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So I decided that once we started getting Covid-19 cases here in the states that it is a good idea to get a garden going this year. That is what I did.
I have been wanting to start one, but with the thought of the Pandemic at the time, I knew I needed to do it.
Now I ended up starting some things a bit early and didn’t pay enough attention to the frost advisories and warnings.
I must say, for someone that need’s to keep up on the weather as part of my job, I often slack off on that. Although I never used to be.
Why did I go with a Container Garden?
We do currently have 2 flower bed gardens. These were put in actually last year, the folk’s who lived here before us put them in.
My wife didn’t want me to use those, she wanted to be able to do some work in it with our oldest this year, to help keep him occupied and to teach him some thing’s.
That is when I had considered building a raised bed garden, but then I decided against it because I didn’t want to have a bare spot left over in the ground once we move. That isn’t the best way to leave a good impression.
So I decided to go with container’s or pot’s. I considered going with 5 gallon bucket’s that you can pick up for a cheaper price than you can get the pot’s but upon checking with the park owner’s they advised against the plain 5 gallon bucket’s.
I went ahead and got some pot’s. In fact I have some 10″, 15″ and 24″ wide pot’s and trays.
What have I planted so far?
I started mostly from seed’s, but I also bought a few transplants as well.
The transplant’s that I bought were some yellow, red and orange bell peppers. Along with a Tomato, Grapevine, Raspberry and a Strawberry plant.
I started out with just planting some seeds in the 10″ pot’s. I planted some squash, bell pepper’s, bunching onion’s, kale, spinach and cilantro.
In a 15″ pot I planted some carrot seed’s. It appears that I put more seed’s in there that what I thought, so we will see how that goes. might thin them out or transplant them into another 15″ pot.
Just this last weekend I have recently planted some Brussels Sprout’s, Radish’s, Garden bean’s (which I thought were green bean’s but maybe not), Pea’s (which the Wife hates but I love) and Cucumber. These were all from seed’s.
I also have planted some lemon seed’s that I have gotten from the store bought lemon’s. I have never done this but I have heard that it work’s, but these won’t be grafted with a disease resistant base root. So I don’t expect much from these except learning a few thing’s.
What size pot do I have for each plants?
Okay so I transplanted most of the squash that had sprung up out of the 10″ pot’s into some 15″ pot’s. I also staked them because I plan on growing these vertically (never done this before) to help save growing space.
One that I was transplanting fell apart and I think it ripped out most of the root’s but we will see how that one fairs.
I am leaving the Kale, Spinach and Cilantro in the 10″ pot’s and the 4 24″ tray’s.
With the 24″ tray’s I have one with 2 kale plant’s, another with 2 spinach plant’s and another with 2 cilantro plant’s. I think I also planted one with 2 bunching onions, but I’m not positive. I do have them all marked but I can’t think of it off hand.
With the 10″ Pot’s I just have 1 plant per container of the Kale, spinach and cilantro. Oh, I also have one onion plant that I just started from cutting the root end off an onion we were about to cook with and planted it as well. Hopefully that does well, never done this before.
Now for the 15″ Pot’s I have my Raspberry, Grapevine, Squash, Bell Pepper’s, Brussels Sprouts, Radish and the Garden Beans.
I have 4 Radish seed’s planted in the 15″ container spread out. All the other plant’s are only one per container.
Oh I also have staked up the Raspberry, Grapevine and Bell Pepper’s along with the Squash. As well as the Tomato plant.
I was going to cage the Tomato plant but they didn’t have any more cages, and haven’t gotten any more in since. So we will see so well it does with the stake.
What has gone wrong so far?
Well so far the only bad thing has been the Grapevine. First the frost had gotten to it, but it started to bounce back, but then the cat got a hold of it and broke off it’s only steam that contained leave’s.
I doubt it will recover from this, but I remain hopeful.
The Raspberry plant was also affected by the frost but it has seemed to make a pretty good recovery once I clipped off the bad leave’s.
I have noticed that some neighborhood cat’s or it could be other critters have dug through some of my pot’s with seed’s and so far those have not come up yet. I think it was cilantro.
I didn’t do a good job at marking the plant’s. I wrote what each pot contained on the side with a permanent marker but that doesn’t work when you plan to transplant them into other containers.
I should have just gotten some of those flat push in wooden thing’s you write on. That way it would stick with each plant and not just the pot.
My Oldest has decided that it is fun to pull the leave’s off and show me how great they look. He is still pretty young and doesn’t grasp the concept but he hasn’t done it anymore that I can tell.
It is much harder to plant thing’s with kid’s but they really enjoy it at all age’s, even though not all ages can grasp any knowledge and understanding, it is best that you allow you kid’s to “Help” with the garden. It give’s you some personal time with them and they love that!