I mostly grow herbs in pots and I love it when some of my spidery friends help to keep the pests at bay... A mama huntsman spider (also called rain spiders and quite large - they can be up to about 35mm body length so of course look much bigger with their long legs) hung her egg sac below some of my pots of herbs which were standing on 2 upturned crates - I didn't see the nest because it was well concealed so the first I knew was when loads of little spiderlings appeared on the pepper plant (1st pic). A couple of days later after they had moulted and got a little bit bigger they moved on to some of the near-by pots - the second pic is a thyme plant, which shows how small the spiderlings are. Please remember - not all the small creatures you find on your plants are bad for them - please don't go spraying and squishing! Also remember - spiders are not as scary as many people think - they just want to get away from us and many benefit us by chomping pests.

1. if you are in a tropical or very hot, sunny environment, how do you keep your containers cool (so as not to cook the roots of the plants) while still ensuring that your sun loving plants get a full day of sun every day? 2. if I want to keep my potted garden in a shade house, to avoid over-heating or stressing the plants, what "grade" of shade cloth should I use in order to not sacrifice foliar growth, flowering and fruiting of my plants?

I live on the southern pacific coast of Costa Rica and this year when I started planting my gardens the iguanas ate my papayas, habaneros, maracuyas (passion fruit) and cukes to the nubs. so, I am starting over and trying 3, 7 and 10 gallon pots and grow bags for tomatoes, peppers, cukes, and whatever else I can think of. I have protected raised beds where I just planted radishes, basil, cilantro, onions, garlic and carrots and I will plant some peppers and tomatoes there as well. someone gifted me a pepper from an aging plant in their patio and said it was a "panamenio aromatico", used for making caribbean dishes. it is supposed to be much less spicy than a regular panamenio but very aromatic. supposedly, panamenios are the local name for scotch bonnets. it didn't look like a scotch bonnet, but rather something in between that and a habanero. apparently, these aromatic panamenio peppers are getting harder to find, even on the Caribbean coast where they were once common. i planted the seeds and almost all of them germinated and i planted six or seven in the ground (protected from the iguanas with mesh cylinders) and two of them in 7-gallon pots and gave the rest away. the ones in the pots exploded with growth and now each plant has about 10 or 15 still-growing golf ball sized fruits, a bunch of slightly smaller fruits and about 100 flowers and tiny fruits. the ones in the ground are way behind. what kind of potting mix is everyone using? i make my own: 1 part sifted homemade compost, 1 part peat moss, 1 part crushed pumice. the drainage is great so even if they get rained on heavily, the water drains quickly....it dries out quickly on hot sunny days even though it's heavily mulched, so i have to water almost daily if there's no rain. what is everyone doing for fertilizing? i am using slow release non-water-soluble organic pellets which should be fine as long as the compost has micro-organisms to break them down. i'm going to start making compost tea and applying it weekly to keep this going. i'm also using commercial fertilizer and have been using it weekly since the seedlings got their 2nd set of true leaves. i was using 20-20-20 at 25% strength weekly until the flowers started appearing and then changed to 10-30-20 weekly at 25% strength. i'm flushing the salts out of the potting mix by watering deeply the day before i fertilize.

[IMPORTANT READ] Wow! A huge thank you to each of you who joined The Potted Garden Society. This isn’t just a gardening group — it’s our green corner of the internet. Together, our mission is simple: 👉 Build a vibrant community of 10,000+ passionate plant lovers — from curious beginners to backyard legends — who are here to share, learn, and grow 🌼 Think of Skool as your gardening clubhouse. A space where tips bloom, ideas grow roots, and plants (and people!) thrive together. Here’s what we’ll dig into as a group: 🌱 Seasonal planting tips, tricks & troubleshooting 🌼 Celebrating plant wins (with proud pics!) 🐛 Solving pest & soil challenges 🍅 Learning how to grow food at home 🌿 Swapping advice on tools, composting & containers Our FIRST main focus as a community: 🔥 Help each other grow more confidently each season 💬 Make daily conversations about real plant wins & woes 🌍 Share eco-friendly ways to garden & give back to the earth A Few Quick Things: 1️⃣ This space is for plant newbies and seasoned growers 🌻 2️⃣ Say hello below 👋 Tell us what you grow, your zone or location, and a pic of your current favorite plant! Let’s grow something beautiful — together. Let’s grow The Potted Garden Society! 💚 – Donna

A deer eat all my big cucumber leaves off my plant. The picture you see is before the deer eat it.The big leaves they eat but there are three small leaves still growing. Will the plant survive?