I do not have good soil- I’ve been putting in bags of peat and loads
of manure for years now and I STILL don’t have good soil. I should
have dug up the entire garden and filled it with compost and peat
and top soil- but we (as in my husband) decided that would be overkill
and so we have a heavy clay soil that is dominant and patches of peat
enhanced heavy clay soil. It is not good for growing.
So most of the time I put plants in containers.
Containers are good for flowers- especially geraniums.
And they are pretty good for lettuce…
Yesterday-
Last week… it is growing pretty well- I thinned it out some
yesterday and made a great fresh lettuce salad for dinner.
And tomatoes seem to do pretty well in containers, too.
This tomato shows a weeks growth- and the other plants
are putting on buds and small little tomatoes.
The peppers are doing all right in the containers, too.
Even the cheddar cauliflower is growing in its pot.
Which is very good, since the rabbits have eaten all the leaves
off of the ones I planted in the ground.
I think I am more of a container-pot gardener than a bounteous
bed gardener. Maybe I just don’t have green fingers- but with
the pots doing so well- I’m blaming the soil.
So- How does your garden grow?
My plants are all in containers and doing well. Your yard looks great, I see it often and it always looks beautiful. I have animal and people problems. Others seems to enjoy my produce more than me.
Your front porch is an explosion of flowers and herbs, Cynthia!
I still can’t believe you planted all those flowers in those few containers!
Our father would be very proud of you!
Heidi, the latest thing here seems to be raised bed kits – often water tanks that have been cut in half and filled with soil. It’s sort of like large scale container gardening! 🙂 Maybe Frank needs to build you something like that! 🙂
Frank likes small containers that can be dumped out and stored during the fall and winter. He is big time into ordered paths and plants that don’t propagate themselves! I am a messy- my husband is a tidy. I don’t know how we have managed to still be together -let alone still in love after 37 years of marriage- but we have learned patience and forgiveness. 🙂
Dear Heidi,
Those lettuce look so fresh I feel like making my favourite salad dressing as I read this post. I find that pots can have the added advantage of being more portable in the event plants need to be moved for more or less sunlight, rain and wind.
They are so tender and delicious, Chopinand! I have been using them with baby Romaine and spinach and eating the most delicious salads!
I am good with the pots- my husband likes to redistribute the flowers to fill in bare spots after the perennials have bloomed out- but I have a nice sunny spot for the vegetables so I warned him off of moving them about!
Your containers look lovely! The only problem with planting in containers is that they need to be watered so much more frequently than things in the ground; well, that is normally. This year everything has needed to be watered. I was so thankful for the little bit of rain we had this morning!
I agree- they do need frequent watering- but I used a moisture control soil and it is not as often as you’d think.
The rain has been off and on all day long- and I’m very thankful for it as well!