Saturday, April 13, 2013

.....How Will my Garden Grow???...

Every spring and summer I attempt to plant a garden, and some seasons are better than others!  The past couple of years here, I have had two waist high garden bins that held my herbs in one and tomatoes and whatever else I could fit in the other!  I also have tried container gardening with different varieties of tomatoes, green beans and strawberries.  Last year I got carried away and tried to plant too much in a small space, so I begged the gardener to please make larger bins.  My (2) 2'x4'bins grew this year to (2)  3'x6'.  Funny how you fill up the space you have!!!  As you will see from the photos, there is plenty of room now, but as they grow I am sure the space will be full of wonderful edible treats.  I hope to plant some different things as the season moves from spring to summer to fall.  I am sure I love watching the blooms and then the veggies appear.  I do not like the snails and pesky bugs that seem to come as well. It's an ongoing battle that I hope to win this year!!

Here is where I started on the left (have you ever seen a parsley tree like that???)...And this is the beginning of having more room that is easy to access on the right~..




 I still have to add stepping stones, but at least you can get the idea of how it is shaping up.  The gardener added some lattice work underneath to fill it in which I really like!







I have one side full of wonderful herbs: rosemary, sage, Italian parsley, chives, garlic chives, Italian oregano, lemon thyme, French thyme, dill, curled parsley, and cilantro!!  I absolutely love picking fresh herbs and using them in cooking and want to experiment a LOT more! (No I didn't forget the basil; it is inside sunbathing in my kitchen window!)

The veggie side has two different kinds of cucumbers in the back, romaine and butter lettuce (about the end of the season for those), tomatoes, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, zucchini plants, green bean plants and strawberries.  As soon as the lettuce is done, I plan to add some yellow squash. I love marinating slices of zucchini and yellow squash and grilling it.


I will be sure to post progress pics as the plants grow.  But it has already been a month since some of the plants rooted in my garden and wow have they ever grown.




 It's amazing how much the tomatoes and zucchini have grown in just a few weeks.  I have a regular tomato in the large bin, and cherry tomatoes in the pot on the left.  I hope to have a good crop this year.  I can hardly wait to pick the first tomato - nothing tastes as good as one straight from the garden!!  And the zucchini in the pot is growing three times as fast as the one in the larger bin - I hope that means it will produce well!







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3 comments:

  1. I am so jealous of those bins and all of the gorgeous goodies growing in them! LOL I hope you have a super bountiful crop this year.

    Something you might try...egg shells (from those you have used to cook with) crumbled and spread around the inside perimeter of the bins can sometimes help to deter snails & slugs. ��

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  2. Thanks for the tips, Lisa. I have done eggshells and do have organic stuff (technical term!) to keep the snails away. My problem is the grasshoppers that come in the night and eat the leaves off the green beans! I have already replanted them twice and it looks like a third time is around the corner! I am determined NOT to give up!

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  3. I'm with Lisa! I don't even have one hanging basket yet. By March all my plants were started indoors. No garden this year :(

    Take lots of pics along the way, I'll visit your virtual one.

    Happy Growing!!


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