this was a very eventful summer. my second son was due the end of july, but I still REALLY wanted a garden, so I figured a container garden on my deck would be easier to manage than one in the ground...and maybe it would have been if I had actually stuck to that plan....but of course I didnt! I still had squash and zucchini and carrots and beans in the ground, and a LOT of lettuce too...eventually I had 20 heads of lettuce in my garden both in the ground and in containers!!!
Anyway, I stocked up on containers, and I also ventured into the world of starting from seed. I learned about the more compact varieties of plants, and I knew those would be better suited for my petite garden space and containers. So I started seeds in those little jiffy pellets...and I was pretty pleased with my results. I even managed to grow "bush" cucumbers in pots...which ended up having to trail down my deck...not very bush like at all.
When I said it was an eventful summer, I really wasnt kidding! My son was born 4 1/2 weeks early and spent 24 agonizing, stressful, faith building days in the nicu an hour and a half away. thankfully we were able to stay with my parents who lived about 10 minutes away from the hospital....but for those 24 days, I was away from my garden (my husband was able to come back home for a little while to work, and kept it watered....kinda). I had arranged for our sweet elderly neighbors to water the garden in the 4 or so days I was planning for us to be gone....and they kept an eye on things and watered as much as they could for the duration of our time in nashville, even mowed our lawn 2 or 3 times...such wonderful people....but it just wasnt the same.
I was pleased when I got home that most of my plants had survived pretty well....
that summer I had planted:
squash and zukes in the ground and in pots
tomatoes in pots, and eventually in the ground too
basil in pots
cukes in pots
lettuce and mesclun in pots and in the ground
pole beans in the ground
bush beans in pots and in the ground
peppers in pots
carrots in the ground and in pots
potatoes in a trashcan
here is what I learned:
1)tomatoes, squash, zukes, cukes, peppers, carrots just dont do well in pots....at least not that summer...and while there were extenuating circumstances that may have affected yield...I probably wont plant those again in pots...although I will probably try some "patio" tomatoes in pots again.....because I am a glutton for punishment.
2)I love basil, lettuce and mesclun in pots
3)bush beans were nice and easy to plant in pots...but yield was better when planted in the ground
pole beans were a pleasant surprise...I planted them near the deck and attached some trellis netting to the deck, so they grew up the netting and then up the rails of the deck...pretty cool!
4)I wasnt super impressed with my carrot yield, and I ended up taking a year off from carrots...but I'm thinking a shady location may have been to blame this summer...so I may try again this year.
5)I had read several places about trying potatoes in a trashcan....so I tried it....it seemed to work pretty well until all of a sudden the leaves just DIED! one day...out of the blue....or maybe because I had sprayed for weeds nearby and they may have been collateral damage....so my yield wasnt great...and it took a TON of potting soil....but it was really cool to dump out the trashcan and fish out all these cute little potatoes from the dirt...and oh my goodness....they were SO GOOD....tender and tasty....amazing.....I wasnt brave enough to try them in 2011....but I am gearing up to try again for 2012 with TWO trashcans....and something called a "potato bag" that only cost 6 or 7 dollars and the picture shows an abundance of potatoes...might be false advertising like those upsydownsy tomatoes thingys....but I'm willing to try since I found such a good price on potting soil....and I'll keep the weed killer far far away....maybe just maybe I'll manage to grow some more yummy potatoes that dont cost over a dollar a piece in the end!!!
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