Bye, Bye May!

I left town for a conference last week, returning today. Luckily I have a wonderful hubby who diligently watered the plants (including freshly planted seeds) and everything is doing wonderfully!


Strawberries have been blooming wonderfully, and there are even some teeny green ones already forming. In the closer box are leeks and carrots. Same in the farther one, except there are squashes and zucchinis on the edge, they'll (hopefully) grow over the side of the container.

The peas got really tall, and I had to thin out about half of the middle container (snow peas). They aren't showing any signs of slowing down, and they're supposed to be dwarf varieties that only get 2' tall. No flowers yet.


Everything looks and feels so lush. It's been a handful to keep all the flowers deadheaded. But I've had plenty of blooms to cut and bring inside. The pansies and violas do OK, maybe lasting a couple of days. The petunias though, have lasted more than a week! I was so surprised, I really didn't think they'd do well!


There isn't much room to just stand around, but who wants to do that anyway? :)

I put a bunch more pictures on Flickr.

growing...

I'm backdating this post to when the photos were taken. I've added 6 new window boxes - 2 20" and 4 30"

I've added a lot of herbs, pepper plants, and eggplants. Most of my Burpee stuff arrived fine. One of the peppers was completely stripped of it's foliage and the basil was almost a goner. I think I saved him though.

The peas aren't really cooperating with my plan for them to climb up the twine on the railing, so I got them some stakes.

Finally seeing some progress

I finally figured out how to do the planters on the railing! I bought 4 30" window box planters, drilled holes in the side and tied them together with nylon rope. They hang over the railing like saddlebags. It's so simple, I can't believe how long it took me to come up with this solution. I planted one with strawberries, the other 3 have annuals. Nasturtiums are on the edge of the outside ones, so they can trail down in front. A few of my favorite annuals are interspersed with edible violas and pansies.

I'm still waiting on my Burpee order....but in the meantime I got a few herbs at the garden center. It's so tempting to buy everything in sight, but I have so little space. :(

See the milk jugs sitting under the grill? I'm using them to transport water. I think I might need to figure out a way to hook a hose up to my kitchen faucet though. I'm spending a LOT of time hauling water.


Nasturtiums hate to be transplanted, so I got them started in paper egg cartons, then I transplanted the entire thing into the window box. The paper will decompose and the roots can grow through without being disturbed!


Here's a view from inside. Note the bag of potting soil - I'm planning on getting more window boxes for vegetables. :)


The dishpans are finally starting to fill up with lettuce. (You can see how tall the peas are getting in the background.)


PEAS! I have snap, snow and garden peas planted. I'm using the railing for their support, it's supplemented with 100' of twine wrapped around and around. I think I'll have to add some supports to the other side of the dishpans, too.