Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Deck Gardening 2024

 
What I have learned from decades of talking to gardeners is that whether you have acreage, or a single pot, every spring brings with it hope for a great harvest. Last year was one of my absolute worst. I decided that it would be a good idea to install a drip irrigation system in the container garden that I keep on my deck. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the water pressure to cover all of the pots equally, so some overflowed, and the plants rotted, others didn’t get enough water and they dried out. I won’t do that again. Having now removed all of that tubing, and gleefully tossed into the trash, I’m ready to start anew.

  One thing I’m doing differently this year than I did last is to try raised bed gardening. You don’t have to garden on the ground in order to have a raised bed, you can get a trough planter like this one to raise things up, making it much easier to deal with when it comes to watering, weeding, and harvesting. I’m quite excited about this. I’ve really just starting planting in zone 6B where I live, but I will say that I did plant potatoes on March 17 as I used to do with my dad when I was a little girl, and they are doing well, although in very early stages.Shortly after I planted the potatoes, I decided to not waste a garlic bulb that had sprouted, so I separated the cloves and planted them in my trough garden that will end up being a salsa garden if things go well this year. Take a look at them! Can you believe it?  I feared for their safety when we had two cold nights where temperature zipped into the 30s. I had to very carefully cover them up to avoid damage, but I couldn’t be happier with how well they’re growing. Yes, I know that garlic generally needs to be planted in the fall; I don’t know if this is going to be successful or not, but I love the experimentation, and so far so good.

Another thing that I decided to do is to harvest, dry, and plant seeds from organic fruits and vegetables that I buy just to see what happens.  The other day I was enjoying a Charentais melon from Melissa‘s produce, and decided to save and dry some seeds for planting. I’ve never grown melons before, so I’m very eager to see how this works out. Within a week of planting the seeds, a couple of little seedlings poked up their heads, and I couldn’t have been more excited. You wouldn’t believe how fast my heart was beating. I was reluctant to give over too much space to growing melons when I could use it for a guaranteed success like tomatoes, but a little experimentation is good for the soul.

I’m going to try to provide you with an update every month, perhaps twice a month, so you can see how things are growing.

Interestingly enough, petunias self-seeded into one of the house plants that I had moved outside, and I currently have them blooming in a pot along with a kangaroo paw fern, and a Zinnia blossoming in a dracaena pot. Considering that I did not move the dracaena outdoors during the summer, I’m wondering how the heck that zinnia seed managed to get into that pot, but isn’t that half the fun of gardening? 
See you next month with an update.

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3 comments:

  1. Good luck with your garden. The garlic I planted last fall is doing well and the kale from last summer is amazingly healthy after the winter. That stuff will survive a.nuclear explosion.

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  2. Clapping my hands with joy over seeing your garden!! Throw in all the photos you want, it looks wonderful. Your garlic looks great, and is that lettuce in the last photo? Love that raised bed, very nice. Did you have to buy a lot of potting soil to fill it? Looks like you are going to have some nice harvests.

    You are right about the excitement that spring brings. My husband found tomatoes on my plants yesterday! I've been looking and looking and did not see them, My Scarlet Runner beans are blooming, I planted a Sugar Baby watermelon plant that will probably travel into the yard, there are bell peppers on a tiny little pepper plant, and I have dill and rosemary and lemon thyme. I'm so excited! But it will all get so full in the tiny space I have that I won't even be able to walk in it - lol!

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  3. Linda, yes, that is lettuce in a window box. That lettuce has since been harvested, and flowers are now in that box. It’s rather deep, so it took a full bag of container soil. Lettuce like this bolts in the heat, and we have heat, so I used it as I could. It’s really beautiful, easy to grow, and so tender and delicious.

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