do better.
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This is going to be another bountiful fig year. There are figs of different sizes and different stages of maturity on the tree which means I should have an extended harvest, nice.
Container Fig
There is a baby fig at the base of just about every leaf and, for the first time, I noticed baby figs appearing where there are no leaves, how cool is that!!!!!
The figs will make up for my lost strawberries.
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Harvests for the week but no photo: Garlic Scape, Golden Sweet Snow Peas, Peppermint Swiss Chard, Broccoli and Chinese Chives (aka Garlic chives) most were shared with friends.
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Copyright © by Norma Chang. All Rights Reserved. Do not use/repost any photos and/or articles without permission.
Do visit Dave at Our Happy Acres for more Harvest Monday
Garden to Wok 
Very nice to see garlic,lettuce and celery in containers…gives me hope to start a balcony garden:))
Hello Cookingwithshy,
Looking forward to reading about your balcony garden.
Yes you’ve inspired me to get started:))
Hello Cookingwithshy,
Happy container gardening 🙂
The Minuet cabbage looks good. I’m growing that variety this year and hope it doesn’t all go at once because I have 4 heads. I don’t have earwigs but slugs are a big problem here with veggies that head, despite the use of Sluggo. Once they get in there they have no incentive to leave and eat the bait, and the garter snakes and toads can’t find them.
Hello Dave,
Cabbages have a long shelf life in the fridge, I have kept one for 3 months and the quality was still good.
wow that fig tree!! Can’t wait to see the harvest, Norma.
Hello Angie,
Me too.
Everything looks amazing. You’re making me want to take one more stab at the garlic, thank you. Figgy doesn’t have any figs yet but has a beautiful canopy, so many new leaves. I bought little white wedding favour (food grade) organza bags and I’ve bagged the lemons and will bag the figs once they start growing. The raccoons got my bell peppers over the weekend, I forgot to bag them! They also got a couple of jalopeños so I’m hoping they bit into one and learned a lesson 😳. Speaking of Oscar, the lemons are still pretty small (similar size to the last pic) and are now starting to turn yellow. I thought they’d be a bit bigger, any thoughts?
Hello Eva,
After I dig up and cure the heads of the container garlic I will write a post documenting the entire process so you can make another stab at it and be successful.
About Oscar’s size, container plants require more frequent fertilizing due to limited space and nutrients.
That garlic and celery is looking good! I had a lot of slug damage in my Napa cabbage and I am hoping they will be less active. Like David said, I use Sluggo but once they’re in the head they just keep on eating. Your container figs are doing so well for you. I’m always tempted to try them (again) but I have too much going on already!
Hello Dave,
Do give fig another try it really is easy and not at all demanding.
Congrats on that celery – it looks amazing! That’s one veg that I do intend to try at some point. That’s too bad about the earwigs in the napa – it’s a lovely head otherwise. Do you tie it up to get it to form a head or does it do that on it’s own?
Hello Margaret,
Minuet Napa formed a head naturally I did not tie it.
Everything looks great! I tried growing celery for the first time this year in the ground, but it died, might have gotten too much sun. I was wondering how come you use foam ice chest, is it for the light weight? Do you poke holes in the bottom for drainage?
Hello Somy,
I was given a stack of foam ice chest for free. I put holes at the 4 corners.
Your harvests look lovely, especially the garlic and celery. I’ve never tried going celery, perhaps I should try it someday.
Hello B&B,
This is my first time growing celery happy with results so far will post updates.
Hi Norma, your celery looks so healthy, I tried to grow celery the last 2 years but the stalks never thickened and it was very bitter. So jealous of your fig tree, looks like you are going to have a good year.
Hello Cheri,
From what I read celery likes an alkaline soil and likes moist soil at all times. I amend my soil with a bit of lime and water a lot.
I am envious of the green thumb you have. I am planting fig tree this year in our garden. I know its a bit late but ours is a new house so things are going slow.
Hello Balvinder,
How exciting to be starting a garden in a new house, I am sure your newly planted fig tree will do well.
There is a whole lot happening in your garde, dear Norma! Yes! There are also a lot of figs browning at our fig tree at home!.
Hello Sophie,
It will be a while before my figs start to show sign of browning, cannot wait.
Neither can I!
Hello Sophie,
🙂
You have a fig tree? Wow, so lucky. When I have my own place, I am absolutely going to have a fig tree. They are one of the most delicious and tasty fruits around. So versatile too. What will you do with them?
Hello Anna,
Fig tree is very easy to grow in a container, why not get a head start and grow one in container now then you can transplant it into the ground when you have your own place.