2015: photos and updates from the first quarter of the container garden’s life.
week 1-2:
selecting seeds pre- my knowledge of seed catalogs. at least i selected heirlooms. i spent hours at our garden center pouring over the seed packets. i planted on 3/9/15. here’s what i ended up with for spring:
- peas, Sugar snap
- lettuce, Romaine, Tom Thumb, Red Oakleaf
- arugula, Rocket
- spinach, heat tolerant
- turnips, Purple Top Globe
- radishes, French Breakfast, Purple Plum
- carrots, Thumbelina
- parsley, Italian Flat Leaf
- chard, Bright Lights rainbow
- beets, Chioggia
i built a brush trellis with bradford pear saplings for my sugar snap peas.
week 3:
we had a late freeze, so i had to cover all my seedlings with bedsheets overnight to protect them. almost everything survived.
first harvest: a bit of greens and one radish.
week 4:
it rained non-stop and everything grew like crazy.
turnips.
peas and arugula.
spinach and radishes.
picking arugula every day.
radishes peeking out.
eating greens we grew ourselves was a revelation.
week 5:
harvesting radishes, turnip greens, romaine, arugula.
this was the week my neighbors starting noticing the garden and i got a lot of compliments. i tried to encourage others grow a little food.
week 6:
torrential downpours and lots of green harvest.
tomatoes went in the ground.
washing everything was quickly becoming a big time-sap.
week 7:
week 8:
two months in and i had grown a decent amount of organic produce.
arugula bolted and i planted okra in its place. i also unsuccessfully tried to start peppers and tomatoes from seed without grow lights or heat pads, go figure!
week 9:
peas finally fruited! sugar snaps straight off the vine are a highlight of any garden.
i build hybrid stake/cages for my tomatoes and peppers using 2×2’s, 50 feet of galvanized fencing, and fence nails.
tomatoes already flowering.
so much cilantro, we were drinking cilantro mango smoothies.
week 10:
