Spring is here in the South! Time to break out the gloves and get gardening! We're off to a bit of a late start here at the Baby Bee Garden, but it's a long season ahead and we've got plenty of time. So, where to start? With our garden plan, of course! Planning is the key to successful gardening.
We started by re-arranging the pots since last season. The way we had it set up last year, some of the pots were difficult to reach. This made it hard for us to keep certain plants trained to their supports. It was also hard to check the plants and keep them rid of pests, like the caterpillars in the tomato plants. We decided to move about half of our containers up onto the porch. The rest of the pots are out in the yard, resting on the pathway stones leading from the street to the door of our house. The pots will be easier to reach and we thought it might help deter some of the birds and squirrels if the pots are closer to the house. Maybe? Hopefully! We shall see! Another reason for moving the garden is that we're trying to grow back the grass in the old spot, in case we end up moving to a new house sometime this season! If we do move, it will be extra important that we keep the plants from sprawling out of their pots, so they can go in the moving truck without risking much damage.
Now that we've decided on the arrangement of the pots, we can think about what will go into them. We're starting out with a lot of seeds that were left over from previous seasons. Of course, we could not resist picking out a few new additions! The most exciting new veggie is... wait for it... CORN! Yep, we're gonna try an newly developed variety called On Deck which is bred for containers, and we can't wait to see how it does! We ordered three packs of tomato seeds, because we were unhappy with our tomatoes last year. We had grown a Roma variety that just did not produce well through the heat of the summer. So, Roma's are out. The new tomatoes are Patio Princess, Baxter's Bush Cherry, and Heatwave. The first two are specially bread for container gardens and are supposed to only reach about 2 feet high! The Heatwave are bred to produce through the hottest temperatures. Naturally, we have high hopes for all three! We're adding 3 lettuces, Tom Thumb, a small buttery lettuce, Cimaron, a purple-tipped Romaine variety, and Black Seeded Simpson, a lettuce considered a 'classic' that we've never eaten, all supposed to be slow to bolt in the heat. The other new guys will be Spearmint, Blue Lake 47 green beans, and Yukon Gold potatoes. We're trying out some potato growing bags we received as a gift, and we're looking forward to seeing how they work out. Even though we are technically past 'potato planting time', shhhhh...
Here's a list of all the items to be grown in the Baby Bee Garden this year!
We started by re-arranging the pots since last season. The way we had it set up last year, some of the pots were difficult to reach. This made it hard for us to keep certain plants trained to their supports. It was also hard to check the plants and keep them rid of pests, like the caterpillars in the tomato plants. We decided to move about half of our containers up onto the porch. The rest of the pots are out in the yard, resting on the pathway stones leading from the street to the door of our house. The pots will be easier to reach and we thought it might help deter some of the birds and squirrels if the pots are closer to the house. Maybe? Hopefully! We shall see! Another reason for moving the garden is that we're trying to grow back the grass in the old spot, in case we end up moving to a new house sometime this season! If we do move, it will be extra important that we keep the plants from sprawling out of their pots, so they can go in the moving truck without risking much damage.
Now that we've decided on the arrangement of the pots, we can think about what will go into them. We're starting out with a lot of seeds that were left over from previous seasons. Of course, we could not resist picking out a few new additions! The most exciting new veggie is... wait for it... CORN! Yep, we're gonna try an newly developed variety called On Deck which is bred for containers, and we can't wait to see how it does! We ordered three packs of tomato seeds, because we were unhappy with our tomatoes last year. We had grown a Roma variety that just did not produce well through the heat of the summer. So, Roma's are out. The new tomatoes are Patio Princess, Baxter's Bush Cherry, and Heatwave. The first two are specially bread for container gardens and are supposed to only reach about 2 feet high! The Heatwave are bred to produce through the hottest temperatures. Naturally, we have high hopes for all three! We're adding 3 lettuces, Tom Thumb, a small buttery lettuce, Cimaron, a purple-tipped Romaine variety, and Black Seeded Simpson, a lettuce considered a 'classic' that we've never eaten, all supposed to be slow to bolt in the heat. The other new guys will be Spearmint, Blue Lake 47 green beans, and Yukon Gold potatoes. We're trying out some potato growing bags we received as a gift, and we're looking forward to seeing how they work out. Even though we are technically past 'potato planting time', shhhhh...
Here's a list of all the items to be grown in the Baby Bee Garden this year!
- corn
- tomatoes
- lettuce
- spinach
- chard
- potatoes
- snow peas
- green beans
- zucchini
- cucumbers
- eggplant
- jalepeno
- bell peppers
- carrots
- beets
- radishes
- strawberries
- green onions
- green garlic
- dill
- basil
- spearmint
- catnip
- parsley
- cilantro
- pansies
- morning glories
- marigolds
- sunflowers
- zinnias
