Gardening Thoughts: Orange Oil and Container Gardening

A few weeks ago a reader stopped by the office to give me a few gardening things they didn’t need. The lady told me she thought about beginning a garden this year, but she couldn’t get around to it.

“That’s too bad,” I told her. “Maybe next year.”

I thanked her for the gift. I looked in the bag and saw a gallon jug of 20-percent vinegar – which I can always use – and a bottle of what I thought was orange oil.

Regular readers know that I’m a big fan about these two ingredients for killing weeds. Mix the gallon of 20-percent vinegar and a couple of ounces of orange oil and you have a powerful organic alternative to toxic weed killers like RoundUp.

I also use orange oil to kill fire ant mounds – mix a couple of ounces of orange oil and a couple of ounces of liquid molasses to two gallons of water. Pour a steady stream of the mixture into the mound. The orange oil will kill the ants and hopefully the queen, and the liquid molasses keeps any survivors from rebuilding.

But when I got the bag home, I realized what I thought was orange oil was in fact a product called Orange Oil All Purpose Cleaner and Degreaser.

I was a little worried about using it in the yard and garden, thinking it might have other chemicals in it besides the orange oil I use around the garden. However, the label described the product as “100% natural, biodegradable and non-toxic.”

Still, I decided to stick with the Medina brand orange oil that I know and trust for the garden. However, we started using the orange oil cleaner for the kitchen and countertops, and I’m very impressed. It cuts through grease better than any chemical product we’ve ever used in our house. The other day I was working on an oil leak under my truck and I got filthy. My arms were covered in oil and grease up to my elbows. For the heck of it, I sprayed down my arms and voilà, the grease came right off.

I never found out where this product is sold. If anyone knows, please let me know.

The episode kind of bummed me because the reader who gave me this stuff gave up on gardening. We live on a small farm with plenty of space for several garden beds and fruit trees. And we’ve been doing it a while. It takes a lot of hard work to start a new bed. Once you have a bed established, though, it gets easier.

I know how daunting it is to convert a patch of bermudagrass into a vegetable garden. I also know it can be impossible for people advanced in age or those with physical impairments. If that’s your situation, don’t be discouraged. You, too, can grow a vegetable garden.

This spring, my wife Janessa decided to grow some vegetables in containers. We’ve been talking a lot lately about edible landscaping. We’ve been growing a tabasco pepper plant in a terracotta pot for a couple of years, and we just love the looks of it. The green foliage is quite attractive, and it stays loaded with little hot peppers that change colors from light green to orange to firecracker red as they ripen.

That pepper plant inspired Janessa to grow some squash and cucumbers in pots on our front porch. We stuck some small tomato cages in the pots to support the plants, and they’re growing like crazy right now.

I am noticing that the container-grown vegetables need a lot more water and fertilizer than the ones growing in ground, especially the squash and cucumbers. So keep that in mind.

We also planted a few tomatoes in containers. They are not doing too well, though. I believe it’s because we planted indeterminate, vining-type tomatoes. I’ve read that the bushy determinate varieties grow better in containers.

Contact me by email at andy@fayettecountyrecord.com.