We do containers for a few reasons.
A) Desert- so controlling/not wasting water is a must.
B) Also, needing to move plants as the hella desert sun changes is handy.
C) Our grandparents own the house, so when they lived here, they graveled the lot (common here) and all the low maintenance weed-treatments to make their life easier means that everything that gets planted that wasn't the handful of trees already here won't grow in the killed ground.
We have (multi-generational old-fashioned house, so "we" is my kids and I, one of my brothers...the good one
, and our mommy
) SO FAR this season:
- The lemon tree that was already here
- Two container fig trees
- Container mandarin tree
- Container lime tree
- Cherry tomatoes
- "Early Girl" tomatoes
- Golden-something tomatoes
- I had a yellow watermelon, and a cantaloupe going, but the damn squirrel my mom won't let us "take care of" ate them... yesterday we picked up a black beauty watermelon, another yellow, and a cantaloupe to replace them. I'm gonna leave the remains of his handiwork down to distract him from the new.
- Crookneck squash
- Zucchini
- A bell pepper type that I forget right now
- The pomegranate they bought years ago, almost died, is looking healthy now, but no fruit yet.
- Kaleidoscope carrots are starting to come up
- Sage
- Purple basil (mine is starting to green up.... I need to figure out why... maybe too much sun?
I have seedlings going for
- Mesclun mix
- tons of cucumbers
- purple-top turnips
- Collards
I'm about to start some cilantro (could only find seeds...
)
Gonna throw some chives in the herb bucket, as well as an oregano and rosemary I bought yesterday.
We also have several edible flowers that we'll eat, and the chickens (and they are LOVING the marigolds we got for them and to repel buggies...)
Johnny-jump-ups (a viola), Alyssum, THREE lavender plants (the chickies LOVE IT), I'm gonna let some of my basil and chives flower b/c yum...roses (got two yesterday...)
My mom grabbed a bunch of seeds yesterday too- but I'll need to see what they are, all I remember is spinach and those white/round eggplants with the purple blush.
I also got some beautiful French radishes- but I'm waiting now until autumn b/c I KNOW they won't do well in our heat. I have a list of things that are gonna enjoy our long autumn growing season, so I'm planning now
Sorry it got rambling... I'm making dinner