What Do You Do When You Can't Have A Real Garden? You Make Use Of Pots!
Hello Steemians, today I take a break from my primary love, science. I do this to just make a simple post to share another part of my self with all of you. Today I will share the plants that I am growing for the summer. I have not been a gardener for many years, and I certainly don't have what you could call... a green thumb. I live in a modestly small apartment and am not provided with the necessary land to have a full garden (which I hope in the future that I will someday be able to have, I would love to own a home at some point, alas the Boston housing market is exceedingly expensive!)
Since I am not provided with land to have a garden I plant a few things in some pots, and grow them on my patio. Previous years I have always just bought pre-potted and greenhouse grown seedlings and transplanted them. This year my girlfriend bought me a variety of seeds to plant such that I could grow the necessary plants to make my favorite snack, SALSA (yumm).
I mentioned above that I don't have a green thumb right...so I planted some seeds in starter pots to later transplant. I planted seeds for roma tomatoes, yellow onions, cilantro, jalapenos, and anaheim peppers. I then got a variety of seedlings for all of these various plants, I was pretty pleased with the success rate of the seed germination. I let the seedlings grow for quite some time, then attempted to transplant them into small pots for them to really begin to take hold.
This Was A Huge Mistake!
I don't know if I transplanted them too early, perhaps I did, because I managed to kill my tomato plants, my onions, and somehow I managed to even kill my cilantro (it was doing so well one day, then the next day all plants were dead... I didn't over or under water them... maybe cilantro hates me?). A few did survive:
Anaheim Pepper
Jalapeno Pepper
My little jalapeno gets her own story. This was a pepper, the only one of 6 seedlings that didn't immediately die. It just sort of sat in its pot for a month or so, not growing not doing anything. I figured it wasn't going to make it.. until one day when I came home from work and checked on all of them to ensure that they were not too dry. I saw that it had finally started to grow, I am pretty happy that I can add this little pepper plant to my list of successes! She may have been chewed on by a bug a bit, but shes a fighter. I look forward to tasting the peppers she provides me with.
Other Seedlings I Bought When I Thought I Killed All Of My Own
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If you look closely you can see that even a tomato or two have started to grow (thanks bees!)
Serrano Pepper
For flavor with a little bit of heat you just cant beat a serrano. My favorite pepper.
Cayenne Pepper
I grow cayenne's because I like to dry them, crush them and make my own red pepper flakes for cooking with. I get much better heat and a much stronger flavor then anything I have ever bought in the store. One plant usually makes enough peppers to last me all year!
Mixed Red And Green Leaf Lettuce
There is nothing better on a sandwich then fresh lettuce that you have just picked!
Herbs
Can't cook great fresh stuff with out fresh herbs, so I am growing some of my favorites. Oregano, Thyme, and Basil.
Finally A Bit of Lavender For Some Color
Plus, who doesn't love the delicate smell of lavender?
It may not be much but all I have is my pots! I love to grow plants, it's nice to take care of these living creatures that provide me with wonderful things to eat. One of the biggest joys of the summer is caring for my plants and making great food with them to share with friends and loved ones.
Thank you for taking a look at this post. I hope you are not disappointed that its not a breakdown of science. I thought maybe people would like to know that there is more to me then just facts and figures.
Growing your own food is the best, and It don't need a real garden.
Check out my monster tomato plants :-)
Nice Post, upvoted and followed.
Woah! Those are HUGE! Fantastic! I wish I had success like that!!
NICE!! :) :)
Great Post. Sometimes I like to plant seeds right in the big pot that way the plants won't get the transplant shock. If the first seed doesn't take then I add another seed and repeat until I get a healthy plant.
This is a really good idea, I think I may try this next year. Thank you!
Nice variety! Had a ton of "volunteer" tomatoes, cukes and squash plants from last year in my square foot garden beds, so I filled up dirt into as many rubbermaid totes as I could and my whole garden is surrounded with 50 additional plants! Also plant potatoes in stacking tires, too. Kick em over in the fall and get 50 lbs of taters!
Sounds amazing! You must have a sizeable garden, 50 extra plants is a lot. I wish I had those extra tomato plants ;)
I guess you and my dad would probably get along well. He also love growing plants and he does what you did. He even grow them in tin cans. Got these cool hands that never make plants wither. Awesome post.
Thank you, his hands sound better than mine!
I didn't mean to sound like that. I'm just so proud of my dad because he's really hardworking. 😊 And what you're doing really helps the environment. I hope more people do this kind of growing plants in the cities where there are less spaces for gardening.
You didn't sound like anything, I was just being silly.
Oh. I took it wrong. Haha. I was the one being silly.
Then we both are :D
Haha. Indeed. I enjoyed talking to you @justtryme90!
Me too
Happy gardening!!!
Hope you are enjoying the harvests :-)
So cool! I (we) plant many of the same herbs. My favorite is basil. Do you pinch off the top when it has grown about 3 "levels" high? That's a great way to make them much bigger and taller. The two leafs on each side will then start a new branch on each side and keep growing higher. :)
I didn't know that, I usually re-pot the top node when it forms three with rooting powder and end up with more basil plants. The plants usually then split at the top, but I never thought about just doing that by itself. Thanks for the tip.
No problem :) They look very healthy and nice btw!
I try to take good care. Sometimes it's hard not to care too much. Then I usually overwater...
Yeah..this year I have no control. I was really into it couple of years ago, but I don't have the time now. Trying to put the responsibility on my 3 year old..but that goes so and so. However they're all healthy, so..looks like we're lucking out this year :)
What you can grow in your backyard always tastes so much better, not to mention the convenience of it
I do it for the taste above all. Especially tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes don't taste anything like store bought ones, ripening on the vine and picking right before you eat it makes all the difference.
ohh myyyy!! you have a lavender plant! :)
My girlfriend loves lavender, so I really bought it and care for it for her.
Sweet!! I am growing lavender from seeds and it's dying now. Sad story. 😂
:(
I'm sorry to hear this.
no worries :) how long have you been planting? your plants looks healthy :)
Only for a few (like 3) years. I used to grow stuff as a child and have been refinding my enjoyment of it now again as an adult.
gardening really is enjoyable :)
Just need a little bit of mary-juwanna in there and everything will be gooooooood. bites on a handful of doritos
Haha, I could grow it. It's legal in Massachusetts. My landlords are not the kind of people that would approve of me doing so, based on our conversations.
1 or 2 small autoflowering never tipped of the neighbors or landloards :P
maybe your neighbours do not really care because the smell a single plant, even autoflower, produces is enough for anyone in the near vicinity to know what's going on :)
My father loves gardening a lot and I've always enjoyed watching him plant these crops in the pots and placing them everywhere. He says its so relaxing!!
It's pretty nice yeah. One of the joys of summer I've found.