This was only my second year gardening, and first year with my own yard 😤 Everything is in containers. I struggled a lot with figuring out a good place to put containers that got enough sunlight. I was trying to avoid the front yard because I was worried about car exhaust and grossness getting onto veggies, but when I finally caved and moved everything to the front it started growing much much better. Lots of things also got chomped by deer and groundhogs in the backyard. I had hoped that big containers would keep the groundhogs out but I caught one climbing up onto the top and eating all the seedlings. Lots of failures, lots of dead plants. I tried to plant some native flowers in the backyard hoping to get them to spread to the empty lot behind us, but no success. A lot of seeds got eaten by birds.
I had better luck with both veggie and flower starts that I bought from the local farmer’s market. I was SO CLOSE to getting sunflowers, the flower heads were coming out but then we had a big windy thunderstorm that knocked them over and they got all crispy after :( My only harvest this year are a couple of jalapeno peppers. I didn’t start anything indoors this year, but I definitely see the value in it now and I’m hoping to get a rack with grow lights set up over the winter.
What about you guys??
My array of cactii and succulents continue to look great, despite us being on year 2 of a drought. I have a painstaking reigeme of upkeep which is mostly looking at them and saying to myself “yep, that’s a plant alright”.
So, all in all I’m happy with my garden.
I’m ass at maintaining my garden. The only vegetables I have are cucumbers I chaos-gardened.
This is my first year growing more than a few peppers and tomatoes on a patio, since family gardens as a kid, as I finally have a yard. It’s also my first year back in the north after decades in the US SW and SE, and quite a bit farther north than I’ve previously been. I grew up in USDA zone 5, and I’m in a microclimate of 3b, that’s probably more like 3a, now.
First timing, it’s a very short season, so I need to really do better at seeding some stuff like cauliflower, tomatoes, and cucumbers earlier for an early crop. I’m going to grow early tomatoes in a pot, so I can bring them in for our early frosts, and chase the sun a bit. My cauliflower is doing well during this late summer, but I really need to get it producing earlier when all I’m likely to get is peas and greens, otherwise.
Tomatoes are going to be a challenge here, it’s hard to get them ripened before late July. But I’m going to start some short season varieties super early, like late January/early February, to see what I can do. I’m also going to try to stretch the season after our early late frost that usually comes late Auguest/early September, with those same varieties in pots again.
I’m right on a river, so mildew on squashes is going to be an issue. I don’t know what to do about that yet, but it’s going to be a point of research this winter.
Berries without cages are merely a tribute to the deer and chipmunks. That said, everbearing strawberries do seem to do a good job of keeping the critters away from other things in my garden, so I’ll keep maintaining them. Once I buy a place, I’ll need to build some five sided cages to grow various bramble berries, blueberries, currants, and strawberries.
But most of all, two concurrent cucumber plants for a single person is way too much. I think next year I’ll just grow two pickling cucumbers, one early and replace it once it’s production is down. I’m getting big into fermenting, so I think I’ll want them all, just not all at once. I’m also finding I’m not a huge fan of slicers due to water content, when I eat them in salads, so a good pickling variety should keep me covered.
My hops don’t like being transplanted from the ground into a (very large) pot. Next year we’ll try to burry the pot, see how it goes.
Haha, I have hops and they are like cancer. I am never going to get rid of them, every time I dig a bunch of them up they send new shoots up all over the place. It’s worse than ivy.
Ivy’s very well implanted in my backyard from previous owners. It adds lots of green to an otherwise small fenced backyard.
I brought the hops when I moved in, and so far it hasn’t been able to take over… I’m keeping it contained as much as I can, thus the reason why it’s in a pot!
We’ll see how it goes next year.
