Last summer's community garden experience wound up being a bit of a science experiment. Fun, interesting, but bit of a bust in terms of a substantive harvest. So this year I am going to switch things up a bit. I'd used our front porch for pretty stuff and some herbs. This summer, I am going to try container gardening.
The beginning set
Last weekend I cleared away the winter's stash of firewood and swept away all the old leaves. Then during the week, when I took breaks from my remote database management job, I started to get the pots up from the basement and began testing out how I wanted to arrange them all.
Our upstairs neighbor/landlord is lending me some blown glass watering bulbs. Last year we had some pretty hot days and I didn't always get out there to water the poor bairns. Maybe these will help in case I fall behind again.
Always encouraging is this perennial I dug up from our shared backyard several years ago. I just wanted something leafy that first summer when we moved in. This beastie - have no idea what it is -- has been showing up every spring for 3 years now. Yes, it's a perennial and that's what they do - but I have not treated this plant particularly well. I thought it had died after Year 1 and just left the pot uncovered and unprotected out on the porch all through the winter.
Last week I took an afternoon to get the first round of plants in.
Two varieties of tomatoes, with protective chicken wire
(we have many cats and squirrels who visit our porch on a regular basis).
The kitchen herbs (thyme, sage, 2 kinds of mint, basil & rosemary).
Plus 4 'sweet banana peppers' and 1 green pepper.
Plus 4 'sweet banana peppers' and 1 green pepper.
All the Pretties!
Porch garden at day's end.
Next week I'll be putting in some seeds: green beans, carrots, and several varieties of leaf lettuce. As things get all 'bloomy' and stuff, I'll post some updated pics.
