Garden Journal 2021 | March Madness
A lot has happened on the garden front since my last update. While this covers a bit of February as well where I left off from my last post. Most of it happened this month.
The Cold Fronts
I thought I was good for no more chances of freeze warnings during the night but I was wrong. Shortly after many things have begun to sprout the temps started to dip again. Thankfully everything is in containers so I had options.
The first time it happened most things were just left outside and covered. While there was a chance of freezing for a very short time during the early morning it ended up not being the case. Some of the things I have grown like potatoes, carrots, and onions seemed to have enjoyed the colder weather.
We then got hit by another cold front. This one seemed to have an even higher chance of freezing so it was time to bring everything indoors for a few days except for the potatoes and such. While I think everything would have been fine I’d rather play it safe.
Going Big This Year
To say I was going bigger this year than the last is an understatement. I frankly did not expect so many things to germinated and survive. I’ve had attempts in the past with seeds that did not work out that great. Even furthermore losing a few plants after transplanting was also expected. The majority of things ended up sprouting and surviving being moved so far.
Since everything is being done out of containers that left a bit of an issue. I had a lot of plants. More basil and cilantro than I knew what to do with. Far more tomatoes and green peppers that I had big enough containers to even put them in at the start.
This was going to take a while as the local stores seemed to be getting hit with booming interest in people needing gardening supplies. While some things ended up staying in containers longer than they should have. The plant's root systems were at least not as bunched up as you tend to see when you buy something at the store. Some of them however were trying to escape the smaller containers they were being grown in!
As stated in my last post I was going to be giving stackable containers a try this year. So far they have been working quite well. While I’m not stacking them very high due to the wind we can get they have been a giant space saver.
This was taken today and they all for the most part are doing fantastic. I’m really glad I put the basil up top so it could grow as it wants.
As far as the carrots and potatoes are going they should be ready soon enough. The potatoes that were planted a while ago have started to have their leaves die down. As far as the carrots which you can see in the photo above they are doing amazing and are meant to be on the smaller size so they might get harvested next month.
What ended up being somewhat shocking to me was just how many tomatoes and peppers I ended up getting from seed. While this tray was not full I was tested out a few different ways to grow them from and they all seemed to have worked.
Almost all the tomatoes and peppers are now in a bucket. There are three I’m waiting to grow a bit more in their starter pots before they get transferred into something bigger. Hopefully, the leftover ones will replace the empty container once I harvest the carrots and potatoes.
They have also grown quite a lot. I’m starting to run out of space for everything! There are many more buckets than this. The pure madness of looking at it all has been a real treat.
For the first time trying these out, I’m rather happy with how things are going. I had no idea the beans would have such an amazing color to their flowers. I still have concerns about overcrowding and that will be a learning experience from how they were done this year. Only time will tell and I’m ready to start picking once they are ready.
The onion start bulbs that were planted have more or less overtaken the entire container they are in. Sadly the bulbs that were not planted seem to be going south and molding. While some of them I might still try and use soon there are just too many to even have a use for. I still can’t believe how cheap they were for so many of them.
Final Thoughts
This was not everything as I have over 10 seed packs and some things that survived from last year. I also finally gave up on the seeds I had a couple of years back. They again did nothing and comparing them to the cheap 25 cent seed packs I have this time around there is no comparing. I’m going with cheaper seed packs for all my needs moving forward.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.
https://twitter.com/EnjarGames/status/1376994678902554624
Bountiful harvest, that's going to be a lot of tasty veggies and herbs. Too bad about the onions
Thanks, have a great week.
So much basil! 🙂
That's interesting to know, about some of your plants enjoying the cold, and now I'm wondering if my onion would prefer the cold too... most of the long green leaves turned white, stringy, and collapsed upon the soil. I'm still learning though. I'm happy to make mistakes now to do better later, haha.
Experimenting and seeing how things goes are the fun parts regarding gardening for now.
After my usual grow season think I’m going try another one after t with different stuff this year. I don’t have worry about snow so I should be ok trying out some different stuff.
Very nice, our garden is starting to slowly grow, our biggest issue is usually bugs, so far this season the bugs have not been too bad...
Great work on your container garden. You have so many plants that look established already! I feel like I'm behind, but my seeds aren't sprouting. Planting beans is always fun and interesting. Are you growing them for green beans or dry beans? Or shelling beans! There's so many options!
Green beans. Going have so many of them I might be overrun by them. Beyond the bushing beans I have some pole beans as well.
Nice! I think pole beans have greater yield but they also take longer to mature.
I have no idea. Maybe I'll find it.