Well, with the giving up of the
garden plot, I am determined to make some of my favorites work in my yard.
As I've mentioned previously, my little edible plot in the back doesn't get the sun it needs, particularly as the summer goes on. So until I convince husband that traditional lawn grass is actually an invasive species and pretty terrible for the environment and we should rip it out and turn the whole sun-covered front yard into gardens...
(only partially serious...grass is one of the worst uses of resources, but boy is a bright green lawn simply brilliant to drive up to! My gardening hypocrisy is now exposed.) ...I am having to get creative about growing edibles.
The only immediate solution?
Get ginormous pots (thank you, Costco!) and make them pretty since it IS the front yard.
We eat a lot of zucchini, so I wanted one to grow, please!
I also looked up what does well with it since they would be sharing confined quarters.
The answer?
Many types of herbs and apparently hot peppers!
So may I present....
... my front yard garden plot:
A zucchini in the middle, a hot pepper (very specific, I know...pretty sure I left the tag in it to identify...?), parsley, basil, a sweet potato vine and some oregano that I'm also going to try to get to vine over the sides.
I also put one of my horribly leggy (because it's one of my started-from-seeds) 4 o'clocks in the back and in spite of looking like it's gone through the runner, it's still holding on!
Well I planted it days before a bunch of wind. Oh and have I mentioned that the front of our house feels like a wind tunnel some days? Good going, genius.
The zucchini stem snapped and I figured that was that...but there was still some green leaves going on a day or so later and I realized it had tried putting down roots further along.
Another week or more of looking highly sad and I gave up on it.
Everything else was growing just beautifully around it, though!
I come check back a few days later and it's totally growing!!
So proud! What a determined little fellow!
(This is also about the time husband tells me that zucchinis don't climb...they just bush out and spread.
But....but....but....
No!!! I refuse to give in! Zucchini put out vines, so I believe I can train it up my trellis, dang it!
Of course I'm guessing it'll need help with tying it off here and there, but I will not give up on my beautiful vision!)
Well, fast forward another week and great googly moogly, these guys are certainly enjoying the rain!
(pardon the ugly black bags...we re-did the bricks on our front stoop and did NOT want to drag heavy bags of debris around back just to take them back out front for trash day!)
Look at that zucchini go!
I'm hoping it's getting enough sun tucked down between the monsters consuming it nearby, but it is growing beautifully, so here's hoping!
Just a couple of days later (and more rain) and things seem to be growing inches each day!
Rather than buying potting soil, a nursery owner recommended getting
PittMoss which is essentially shredded newspaper mixed with chicken manure. It's crazy light, so great for pots and gives you your fertilizer and water-retainer in one.
You do a 1:2 ratio of PittMoss to compost. Since I had tons of gorgeous compost, I figured it would be a good product.
Um...yeah, I'll say it's working!
I need to start making more Italian food so I can use all my herbs!
And ironically, all this container-growing-in-the-front-yard-sun could actually prove to be semi moot...
I'm out in the back yard weeding last weekend and by late morning the edible plot is in shade.
However...around noon the sun starts coming back across it!
 |
| 4:45PM...the sun is just leaving the final corner. Woot! |
What the....?!
My only guess is that it has to do with the neighbor cutting down all (sniff, sniff) their trees. Is it possible that I actually DO get more than 3 hours of sun there now?!!! (I always thought it was
my trees that were the shade culprit!)
Time will tell because obviously the sun skips around as the summer goes on, but for right now, my
tomatoes and
green pepper are having a blast!
We've started eating
lettuces too...oh how indescribably wonderful it is for a chronic "aaahhhh, I forgot to grab ___ from the store when I was there!" to have a 'constant', fresh supply of something!
And I'm trying a
cucumber! Up a tomato cage! 'Cause when you have a small plot you go vertical! Need to watch that for pests like a hawk 😑
Bummed that not many peas or beans have come up :-/
I keep meaning to pop more beans in the ground and that just hasn't happened. Must have green beans! Love - them - so - much!! And husband actually picked our first mini crop of peas yesterday...all 4 of them! 😁
As often happens in the beginning, I am highly optimistic since things are looking so great!
We'll see how the growth and sun and pests and consistent watering (ahem) progress as the summer goes on.
