It's no secret that I am NOT a gardening whiz.
It's also no secret that I believe in focusing on both the big AND small things when it comes to my personal finances. Here's an update on a small thing - my attempts at container gardening.
The soil in my yard will NOT grow veggies. To amend the soil or build raised garden beds is, for me with my brown thumb and gardening laziness, an absurd thought.
In the spring I planted 4 items in containers. 2 were dismal failures. The containers were not nearly big enough to grow daikon (what was I thinking?) and the cherry tomato plants yielded only a handful of fruit.
But, the sweet basil starter plants have been a success (still yielding). My biggest success by far was green onions grown from seed. DH & I have been enjoying piles of fresh green onions, and I only planted half of the packet. Since we live in a hot climate (Texas), I will plant the second half of the packet in a week or two for fall / early winter harvesting.
Next spring I'll plant green onions again (they are so expensive at the grocery store and have proven so easy to grow - definitely worth it), and will try basil from seed instead of from starter plants so that I can (hopefully) get a lot more. I'll probably experiment and try one other item as well.I'm going to look through my "Healthy Mind Cookbook" to come up with some ideas. I want it to be something easy to grow in containers, expensive to buy in stores, and beneficial. Something that I can get 2 plantings out of would be nice too. Hey! Maybe I'll even try something new this fall. Why not?
I'm open to suggestions if anyone reading this has any.
Container Gardening Successes and Failures
August 25th, 2016 at 08:02 pm
August 25th, 2016 at 09:10 pm 1472159424
August 26th, 2016 at 12:18 am 1472170717
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August 26th, 2016 at 03:37 pm 1472225844
Most herbs have no fancy soil requirements and will do just fine in average garden soil.
I have one potted cucumber plant that so far has delivered over 20 cucumbers and I believe its because of the soil in the pot: it was almost 100% recycled organic waste i was able to take from the town in exchange for my participation in the program. It looked like soil and was completely broken down.
I found that in this summer's extreme heat, watering just once daily was not always enough. Sometimes watering twice daily was required.
August 27th, 2016 at 01:09 pm 1472303389
starfishy - yes, green onions and scallions are the same. Earlier on we mostly just trimmed the green shoots (pulling to thin), but now we are pulling and using the whole thing to make room for the 2nd planting and to enjoy the whites. (The variety I planted is called Tokyo Long White heirloom.)
Patient Saver - Your cucumber plant sounds terrific, as does your town's soil program. The formula in my sidebar is not mine, but Dr. Stanley's (the author of The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mind, and others). My understanding is that total annual realized income is gross. Because my household's income fluctuates quite a bit (due to self-employment income) I use the average of the past 7 years.
August 28th, 2016 at 01:29 am 1472347793
That's all I've tried so far though.