That certainly is a thriving, prolific pepper plant. It's nice to grow things that well-suit one's climate - a simple concept that can take a surprisingly long time to grasp (it did me).

Soil mix is perhaps not the only reason that one plant will thrive and another nearby does not. I don't see any signs of a composting operation in your photos - in addition to saving money, making one's own compost eventually leads to much better soil than always adding commercial mixes. Soil with a lot more stamina.

Aint that the truth pnbrown....why is it that we gardeners want to grow things we shouldn't.....

Love the pics and your garden looks great..

I didn't have good luck with jungle growth either. Your garden looks great!!

Where did you get the metro mix and what is in it?

Metro-Mix 500

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Metro-Mix 500 is excellent for a wide variety of crops grown in mid to large containers.

Available in 2.8 cu ft loose fill palletized bags (40 & 60 cu ft Minibulk and Bulk available in some locations)

Ingredients
Formulated with Bark, horticultural grade Vermiculite, Canadian Sphagnum peat moss, processed Bark Ash, starter nutrient charge, Dolomitic Limestone and our long-lasting wetting agent.

Applications
Especially suited for stock plants and container plants. Not suited for some propagation applications.

Metro-Mix Professional Growing Mixes

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Metro-Mix Retail Locator

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Suzyqk:

I got my Metro-Mix from Alachua County Feed and Seed. Definitely did not find it at a big box store. Its more geared towards professional grower types. $18 for 2.8 cu ft is a bit expensive, but it has more than paid for itself in peppers and pleasure as far as I am concerned. violet_z6 posted pics and info for the right stuff. Thanks violet. From what I have been told, the number has to do with the coarseness of the mix. 500 having more space for air. Lower numbers for seedlings and small plants.

pnbrown :

"I don't see any signs of a composting operation in your photos"

My composting operation is there. It just doesnt look typical. My pots are in the compost. I built a wire pen and a separate wooden frame.

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I filled them with leaves and sunk pots in.

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I did it this way to help protect the containered roots from the intense Florida sun. Once the season is over, I should nave a good bit of compost for next year. My first time trying this, so well just have to see how well it really works.

That's a very interesting way to compost and to protect your container plants. I'm curious, but why did you choose to use containers instead of planting in the ground?

That is the strangest thing I have ever seen. I would be skeptical about how much water you would need to keep the plants adequately um......watered. Do the plants dry out quickly?

Thanks for the info. I think your garden is really neat and it looks like it's doing well for you. I need to start a compost pile but of course I have no leaves lol!

Vance - I love the way you think - it's down right agriculturally diabolical. Beautiful idea with the leaf bins. And are those old shutters that you have utilized to create a raised bed frame? If so, can you elaborate on how it is held together? I love any raised bed that is made well from recycled materials. That is actually quite attractive.

I must give a disclaimer. My set up is just an experiment. I have no idea if it is worth the time or effort. I have no problem with trying to reinvent the wheel. Its fun. Having said that, this had been my best year ever as far as production, but thats not saying too terribly much.

genghis_bunny
I plant in containers because I had poor results in my sandy Florida soil. Im still inexperienced gardener (year five), so Im not sure why. Disease and/or pests killed my plants. Thats part of the reason why I started collecting the leaves, so I can enrich the soil and have better luck in ground. I plan on removing the blue box and pots at the end of this season and will plant in ground in that location next spring. One foot of compost should do the sand well. There are worms in that stuff as we speak.

mailman22
The set up you see dries out a little faster than the ground, but way slower than basic plastic pots in full sun. I went to pots to avoid wilts and other soil based problems. But pots dry too fast and its too easy (for me) to screw up fertilizing. Watering twice a day is a drag. The leaves slow down the rate of water loss in the pots dramatically. I can go two/three days without watering them. The leaves will be new each year so I wont have the problem of disease carrying over from one year to the next. Or so thats the plan. Also, as the plants are growing larger, the leaves are decomposing more. The plants are sending out roots through the bottoms of the pots. I cant move many of them at this point, or I will damage too many roots.

Raisemybeds
Thanks for the compliment! Yes they are old wood shutters. I pulled them down to paint the house and they were damaged in some places, I didnt want to repaint them (color change on the house) and I wanted to add more and have them all match, so I bought all new for the house. I couldnt stand to just throw the old ones out, so I came up with this idea. I would rather not have them blue as they dont match the house, but I didnt want to bring more paint into the equation, so they were just put together as is. I laid them out in a rectangle shape and used any long wood pieces I could find in the shed to screw them together (deck screws). I worried that they would bow out in the middle, and they do a little bit, but as they are only holding partially decompose leaves, the weight is not too great. I do have one piece of wood across the middle/bottom to keep the sides as straight as possible. I dont think I could fill it with dirt and have it stay together. The shutters allow for good ventilation for the microbes to breathe. Oxygen! At the end of the season I will try to lift the frame off over the leaves (compost at that point) and start another braised bed next to it, while using the current location (with its enriched soil) as an in ground raised bed (with no sides).

Brilliant! Over time you will build a large garden of frameless raised beds with very little effort. I just hope you have access to plentiful compostables.

That sounds like a pretty cool idea to me. I hope it works well for you. Be sure to update us on how your experiment is going.

Very creative, and what a beautiful garden!