Spring Is In The Air

And the plants are growing well. This is the little pot my son has. This shot is from yesterday.

And this one is from today...... How is that for some fast growing.

My peppers are growing a little slower then my sons plants but they are coming along nicely.

Last bit of news My Landlord gave me the ok to dig up this little flower bed in the back yard and put in something else. I'm going to build it up and make it a raised bed to keep the dog out and I will have to figure out which veggies will grow best in the shade of the house. I also want to do a soil test to make sure there is nothing harmful in the soil.

With this space added to the containers I should have a pretty good bumper crop.

Lets See What Blooms

My son received this cute little pot on Valentines Day...

Well actually about 2 weeks after Valentines Day and we just got around to setting it up.

It's a little pot with seeds and dirt (it's a little kit). We have it all potted and sitting in a nice sunny window. When something starts to bloom I'll post some pics. We will have to transplant them when they start growing though. There is definitely not enough room for those roots to grow in that little pot.

Peppers and Plans

Well it's been a little while since I've posted. It's still cold here ..well it is February. My pepper plants are still alive as you can see I've thinned them out to just three. They are still pretty small. I think its because I keep my house rather chilly. I've got them in a nice sunny window though and that should help.

I've also started going through Seed Catalogs to find plants that are compact. They should grow better in the containers then their counterparts. I'm still looking for some good containers as well. I'm kind of leery of using plastic planters because I don't want the chemicals to leach into the soil and then into my plants but the normal Terracotta pots will require a great deal more water. While wooden ones are very nice to look, I worry about rot and stone ones would be hard to move. It would seem the most obvious choice would be Ceramic but the cost is a little prohibitive.


I've been keeping an eye out on Freecycle and Craigslist and with spring on the way there should be some sales so I'll just have to keep looking.

Look What I Got

Aren't those just the cutest little pepper plants you have ever seen. Of course now I have to decide which to pull to thin it out. Poor little pepper plants.

Choosing Vegetables

In an effort to decide what Veggies to plant I've been consulting a book called Gardening in Small Spaces, written by Marcus Schneck. It talks about all the different aspects of gardening when you don't have much room. (although the pictures they have show yards with a great deal of space) In the back is has a list of Vegetables best suited to growing in a container.

The ones that he suggest are: Beans (pole), beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, muskmelons,onions, parsley, peas, peppers, radishes, spinach, squash, swiss chard, and tomatoes. With his listed vegetables he offers advice on how deep the container should be and how much soil it should hold so that the plants have the necessary room to grow.

Based on this list I've decided to try growing broccoli, cucumbers, lettuce, melons, onions, peppers, spinach, squash and tomatoes. Now I just have to wait for my seed catalogs to arrive so I can start choosing the varity I want. I'm look for compact plants from companys that sell heirloom seeds and organic seeds.

My First Container Garden ?!?

Well I’ve been checking out some books on Container gardening and Gardening in small spaces to try and decide which vegetables will work best. I haven’t decided which to use yet but I have plenty of time to decide.

Yep thats snow in the background.

BUT I hate waiting! So in this little pot I’ve planted some pepper seeds. (I got them out of a pepper on a veggie tray LOL) I have no idea how big the plants will grow but it will be fun to see while I’m waiting for that warm spring weather to start planting my other veggies.

Garden Containers

I've been searching around for garden containers to put my garden in. I was hoping to get some on clearance but haven't had much luck.The garden containers I want have to be big enough that the plants can grow in them but small enough not to take up too much room. I have found a couple in boxes here at home that will work for some of it. I have a couple of hanging baskets that will work for cherry tomatoes or there plants that are small or will hang and a medium size pot that will work for some peppers or other compact plant. I'll make my final selection when I finish gathering all the garden containers that I want to use. If I find one or two large enough I might try planting several groups of different vegetables together that go in the same recipe (like salsa or a salad). I might even try my hand at making a youtube video. Wouldn't that be fun?