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Sunday, June 8, 2014

How does my garden grow (HDMGG) - June 8


I am not particularly interested in gardening. My idea of landscaping is rhododendrons and day lilies - plants I can basically ignore and enjoy when they flower. Years ago I had a large vegetable garden and I did enjoy that. I started plants from seed and experimented with new-to-me things each year. I had to give up the garden when we moved to a house which has no natural location for an effective veggie patch.

A few years ago my mother bought herself a few EarthBoxes. She kept them on her deck and they were a minor supplement to her large vegetable garden. I was intrigued by what I saw and bought some for myself. The sunniest spot on our property is our east facing decks. The boxes could sit there where I could enjoy them from the dining and living rooms. The first year I grew several types of tomatoes, green, red and jalapeƱo peppers and six large-leaved basil plants. I wasn't ready for the results. Everything grew and grew and grew. The tomatoes tumbled everywhere and the basil grew to six feet. At the end of the season I roasted and froze many pounds of tomatoes and peppers for soup and chopped bags and bags of jalapeƱos and basil. For a while the kitchen was a toxic work zone because of the fumes.

Last year I bought more boxes and planted even more, including zucchini, cucumbers and herbs. I experimented with methods of staking the tomatoes but didn't find a system that really worked. Once again I had an enormous crop and ended up being unable to process all of the tomatoes.

This year I have cut back a little. Yesterday I planted tomatoes - 6 Roma, 2 Supersweet 100 and 1 Red Candy,  peppers - 3 Kapela, basil  - 6 unidentified plants, and one each of thyme and oregano. I left room for a few tomatillos in case I can find them. It was a warm but cloudy day and we have sun but not too much warmth today. They should get off to a good start. Now I will start planning a staking system for the tomatoes in an effort to stay ahead of their growth.

I'll document the garden in photos every two weeks or so. At the very least this will prove that I am not exaggerating about big my basil gets.



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