My Next Project

Looks like work, doesn't it? With the cost of groceries and gas continuing to climb I decided to have a little container garden on my patio. I am afraid I am not doing this the most frugal way, but I decided rather late to try some seeds instead of buying started plants. So I ended up buying a few seed starter pots. From now on I will start saving my egg cartons and use them next year. It takes awhile for a single person to save enough of them as I don't eat or use that many eggs on a regular basis. My town has started offering little garden plots to residents that are free but you have to sign up for them. They even have water there so you don't have to bring it yourself. I considered that this year, but decided against it. I don't think I can handle all the hoeing, or even the bending over to plant. I can't get on my knees either. And I don't have the freezer space to freeze produce if I have too much to eat fresh. I got rid of all my canning supplies and canner when I moved and am not about to buy any either. I just want a little fresh salad.

I don't know if you can tell what the seeds are. There are green beans, radishes and romaine-like lettuce. At least that is what the package said. They look similar to romaine. The only kind of lettuce I have grown in the past, which is years ago - more like decades actually - is the regular green leaf lettuce. But I prefer to eat romaine so will give this a try. I also found a package of heirloom yellow pear tomatoes and thought they would be good in green salads. My mother grew those on the farm when I was a kid. I am hoping these are the same. The ones she grew were small like cherry tomatoes. I have always gotten started tomato plants so not sure how I will do with these. It is getting a little late to start the seeds I think, but will give it a try.

There some flower seeds there too. Have to have things pretty, right? So far I have 4 o-clocks, impatience and moss roses. And then I got a bag of strawberry plants. I thought I would put them in hanging planters that hook over the patio fence railing. They are everbearing. It will be so neat to walk out the door and pick a few ripe berries for breakfast. Before I moved here I had a single strawberry plant come up between the cracks in the cement between the sidewalk and the back porch. It was also everbearing and I had a few treats from it. I don't know how it got there as there had never been any strawberry plants there for the 15 years I lived there. All I can think of is that it was carried to that area by a bird and got washed down the crack by rain. Or maybe it was my husband sending me a little treat from heaven.

I have a huge back yard with plenty of room for a very large garden, but I rent and the landlord lives next door. He takes care of that part of the lawn when it comes to mowing, and he does all of the fertilizing and weed killing around my house as well, but I have to mow that part. He is very fussy with that and so digging up for plants, either veggies or flowers is out. Therefore, I plant things in pots. I have one of those large galvanized tubs that my husband had (and his daughter didn't take) that will also work quite well. But once it is filled with dirt it won't be easy to move so have to make sure I get it in a place where it can stay. I also have the old Radio Flyer red wagon that I had as a kid. It doesn't look so red anymore. It isn't in very good shape and the front wheels don't move very well so it can't really be used for a wagon anymore. So I may end up using that for a planter too. My patio is not very big and by the time the gas grill and patio table and chairs are put there, it doesn't leave a lot of room for other things. Therre is a large cement pad on the south side of my garage that I assume was put there to park a camper. I could put the tub and wagon there, but the landlord often parks his flatbed trailer there, and sometimes uses it to back up to turn around. We share the long driveway between our houses.