The State of My Garden
May 27, 2010 
4 Comments
Some of you will remember that this spring, I decided to attempt container gardening rather than planting my usual backyard garden. I just wanted to follow up on that and let you know how things are going.
I’ve had a lot of losses. Many of my herbs were lost to our cat…um…making use of the pots while they were in our sun room on chilly nights. Onions and radishes died after failed transplantation. And…in a complete oversight on my part, I failed to put drainage holes in our new squash containers when I transplanted them. After a huge rain…they drowned. RIP, squash. You’ll be missed. Luckily, some of the sibling squash plants survived my silliness and it seems that we’ll still have squash coming out of our ears.
Our jalapeno plants are producing like crazy and I’m really, really looking forward to fresh pico de gallo. And stuffed peppers on the grill. Mmmmmmm.
And look at this baby bell pepper. I love it!
My only surviving herbs are basil and cilantro. I’ve harvested the cilantro recently, so no photos of that….but the basil sure is purdy….and in need of thinning.
Eggplant plants are growing nicely but are nowhere near producing.
We’ve already enjoyed our first tomato and we are waiting on more, more, more! Unfortunately, a couple of our tomato pots weren’t draining properly either, so we’ve got lots of yellow leaves. I’m hoping to nurse them back to health and enjoy tomatoes all summer long!
So, while this container gardening thing doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea, I’m not giving up. What survivors I have will thoroughly be enjoyed and in the meantime, my kids are enjoying the process as much as I am. That’s the good stuff, baby.
If you’re gardening this year, will your share with me what you’re growing and what ups and downs you’ve experienced in your gardening efforts?
abbiesanderson
abbiesanderson
abbiesanderson
abbiesanderson
abbiesanderson
abbiesanderson
This is my first year attempting a garden. The girls and I started some seeds early in some pots. We transplanted those a little too early – we had snow in the beginning of may and everything died. Plan B was to buy some plants from the greenhouse. We bought and planted, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers and hot peppers, cantaloupe and watermelon. So far the zucchini and cantaloupe don’t look so good, but everything else (fingers crossed) is still alive. I bought some fertilizer today (we have really sandy soil) so hopefully that will help.
Oooh jalapeños! Today I worked on my garden…first attempt, on the ground (no raised beds). This is a joint effort between my sister-in-law and I, and we have carrots, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, bell peppers and zucchini. We’re VERY ambitious, but it’s been great. I’m in New Hampshire, so we had to start a little late (because of frost), but we’re looking forward to see how it goes.
No downs yet (except for the sore knees), but I expect there will be =)
Our garden sits at the base of a steep hill. Since we’re situated on the side of a river bluff, a lot of water drains right through our garden when it rains. I thought for sure the tomatoes were gonners — a huge storm system moved through right after they were transplanted and drowned ‘em! But surprisingly they’re perking up. We lost one plant and some of the peppers, but the rest made it. My potted herbs are still a little shaky though…keeping my fingers crossed!
We’re doing 2 small raised beds this year. It’s our first attempt. So far everything’s doing okay, but one of my tomato varieties has a problem: the tomatoes are turning black/brown on bottom, and the bottoms are flat. I’m not sure what’s going on, but those are just the first few, so I’m hoping the problem will correct itself. We’re growing 2 types of tomatoes, jalapenos, banana pepper, cucumber, zucchini, okra and cantaloupe. I put herbs in the beds, too, but next year I’ll do them in pots so as to have more room for the veggies. Oh, I’m also attempting red onions, but I’m not sure if they’re still growing or not since they’re underground. It’s been really fun, and a good first attempt. It’s also a great reason to call and chat with my grandpa (to talk gardens.)