Summer 2011 Garden

Category : gardening

I really, really wanted to garden again this year. Last summer’s balcony garden wasn’t so great…you can read about it here. I started out strong and floundered as the summer went on. This year I had a tiny start and planned to expand and that never happened.

I’ve thought about it and I think it’s because it’s a balcony garden, in containers. I just don’t enjoy it the same way I do digging around in the dirt. I’ll happily weed and water if I have a nice size plot of earth, but it’s just not the same doing it out of pots from the 3rd floor. I’m not giving up on gardening, I just wish there was a community garden or some sort of space available for me locally.

the start of this year's garden, in May

my lone tomato, in July!

Container Gardening ~ Week 11

Category : gardening

I haven’t been writing about my container garden because I haven’t been working on it much. It’s not in the best shape and I’m embarrassed about that, and I feel guilty. I didn’t expand as I wanted to, I skipped waterings on hot days and I ended up with not much of a harvest at all.

The good news is that I’ve gotten a few tiny tomatoes and enough sage and rosemary to dry for the winter. I transplanted most of the tomatoes too late and they now don’t have enough time to grow big and delicious. My roma’s are green but I haven’t had any red ones, I’m still hoping, or I will just fry them green or let them sit on the counter until they eventually ripen. All of the tomatoes have stem primordia and I never bothered to try to fix them. If I’m in an apartment next year I may use big pots instead of the hanging containers, even though that doesn’t look nearly as cool. Honestly, I’m not sure if it was so much of the containers or that I was more focused on work, my daughter and doing fun stuff that doesn’t involve chores. This experiment was unscientific and did not turn out as well as I hoped. So, it’s a loss but I’m okay with it, kind of.

no tomatoes! at least the basil is fine...

green romas

the few I've gotten are delicious!

poor calendula

my falling in love poppy is heartbroken

my evening primrose at least looks okay!