This is scary territory for me. My mom always used to tease me and say that I had a black thumb because I'd kill every plant I came in contact with. I've tried gardening before with mixed results. When I was pregnant with my first, we planted a few tomato & pepper plants around our backyard....it worked out okay. A few years ago, my stepfather came and put a beautiful garden in our backyard, but we had so much vermin, and I'm a lousy gardner, that it did not yield more than a few things we were able to use. This year, I have planted two tomato plants in topsy turvy planters - I'm hoping they work. I also planted 4 herb pots inside the house and have placed them in a sunny spot. Once we get a window box built, I am going to attempt to move the herbs outside. Anyway....I'm so nervous! LOL
I'm anxious to hear how your topsy turvy planters work out. I have seen them at our local Aldi for both tomatoes and strawberries. My dad and I each plant a big garden, so I have a ton of tomatoes in there, but the strawberry hanger really caught my eye.
I know how you feel! I always say that I have a black thumb too My mother is an avid gardener, and pretty much anything she puts into the ground will come up beautifully and yield large amounts of whatever. I tried the topsy turvy for strawberries, and it failed miserably...I also planted some shrubs and flowers this year, aside from my veggies, and everything appears to be just barely hangnig on. My mother says you should see them as living things, which they are, obviously, but kind of like pets...you care for them, you feed them, and they will love you back.
Try http://allthingsplants.com/, Krista. They're a very very friendly bunch over there and you can ask all kinds of questions, and no one will think you are dumb. It's free, too.
I tend to have a "black thumb" as well. We tried a few years ago with a HUGE garden spot...lol, yeah...that did not work out! We had groundhogs, rabbits and mice which ate almost all of it. And then the weeds took over. We would weed a section and the next day, it would be completely full of weeds again! We are trying again this year in a new location, with a fenced in yard, and a MUCH smaller garden! We are doing one each of the topsy turvey tomatoes and strawberries. I already have a couple of small (cherry) tomatoes growing and some blossoms on my strawberry plant! How exciting! I hope yours yields some good stuff this year too!
Thanks!! So far so good. I need my husband to hang the right hooks for me.the plants handled the transplant well...they wilted for a day...but then they were fine. The herbs haven't sprouted yet...but, I'm hoping!!!
Good luck! We are (or I should say dh) is working on getting our first garden in this year. I am pretty clueless about it but his Mom always had a garden (she still does). We are doing tomatoes, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, onions, jalepeno peppers and green peppers. We plan on doing some herbs in the future but have to get that area cleaned out..another weekend in June perhaps. This should be interesting.
I wish you luck too! This year we planted our first big spring garden. In spring on last year we began with a very small garden by the kitchen which has now become my herb garden. This past fall we put in a large garden by our chicken yard and we planted about half of it with spinach, carrots, lettuce and broccoli. We have a 6 foot deer proof fence around it as we have heards of deer walk through our yard daily. In February we were able to get all our spring seeds in. I tried heirloom seeds this year and most worked well. The only failure was the onions. So far we have harvest all our carrots, potatoes and corn, lots of cucumbers (I've made about 20 jars of pickles so far - never done that before!) and we are getting many tomatoes which I plan to begin turning into spaghetti sauce this weekend. My black eyed peas will be ready to shell very soon and I expect my okra to do well into summer. We learned last year that okra loves our intesne summers. We also have three different kind of peppers we planted in the front flower beds which are just now starting to produce. I am going to have dh till up the areas where the corn and potatoes were and plant more carrots. I have NEVER been able to grow anything before. Not even a houseplant! It must be that we have great soil or something because I am truly shocked each time I plant something and it actually grows.
Never give up hope! My grandmother was an amazing gardener. My mother...not so much. When she was about 18, my grandparents went out of town and my mom decided to weed their flower gardens and get them ready for spring planting. She thought it would be a nice surprise for my grandma. Sadly, she dug up and threw away all my grandmother's bulbs. My grandmother never let her live that one down...especially when she married my father. He owned a landscaping business. Two years into their marriage, he decided to open a nursery. My grandmother was quick to tell him the story of the bulbs. He had faith in Mom, though. She ended up being a master gardener and years later, after all the kids were grown and out of the house, she went to work at her local big box hardware store in the garden center. The customers loved her so much, that the store wouldn't let her retire. She worked well into her seventies.
