I’ve written before that I grew up enjoying garden fresh vegetables from our family garden. My parents both worked full time outside the home but still managed to raise a large garden each year. My mom would can green beans, tomato juice, corn relish, etc. Now as an adult, I wonder how they managed it all. Over the years, I’ve considered trying my hand at vegetable gardening (I love planting flowers each year) but never actually took the plunge. This year, I stuck my toes into the dirt so to speak with some container gardening.
I was inspired very much by my aunt and uncle who tried their hand at container gardening last summer. They too raised a pretty large garden in their younger days but decided to go the route of container gardens and raised beds last year. I was so impressed at their variety of plants and vegetables that after visiting, I came home determined to have my own container garden this year.
I decided to start small…very small with two tomato plants that I purchased at our university greenhouse’s annual plant sale. I bought some cloth container buckets on Amazon (I’ll link my stuff at the end) and proudly set my plants out with fingers crossed for success.
A few weeks later, we visited my husband’s parents in eastern Kentucky. One of their neighbors had a small greenhouse and shared his extra plants with the community for free. Never one to turn down a freebie, my father in law and I both picked up some pepper plants. I wanted some jalapeno and possibly some sweet peppers. I THINK that’s what I got. Some of the labels were unclear and given that people had been picking through the plants and were probably not so diligent in putting things back where they found them, it’s really not clear what exactly we came out with.
As we loaded up, my father in law noticed a couple of summer squash plants. I do like summer squash so I took a container of those. Now suddenly my garden had increased significantly from two tomato plants to mystery peppers and squash!
Right after we got home from our visit, I saw a post on Facebook from one of my son’s teachers. Her husband and son built her some new raised beds for their first efforts at gardening. I offered her some “mystery peppers” and she happily came to pick them up. It makes my soul happy that the generosity of my father-in-law’s neighbor has mystery peppers popping up across the state!
The first group of pictures are a few weeks old now and things are continuing to grow. I’m excited and hopeful to see what we produce! It’s also been a fun experience for my son who checks our progress every day with me and helps me with watering. Stay tuned for updates!
Here’s what I’m using:
Plant Grow Bags-Those who know my well know that I have a bit of a problem with buying too many flower pots. These grow bags are easy to store; at end of season, you can dump the dirt and store them flat if you choose. They are lightweight and easy to move around. Water seeps out naturally so you don’t have to worry about drilling holes in a pot. These are available in different sizes.
Fertilizer-I like Espoma brand fertilizers for my flowers so I used their Plant Tone for my vegetable plants. It’s organic and it’s what my local plant nursery owner recommends. I have several of their products and have always been pleased. I’ve linked what Amazon offers but do check with your local nursery or garden center.
I compost but my compost wasn’t necessarily garden ready. Next year, I hope to incorporate it into my containers but for this year, I used Miracle Grow potting soil.
Do you garden? Tell me what you’re growing!
From the heart and from the holler,
Minda
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