Spring. Almost time to start my container garden. Last year we met with mixed success: our bell pepper plant yield two or three peppers, the jalapeno a half-dozen or so. The oregano threatened to take over its pot and the chives did fine, but both the dill and the basil were really scrawny.
last year’s attempt
On $5 Dinners, Erin listed her 5 favorite online gardening resources. I should probably do some research before I do any buying.
Julie has a great tutorial about starting a garden from seed. My only attempt at starting from seed last year ended in utter failure, so I’m planning on going the seedling route. Maybe I’ll try starting from seed next year!
I love this hanging gutter container garden from Apartment Therapy. I don’t think it’d really work for our second floor deck, but if we ever have a patio, I might have to try it out.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the different gardening tools available. This article from the Washington Post proposes that you can do a lot with just your hand, a stride and a rake. Nevertheless, I think these fun products for container gardens are pretty tempting; I already own the elephant watering can!
Ree Drummond shared what she’s planting in her garden this year.
Green Your Way has some idea about planning your garden layout and creating a vegetable garden in any space.
So where’s our container garden going this year? I definitely want to do tomatoes, though what variety I haven’t yet determined. Herbs are in our future as well. I’m also going to have a successful basil plant if it’s the only thing I do. I’m not sure what other herbs I want to do though. Other than that, I’m not really sure where to take our planters. The CSA membership will facilitate a lot of my need for produce, so its difficult to determine what’s worth doing myself. I’d also like to spend some more time on our deck, so maybe some flowers in flower boxes are in order?
I’m still deciding on whether/what to garden this year. I moved into a small apartment with poor window placement (so no indoor veggies), and a decent sized balcony that faces east. I know I can’t do tomatoes or basil or anything that requires a lot of light, but I might do some other herbs (parsley, chives, thyme).
The book The Bountiful Container has been really helpful for me. I will definitely check out some of the links you shared!
Our balcony doesn’t get a ton of sun either, but I’m pretty sure my basil’s problem was that I didn’t pay much attention to it. I didn’t really think about putting anything in the windows-we have really wide window sills and that might work!
I’ll try to see if I can check out that book.
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!
One of my goals in life is to have a successful garden one day, but since I’m pretty sure I could kill a cacutus, I think that might be a pretty lofty goal.
I attempted to grow raspberries and zuchini last year with zero success. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to try and take a stab at it again this year.
Hi Stina! The oregano and chives pretty well took care of themselves, so maybe you should start there? I think attempting gardening is pretty inexpensive, so maybe it’d be worth a try?