Saturday, May 23, 2009

Tiny Garden Update


I promised some tiny little garden updates did I not? The above picture shows my tiny little yard, my two tiny little garden boxes (surrounded by the dogs' ex-pens) and two of my three hanging tomato plants. Oh, and I just realized that the folding chair is in the way. Oopsie! The third hanging plant I don't think will make it - I waited too long to get it in the pot. It is not a happy plant. It is a very angry plant. Angry.

This is the second bed I planted, and the spinach, lettuce and green beans I planted from seeds. The thyme, oregano, marigolds (thank you Julie for the marigolds, and thank you Michelle for the help with companion planting!) are from plants. I have one tiny tomato plant (with a friend) growing in the bucket - my Mom had one plant left over. I'll be interested to see how it does. I ran out of dirt too, so we'll see.


This is the first box - shown a few weeks ago. Holy cow.

The hanging tomato plants are practically insane:

One of my 'maters on the hanging plant (the one to the right):

This one was my first, and it's a bit bigger than a golf ball. I'm like a proud mama. Seriously. I actually planted the marigolds last night around 10pm. In the dark. I still have dirt under my fingernails.

The cherry tomato plant is insane. Seriously, that thing is exploding everywhere. The pepper plant has blooms on it, but so far I don't see any evidence of a vegetable. But it's early yet. The hanging plants (aside from the angry plant) have lots of blooms, and lots of tomatoes already growing. The one on the left has yellow heirloom pear shaped tomatoes - but I couldn't get a picture of them easily. They're not yellow yet anyway - but they ARE pear shaped.

This is fun. Doing it this way means little to no weeding, which makes me VERY happy. I don't do weeding. If you don't believe me you should see the flower beds on the front of the house.
Next year I plan to do more research on companion planting beforehand - I'm sort of behind the curve this year on that one. I'm also thinking about trying to grow lettuce and spinach year round. Fun times! I'd have never thought two years ago that I'd even consider planting ANY sort of thing.

3 comments:

Jean said...

You've inspired me! I have an x-pen, I have the makings of a small boxed area like that, I hate weeding but love fresh produce....I can do that!!!

I hope Angry Plant gets over his (her?) snit fit and becomes the best producer of all. Go Angry Plant Go!

Chasing The Dog said...

I'm saving my old cat litter containers to make my own upside down tomato growers. I'm pretty excited. I plan on growing herbs on top, too. Yay!

I love the xpen. :)

Laura Carson said...

Jean - I'll tell you, doing it this way cuts down on the weeding thing drastically. Part of the reason, though, is that you use this guy's mix. This is the site for the book Julie got me: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Anyway, just remember if you put a bottom on your box to make drainage holes. :)

Paige, I think that's a cool (and economical) use of leftover litter containers. Good idea!