When we moved back to the city in late March 2017 I brought with me all my container plants from the farm. In photos I'll show you the highlights of what has been happening here these last 6 months.
If you like watching videos...
These are my winter container plants in crates from the farm; carrots, chard, greens and broccoli.
I grew shorty carrots in crates at the farm over the winter! This batch of carrots was harvested from my 2nd attempt, which I planted a month after my first attempt. The first attempt did germinate but they didn't grow big tops on them and after 3 mths I harvested them and they were only an inch or two long. These carrots above were grown well and properly and did great!!!
Here are my container plants leftover from the farm just as we got to the new house. This is a side yard in an urban neighborhood, it is east facing and in shade from 12pm and on.
A small succulent "garden" I put together! It brought me a lot of joy until it died due to lack of water one time when we were out of town, the irrigation line that was near it fell away from it. :(
I got a few more plants and in this photo you can see my 3 citrus trees I dug up and brought with us from the farm!
Beautiful succulent!
Grape planted in a tire raised bed! <3
I got new plants in early June to take on a new project of finally making raised beds because almost everything I had in individual containers...DIED....
I picked a spot along the side of the house and prepped the soil with amendments...
And used 8 tires to make 4 raised beds.
And I planted veggies and herbs in all of them, right away! I used composted woodchips, potting soil and amendments. I also added red wiggler worms to the soil in these beds to help have happy, healthy soil!
The very next day I made a DIY shade cloth and added bamboo fencing between the tires and the side of the house because the stucco side of the house gets really warm fast and radiates that heat back at the plants.
Then I came through and added a flower or two to each tire bed to add color and hopefully bring in the bees to help pollinate my veggie plants!
A fun shot one evening gardening at sunset!
I put together more crates to garden in because I decided I wanted to put in corn before it was too late (this was early June 2017).
I also planted sunflowers in the containers beside the milk crates. And then in the 2 end milk crates I planted okra and green beans.
Then I did more rearranging of the old small chicken coop and moved my garden shed over to the east side of the garden and used 6 old tires (and painted them this time) to put in a few more beds.
I picked up sweet potatoes and cucumber in these beds to try to see if they would produce late in the season.
This is what the corn containers looked like before we went on vacation back to Arkansas in June.
2 & 1/2 weeks later when we got back this is what our corn looked like!!!
Here are what my other plants looked like when we returned home. We lost flowers due to lack of enough water with the soaker hose irrigation system I setup for while we were away. They were on an auto timer and the soaker hose but I don't think they got enough water or they got too much sun.
Green beans and okra came up!
Sunflowers came up!
My corn growing in milk crates at about 4 wks old! <3 It is so beautiful that even if it never produces the way it really should...it has served a purpose to bring me happiness! <3
Basil and Thai basil are going crazy and they're so pretty!
Tomato plants sprawling!
Green beans and okra; I pulled out the struggling seedlings and left 1-2 plants in each.
Beautiful 6 wk old corn!!
I caged my 3 tomato plants.
Beautiful flowering basil!
Flowering Thai basil! Gorgeous!
The 3 tire beds on the east side, all of those plants died while were gone. So that area rested for 2 wks and then I planted new seeds. These are the purple hull cowpeas I planted popped up after just 3 days! These sturdy seedlings are only 3 days old!
7 week old corn in crates! Growing like a beast. I have fertilized it once with nitrogen.
Acorn squash seedlings 4 or 5 days old!
Basil and Thai basil going crazy! They are well overdue for a harvest!
I finally got around just this week to harvesting my basil plants!
The amazing harvest, so beautiful and smells beyond amazing!
I had a lot of fun washing and drying basil in my food dehydrator. I have a video coming up on that in a few days. Until then if you want to take a peak at what my garden looks like as of a few days ago check out the video in the link below!
xoxo,
Elizabeth
