Last year I ended up writing a mostly weekly post about how my small garden was doing for different types of stuff I was attempting to grow. This year it’s going be a little different. While it was cool to document things like I was last year it also got rather boring to write. Since I’m mostly gaming posts as well these days my small garden will only pop up from time to time. Many every couple of weeks or months when it feels worth writing one up.

Last Year

Since we don’t get snow down here and only a handful of hard freeze warnings during the winter times I had hoped some plants would survive outside. Out of the five I had it does look like two of them made it. It’s a little hard to tell since they both were put not in the best place and left alone during the colder months.

The Jalapeno which gave me so many last years to the point I was bartering them locally with others. It already has a single flower and I just removed a lot of the dead growth. I also moved it out of the area I had it in that was not getting a lot of sunlight. Hopefully, it will go wild again this year. I have plans to try my hand at dehydrating and other forms of preserving this year.

The other plant is the red pepper. I’m not quite so sure about it. I really trimmed back anything that just looked dead. So far it has not had any leaves. I’m hoping now that it’s in a more sunny area and I’ll be watering it a lot more than it will bounce right back. Perhaps I trimmed it back a little too aggressively but those branches were just falling off dead anyway.

Either way just having the chance at having something make it past winter with very little effort on my part would be great to keep growing this out.

Starting Trays

I tried my hand again this year at some starting trays like I did last year. They have already failed and I did not bother to take any photos. People kept telling me a lot of seeds last year were not good. I hate thinking I wasted 2-$3 per pack on seeds but that clearly seems to be the case. Perhaps it’s just my lack of a green thumb!

I have one final attempt going before I just give up on these. I also went another route this year since growing from seeds did not work last year at all. One of the plans is still to grow everything I need to make a salsa I really like. I’d put that stuff on almost everything.

Herbs

A couple of years back I got a spice rack with 20 different types in it. While they were not very high quality it was more about seeing what I would end up using. Some of them like parsley I ended up using from chicken to omelets and so many other things. Others like some of the blends that came with it I just did not care for at all.

While they might be a little overcrowded since I’m growing out of containers I just wanted to see how many I can really jam into a small area. I have a number of these trays where I’m just testing out for myself to see how it goes. I’ve never grown herbs outside of some failed seeds the year prior. They are also rather easy to move around when I need to. I have a bunch of different stuff and even different variations of stuff like: parsley, dill, onion chives, oregano, rosemary, cilantro and so forth.

At some point, I’ll even try drying them out and preserving them. For now, I just love the idea of going out back and cutting what I need and using them right away. I have never been a go out and buy fresh herbs as the quantity they are sold tends to get wasted. So it’s always been just the dried stuff in a container.

Tomatoes

Last year I ended up with one tiny tomato due to stuff eating them, sun damage, and a whole host of other issues. It also the one thing I wanted to grow since I’d use it in lot stuff like burritos, tacos, handmade sauces, sandwiches and so forth. I have things like Cherry to Beefsteak tomatoes. I have rather enjoyed eating Beefsteak once and I hope to grow my own this year. They got some size to them.

I also put the cages this year on them from the start. In a couple of weeks, I’m not quite sure it would be as easy as it was. Hopefully, this will be the year I have so many I’ll end up having to barter them with others.

Peppers

I also picked up a number of red and green pepper plants. With my limited space, I did have them share pots and perhaps I’ll end up with some crowding issues later on. I have things from the more sweet side like bell peppers to medium heat like Tabasco. I don’t know anyone that really likes things hotter than Jalapeno including myself so I stayed away from those for now.

Since my peppers did have some issues with bugs last year some marigolds were also tossed in. From my understanding, they are supposed to naturally repel a lot of the things that were causing me issues. Nothing flat out proven as far as I’m aware but a lot of growers swear by them. If nothing else they add in a splash of much-needed color. If it seems to work out I’ll plant some more around my other stuff once they have had a chance to grow.

The Why

As with anything in life having a motivating reason why to do something helps you keep at it. I have a number of reasons to start this back up this year.

I’ve found from last year just how mute of taste things where you buy them from the store and compared them freshly picked right out back. Stuff I never really cared too much for I discovered I even loved with it having a much stronger favor from it being fresh.

It’s an excuse to go outside. These will require me to go out a number of times a week for a very short amount of time. Summer will be here soon enough and really I’m getting tired of always being indoors grinding away on so many different projects. Having a reason I need to go outdoors and get up out of a chair is a blessing.

More variety in what I’m using to make food. Many of these plants I don’t go out of my way to buy in the store on the regular. Numbers of times things will just go bad before I even use them up and I hate seeing money go to waste.

Final Thoughts

As planned I’m trying to grow much more than I did last year. While I’m still growing out of containers due to personal reasons it’s great I was able to expand. Perhaps one of these years I’ll go all out and make raised beds and put fence around it. For now with where my life is containers it is.

I hope your growing season goes great! I knew many out there are already way ahead as they been preparing for months!

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Photos taken and content written by @Enjar