A Southern Grace: how our garden grows

March 26, 2015

how our garden grows

Yum

Longtime readers might remember my first attempt at container gardening. The results were mixed.


In my defense, I had the odds stacked against me: It was a solo effort in the frigid tundra of NY on an 6x6-foot balcony. Plus, I was fairly uninformed. I have no excuses now--I have a partner-in-planting, I'm in sunny and mild NC, we have a pretty large patio with relatively good sun exposure, and I checked out a stack of gardening books from the library to refer to whenever a question arises.

Day one.
Day six.  That's good progress, folks. Looks like it's about time to weed out the weaklings and upgrade to a roomier locale.

We started a few things inside, and our tomatoes (both large and small), peppers, thyme, and rosemary are already showing signs of life! We sowed some lettuce and green onion seeds, too, and they're outside soaking up the sunshine. (Now if only we can keep the squirrels out of the pots.)

Thyme!  It's on my side.

We're doing a lot of experimenting, trying to find the methods that yield the best results. I'll keep you updated on our progress, whether you're interested or not! And if you have suggestions or sage advice*, don't hesitate to share!

*By that, I mean advice that could be described as sage, not knowledge about the herb. I never really liked it and refuse to waste valuable patio real estate trying to grow it.

14 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Wonderful! You are going to have fun this summer...

Cheers,

Rosa

pam said...

Looks good! You should keep us posted by linking up to Garden Tuesday on my blog!

Juliana said...

How fun Grace...I just sowed some edible flowers seed and baby lettuce...I just wish I had enough space to play with more seeds...
I look forward to see how they grow...
Have a great rest of the week :)

Unknown said...

You are so lucky to live in a warm climate. I purchase the seedlings and grow from there. With such a short grow season it's the only way, but it is so pleasurable to just pop out to the deck and pick my own herbs... Rosemary and basil are my favs.

Velva said...

You will have so much fun this year in your container garden. I am an avid vegetable Gardner and I can hardly wait to play in the soil.

Happy spring.

Velva

Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies said...

So excited for you.. and really jealous that you can have seeds outside! We just started a couple packets of seeds, but it will be a long while before we can let them outside!

Betty said...

You're ahead of me! I've bought some seeds but they haven't planted themselves. Hmmm...

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

You cannot know how much I admire those that can garden. I kill everything except cactii. Actually I've killed a couple of those :(

Angie's Recipes said...

They are doing very good! I planted some herbs last week, nothing comes out yet..

Marcela said...

They are doing pretty well! Such a joy to watch something growing!

Pam said...

It looks and sounds like you're doing great with it, Grace! Lucky you with a garden. We have way too much shade for one now. Enjoy it all this summer!

Tania @My Kitchen Stories said...

Wow those babies are looking good. i hope they go well.

Food Gal said...

Squirrels are my nemesis, too. My husband finally built a large, walk-in cage around my four tomato plants that are in containers. That did the trick to keep the critters at bay.

I Wilkerson said...

What lovely inspiration. We are just getting to serious seed starting time in Wisconsin now, so I hope to follow you soon!