Because I actually think I might get veggies this year!!!! HOORAY!!
Now, if any of you followed my blog last year you may recall the vegetable garden I tried to grow and its miserable failure. "Miserable failure" doesn't even cut it really. It was more like an epic miserable failure.
Last year, I only ended up with a little bit of cilantro and a couple jalapenos out of the six different types of veggies I planted. Yeah. Pretty epically miserable.
I was ashamed.
I was disheartened.
I cursed my garden.
And for a brief moment I thought I'd never make it as an eco-conscious, forward-thinking, grow-you-own-grub type of 21st century human being taking steps to be more responsible about food intake. I'll be honest, before I planted my plants last summer? I had visions of a full out, rowed garden in my backyard. I had visions planting plants in "found" materials like old tires and clementine boxes and milk crates. I had visions of making delicious dinners solely out of what I could pull from the ground in my back yard...
BUT seeing as how I a) live with my dad and he probably wouldn't appreciate me digging up a good portion of his yard and dragging those "found" (read: trash) planters like tires and boxes INTO the yard and b) Every book I read about gardening told me to start small, I decided to start small last year.
...or so I thought.
Turns out, planting six different types of plants in containers along the wall of your garage when you're a busy girl running between three jobs doesn't qualify as "starting small". Two tomato plants. A cuke plant. A jalapeno plant. A pepper plant. And a pot of herbs. 8 weeks into the summer last year it became painfully clear that my initial foray into home-grown sustenance was going nowhere fast.
And in planting those plants in planters along the wall of my garage I realized I had made another critical error...
I planted the plants out of reach of the hose.
Yup.
Super dumb.
Basically, this meant I had the schlep a watering can back and forth from the hose to the garage 6 different times every time I watered.
Basically, this meant that my plants were probably WAY under-watered.
Lessons learned.
Like I said, I was ashamed and disheartened that my first garden was a wreck.
BUT I am also incredibly stubborn. I mean...incredibly perseverant.
But being stubborn doesn't make me a total twit, so THIS year I cut my plant-age in HALF. Three plants to deal with is a whole lot easier than six. You can pay attention to each one, encourage it to grow, and go over to it each day and whisper things like, "I can't wait to eat your ovaries." (No, I don't actually do that because it would be super creepy).
I planted three veggie/fruit plants this year: a tomato plant, a strawberry plant, and a jalapeno plant. I planted them in pots and NEAR the hose. And they're doing pretty well! Nothing has gotten big or developed enough to actually eat yet, but...it's getting there! (I think)
I also made sure not to make the mistake this year of naming my plants. I named my plants last year and that made their failure all the more depressing. Now, my plants are simply known as what they are: Upside-down-tomato-dude, Strawberry-dude, and Jalapenos-in-a-bucket-dude. You might think it cold-hearted, but this way if they fail I won't be depressed.
Check them out....
Strawberry-dude. Oh man. So excited for this dude to start producin' ripe stuff:
I think this little guy will be the first one I can eat. I say this only because, so far, he is the biggest. I am tracking his delicious process daily:
One day, when I'm all grown up and have a home, I picture myself in a cute little cottage-y type place with tons of overgrown berry bushes in the backyard. And all I'll have to do to get breakfast in the morning is walk in the backyard and fill up a dish with good stuff, grab a cup of joe and be made in the shade.
Upside-down-Tomato-dude:
(I didn't want to actually spend money on a planter made for planting tomatoes upside down, so I just bought a regular planter with a coir lining and cut a hole in the bottom. Plus, I'm pretty sure my Dad would have evicted me if I tried to hang up the Topsey-Turvey in his yard.)
Grow little tomatoes GROW! I want to eat you on some bread with some goat cheese.
Jalapenos-in-a-bucket-dude:
This is the one I didn't expect to do all that well because a) I planted him in a bucket and b) I ran out of soil by the time I got to him so he only got like 1/4 of a bucket of soil (I know I KNOW I'm like the worst gardener EVER) but look at those little dudes go! Pretty soon I'm going to have more jalapenos than I can handle.
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