2024-03-18
Gearing up for the season:
In the back are self-watering containers (white buckets and black bins) ready to go. In the flats are greens and other stuff that got started indoors and are being hardened off. In the front are peas about to be pushed into the soil in gutters (my favorite way of getting them started outside of the range of hungry critters); once they are about 6—10 inches tall they get moved from gutter into the ground.
2024-04-30
Greens going strong in the self-watering bins:
This year I came up with a new attachment system for my row cover fabric which is working really well. The row cover is fantastic for getting an earlier start and protecting the greens from insects.
Tomatoes will go in the ground soon:
2024-06-04
Peppers doing well:
These were overwintered from last year, saving the hassle of growing from seed. At the end of last season I pulled them (carefully) from the same containers, washed off the rootballs, and temporarily planted them all in the same big container that I moved inside over the winter.
The main challenge with this approach is keeping aphids from consuming the plant over the winter. Once the plants get going again in the spring they can fend for themselves.
Sugar snaps coming in—what a treat!
2024-07-06
Our garden is pinned in between some tall woods and our house, so doesn’t get good sun at all. Between that and mediocre soil and haphazard watering, we have real trouble growing full-sized tomatoes (our favorite variety, Juliet, is a plum that is super productive in our conditions).
Hope springs eternal, though, and every year I plant a handful of full-sized tomato varieties. And every now and then we actually get something reasonable:
2024-07-09
A volunteer visitor to the garden this year has been a hit: purslane. We’re often pulling small guys out of the plots, but this year it found its way into some of our deck containers, where it has gone crazy with the better soil. Every evening I snip off a thick stem and put the leaves into the daily kale and cabbage salad.
(Of course you should never eat a plant if you don’t know how to properly identify it and can differentiate it from dangerous look-alikes!)
