I caught the garden bug again.
It's been a couple years since I did much of any gardening - I moved to Asheville for a year and a half and had two 'gardens' that ended up being rather disappointing and producing very little of anything. What they did produce was quite disappointing - weirdly stunted tomatoes, oddly shaped peppers... I'm sure I was doing many things wrong, but nothing I tried helped! It also didn't help that the bear and her cubs tromped through and broke a bunch of my plants.
Anyway, I bought a townhouse with a nice deck late last year, and I've spent the winter eyeing the deck thinking about how I can utilize the space for gardening. When I walked by the stacks of $2.50 5-gallon buckets yesterday, I was struck with inspiration!
I was already planning to start some rose and ginger seeds I bought on eBay (I know, I know - but they were cheap and I bought them thinking "These probably aren't going to grow, or grow right, but it'll be a fun experiment), and a couple cherry pits I saved from some fruit last year (I know, I know - most seeds saved from store-bought fruit don't grow true, but again, experiment).
Now I'm thinking I'll add a few jalapeños and tomato seeds to this seed-starting experiment with the goal of transplanting them into buckets after the frost danger has passed (because while it may be mid-70s now, this is NC and therefore it's likely frost again before we're through with winter).
The HOA allows for a planting box on the deck railing, so I'm going to do some herbs in one of those (likely basil and chives, since those are really all I use).
Tips for container gardening would be appreciated! In the meantime, I'll just be over here trying to urge my little seeds to sprout.
It's been a couple years since I did much of any gardening - I moved to Asheville for a year and a half and had two 'gardens' that ended up being rather disappointing and producing very little of anything. What they did produce was quite disappointing - weirdly stunted tomatoes, oddly shaped peppers... I'm sure I was doing many things wrong, but nothing I tried helped! It also didn't help that the bear and her cubs tromped through and broke a bunch of my plants.
Anyway, I bought a townhouse with a nice deck late last year, and I've spent the winter eyeing the deck thinking about how I can utilize the space for gardening. When I walked by the stacks of $2.50 5-gallon buckets yesterday, I was struck with inspiration!
I was already planning to start some rose and ginger seeds I bought on eBay (I know, I know - but they were cheap and I bought them thinking "These probably aren't going to grow, or grow right, but it'll be a fun experiment), and a couple cherry pits I saved from some fruit last year (I know, I know - most seeds saved from store-bought fruit don't grow true, but again, experiment).
Now I'm thinking I'll add a few jalapeños and tomato seeds to this seed-starting experiment with the goal of transplanting them into buckets after the frost danger has passed (because while it may be mid-70s now, this is NC and therefore it's likely frost again before we're through with winter).
The HOA allows for a planting box on the deck railing, so I'm going to do some herbs in one of those (likely basil and chives, since those are really all I use).
Tips for container gardening would be appreciated! In the meantime, I'll just be over here trying to urge my little seeds to sprout.
I spent about a week expecting the DEA to knock at my door.
