Garden Update: A Lesson Learned
About a month and a half ago, I posted that I had started my garden on a nice spring afternoon. I had planted some broccoli, an artichoke, strawberries, and four tomato plants.
The good news is, despite freezing temperatures, the artichoke, broccoli, and strawberries survived. The bad news is, I lost my tomatoes. I knew when I bought the tomatoes that it was pretty early in the season for planting them, but I let my enthusiasm for the sunny day get in the way of good judgment. Lesson learned. Don’t plant tomatoes until May.
Now it’s May, and we had a sunny morning yesterday. So I got out the rest of my containers and started seeds…lots of seeds. I planted:
- lettuce
- spinach (not sure how that’s going to turn out, as I got a late start)
- radishes
- carrots
- snap peas
- bush beans
- thyme
- rosemary
- oregano
- basil
- parsley
- an assortment of flowers
Over the weekend, I hope to set up our old square foot garden frame, so I can plant some squash and cucumbers. I’ve finally settled on a space in the yard that would be suitable for the square foot garden. I need to move my compost pile first though.
I haven’t spent a whole lot of money on our garden this year. I had to buy seeds, but so far I’ve only needed a couple of bags of soil. I brought all the soil from my square foot garden with us last year when we moved. And then, of course, I spend double what I had planned on tomatoes, because the frost killed the first plants.
I’m looking forward to an abundant harvest this year. And since the garden is out on the deck, it’s really handy for going out and picking veggies as needed! The first broccoli heads are starting to peek through the leaves, and I can’t wait to taste the yummy goodness of home grown veggies!
How is your garden growing? What did you plant?
Photos: my patio garden, broccoli
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By Lynnae McCoy, on May 14, 2009
I'm Lynnae, wife of one and stay-at-home mom of two. I'm committed to getting out of debt by being frugal with my choices in life.
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I feel like I am behind in my planting– my in-the-ground is going to be planted with seeds on Saturday. My containers were off and running weeks ago. We have had close to frost tems in the last two weeks and I have been slow to finish it.
I’m just doing a container garden because I can’t tolerate my cat doing her duty in my garden (eeewww).
Sounds like you have a good plan. I know from past experience that it’s possible to sink a lot of money into a garden. You have to be careful.
Love the rewards and reaping the bounty though. It’s always a miracle to me to see those little sprouts coming up. My kids love to scratch in the dirt too. Lots of lessons there.
Where I live we still have frosts at night right now, so no planting yet. I’m excited about it though! I’m thinking of trying those upside down cherry tomato plants this year too.
I just finished planting my garden this morning. I have had a couple years where I too got over eager and lost plants due to late frost. I now usually use Mother’s Day as my guide. And since my mom and I go to the nursery to buy our young plants as a sort of Mother’s Day tradition, this works out well. Hope you have a bountiful harvest all summer long!
You can cover your plants if the weather turns cool. Especially container plants.
I say, go ahead and plant’em. Just keep an eye on the weather.
NW OR Coast. Have been early morning frosts and lots of rain on weekends when I can do it… maybe this weekend? Hope so! Had hail 3 days ago, and that was NOT a good thing for the little plants.
Have a home garden – the perennials came back well – strawberries, rhubarb, chives, nasturtiums, asparagus, kales, walking onions, celery, celery par cel, all all the berries came back great guns :) Raspberry, tayberry, red currants, black currents, blackberry, service berry, aronia berry, juneberry, blueberry. Also see I missed some potatoes as volunteer potatoes are coming up – good :)
At work I planted in big black tubs as a “beaufification” effort for my boss… some flowers for the boss, but for me are the scarlet runner beans (beautiful flowers on them also), kales, snow peas, garlics, and a transplanted tomato plant and trying a transplant canteloup this year (never mature here, but this is a sunny sheltered spot so thought I’d try it.)
In a friend’s greenhouse for later transplant are marigolds, kolrobi, cauliflower, broccoli, garlic chives, salad greens, carrots, radishes, zucchini, and spaghetti squash. Also corn for transplant. And two transplanted tomato plants.
So – I’m gardening in 3 places this year :)
Good luck with yours! And if the spinach doesn’t do well, try swiss chard – a perennial – and grows like a week here!
Last year the squirrals got everything but my tomatoes and eggplant. This year I planted cooking tomatoes, salad tomatoes, peppers, and purple eggplant. I am so excited as we loved the fresh tomatoes last year. They were so delicious.
For mother’s day I bought my mom the same plants as well. She loves to garden and it is a useful gift. She was thrilled.
I hope to try strawberries and some other things next year as well.
I am in NJ, so it is afe to plant plants in May.
Old timers in PA will tell you never to plant the toamtoes, peppers, and other frost susceptible plants until Memorial Day so that frost won’t kill them. I figured they know what they are talking about and have stuck with their advice over the years I’ve gardened and as such have seen others lose their plants while I have not. I actually purchased my tomato and pepper plants yesterday and they are sitting on a windowsill in the house and will be planted sometime over Memorial Day weekend. I can’t wait to dig in!!!
I already have planted onions, garlic, peas, carrots, lettuce, and spinach. I tend a large garden (40′ x 40′) and am incorporating the square foot gardening method throughout it this year so I can plant more and have less work maintaining. I can and freeze what I don’t use fresh and enjoy my garden all winter long!
To Rebecca Rivera – just so you know as I did not when ordering strawberries to plant for the first time, you will not get a crop the first year on June-bearing types and limited on the continuos producers. Huge disappointment as I was looking forward to them that year…
Our peony just started blooming this week — I love the first summer blooms. We started seeds inside a while back, and hardened the plants off and put them outside a few weeks ago (we live in the Southeast). So far this year, we have collards, a couple of heirloom tomatoes and peppers, and basil. Once it’s warmer (and we get our state tax refund), we’ll add herbs in containers. Just started some seeds of sweet alyssum inside, we should have nice little plants for hanging baskets and hostess gifts in just a few weeks!
I have corn, green beans, lima beans and onions planted so far. I have tomatoes and cabbage seeded in some small containers that will soon be planted in the garden. Green peppers and cukes as well as some yellow squash will be coming soon.
I just bought some stuff from the farmer’s market today! Tomatoes, pepermint, basil, cucumbers, watermelon, a blueberry plant/tree and something else. I was looking for some thyme and lettuce, but I can buy the seeds for those. I would love to get some strawberries too!
I was given some big black tubs (think for trees that are 3-5 years old when you buy them), and there was a master gardener booth at the market, so we stopped there, and she said to fill it up half way or so with packing peanuts, that will give me drainage, and will make it easy to move! Yaaaay for master gardeners!!
Now to find some good dirt!!
I planted my garden a little early too. We had had warm temps for awhile and the 10 day forecast was great. So I planted a couple of weeks ago. Last night it got down to the mid 30′s and frosted over. Fortunately I had watched the weather and my husband and I had gone out after dinner and covered the garden and brought in hanging stuff and containers. I think we saved everything and I am hopeful that my early start will mean early harvest. Good luck with yours!