I have decided to take a stab at container gardening this season, and frankly, I think I am probably more excited about it than I should be, practically giddy at the thought. As likely as not I could blame that on me running on empty. I slept not at all last night and had only a nap this morning. At this point I'm on my third or fourth wind, so I feel sort of crazy hyper anyway. No doubt I should be going to bed rather than here babbling on about my reckoned on garden, but whatever.So yeah, here's the thing. It's not that I am unaccustomed to gardening, I've done it before so it's not as if I am embarking on some new agrarian adventure. My heredity alone probably would account for a sort of genetic propensity to grow stuff, but container gardening, that's new to me. Never thought about it much, I suppose since I never had any reason to consider doing it before now. This year is different without having my own place, I'm just glad I thought of it in time.
I'm sure it will be quite different, and I'll undoubtedly screw up some things. For example, I don't know what is the best size of container to use for growing this veg or that one, I'm sure that matters, and can I grow any sort of root vegetable? The thing is, wherever I miss the boat it won't matter much, since the whole experiment will be mostly free from seeds I've saved, or a few cents for the rest. Which makes the grade for poor and penny-wise me.
I save all sorts of awesome trash, too, like egg cartons and yogurt cups, which, like Mike Lieberman who is my inspiration, I figure seem perfect for starting out some seeds. Also I'm pretty sure those five-gallon buckets people always have stacked somewhere around (maybe I just hang with a weirdo bunch) would be spot on, real gone for growing.
Amazing how long I have rambled on about it, I am aware. I could just have easily summed up this treatise in one-forty, probably even less, with space left over for a hashtag or two. But I am kind of tingly right now thinking about this, overly charged up; I don't know exactly why, other than blaming it on my circadian rhythm out of whack. I should hit the sack now before my stream of consciousness keeps me going on.
I just returned a book to our library called "Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers". Although I just skimmed through it, what I did read made a lot of sense and was explained in simple to understand terms. I don't know about you, but my eyes glaze over when gardening gets too technical. This book didn't.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion. I agree with you, too, about gardening discussed too technically. Maybe I could have managed bigger or more productive crops if I paid attention to that sort of thing, but I figure it has kind of been going on forever, trial and error, and I learn better than way anyway.
ReplyDeleteGet copy of this book: "Incredible Vegetables from Self Watering Containers" by Edward C. Smith. You can find it on Amazon. Great book and the best way to go with container gardening. I make my own containers out of those orange buckets from Home Depot for tomatoes, etc. Then I use the smaller white buckets from the paint dept. for herbs, celery, etc. The book explains how to do it and how to do each vegetable, the size container, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe size container info should come in handy for sure, thanks for that recommendation. I'll check that one out, too. Everything I've gardened before has been free to grow however, the planet is a pretty big container, so I never gave it any thought really. Glad you mentioned celery, too, another to add to my list.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a cool idea. My mother has the green-thumb in my family. She can make anything grow. We were known in the neighborhood for our plants that she had hanging in the window. I would love to grow my own veggies. Since her health has declined, it may be a good way to get her out and about, so maybe I'll get her to get me started. Good luck with your garden.
ReplyDeleteYour mom would probably enjoy that, and containers I would think might be more fitting given her health? You probably have space to do it in ground as the good lord intended, you ought to definitely give it a go yourself. I had a garden when I lived in a typical subdivision, but even with limited space and only the basics of tomatoes, cukes, peppers, that sort of thing, it's really awesome growing your own. My family always grew acres of stuff, I don't know what they did with it all.
ReplyDeleteSee now you're inspiring me to start that garden I always wanted. It would be fun, we have a lot of bunnies around too, I'm sure they'll enjoy eating the veggies.
ReplyDeleteyou might want to sort of fence it in, the rabbits can be pesky. but go for it! honestly even back when i was a suburbian gardener, just the very small corner of the yard i had far too much produce for my then family of 4 to use up. doesn't take much!
ReplyDeleteSee now you're inspiring me to start that garden I always wanted. It would be fun, we have a lot of bunnies around too, I'm sure they'll enjoy eating the veggies.
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ReplyDeleteGet copy of this book: "Incredible Vegetables from Self Watering Containers" by Edward C. Smith. You can find it on Amazon. Great book and the best way to go with container gardening. I make my own containers out of those orange buckets from Home Depot for tomatoes, etc. Then I use the smaller white buckets from the paint dept. for herbs, celery, etc. The book explains how to do it and how to do each vegetable, the size container, etc.
ReplyDelete