Updates 5/27/21 and a Note

Note:  When you pick lettuce, you damn well better eat it right away or it gets wilty.  At least this kind of loose leaf butter lettuce goes wilty.  I had to throw out what I picked a couple days ago.  Bummer.

Updates:  I have buds on several of my zucchini plants now.  The two tomato plants I bought are getting tall and the shorter one has flowers.  The tomatoes I did from seeds are starting to get bigger.  The carrots are growing right along.  

I should probably thin the tomatoes I planted from seed, but I don't have the heart to kill those extra plants.  Silly, I know.  They need thinning to grow big and strong.  Well, for one of them to grow big.  The others would be dead.  See why I don't have the heart to do it?  I'd suck as a farmer.  And this is why we chose not to go into animal husbandry.  I'm pretty sure I could kill a rabbit if I had no other meat to eat, but since I can still get food from the store, I'm not in a position where I need alternative meat sources.  

The other day, I got a wild hair and bought an onion set.  A set is a bunch of baby onion plants.  You plug them into the ground and they grow into big plants with full-sized onions.  I'm planning on putting them in my flower gardens, here and there, to see where they'll grow best.  We'll see how that goes.  If it fails, I'll only have wasted $1.30.  

Speaking of money, I sat down and made a list of everything I've bought strictly for this garden thing.  I'm at about $55.  Not sure if the food I'll grow would've cost that much.  We'll see how this goes, too.  

It's all a learning curve this year.  

Today, we're supposed to get some particularly bad weather.  The plan is to bring everything inside - either in the sun room or in the garage.  Keep your fingers crossed it all goes well.

Updates 05/22/21

Here are the plants today... all in a row.  

Except for the lettuces which are over here:

I've rearranged the deck for optimum growage.  The zucchinis are in the front, because they need horizontal room to spread and the tomatoes and the carrots are in the back because they grow vertically.  The lettuces are in a spot where they get gentle morning sun and by early afternoon, they're in the shade.  Yay.

I also moved out outdoor seating to the east side of the deck, to give more of the sunny spots to the plants.  So we'll be sitting in the shade.  Here's the view from the seating area:

Eventually, the zukes will take over, but I'm okay with that.  There are two doors, so even if the zukes take up all the middle space, we can still get around.  

As the sun dips to the north over the next month or so, I'll have to pull some things more toward the middle of the deck, so they get more sun, but I'm okay with that.  

Updates - May 19, 2021

 Time for some updates.  

Here's a picture of the tomato seedlings:

And here's a pic of the zucchinis, carrots, and the two tomato plants I bought:

Finally, here are the lettuces:

Some of those lettuces should be ready to eat soon.  Then I'll plant more.  

The smaller of the two tomato plants I purchased already has a flower on it, but everything else is ages away from being ready to eat.  

As for the carrots, the three pots I planted of the first variety that I never did thin out are going gangbusters.  I wonder what will happen when I finally get ready to harvest.  I'm hoping for a bunch of small carrots.  We'll see.  This, after all, is a learning curve.  The carrots seeds of the second variety have seedlings already spaced for single growth.  We'll see how the two varieties/planting methods compare when it's all said and done.  

The 17 zucchini plants are getting big.  And I had an 18th plant pop up over the last day or so, I may thin that one.  Thinning plants makes me sad, though, so I might not bother.  

All in all, things are going good.  I've been pulling them back during expected bad weather and sheltering them as best I can.  Then putting them back in the sun when the weather clears.  When they get big, that might not be possible.  With them still being small, I'm happy to move them around as needed.  

Broke Down, Bought Plants

 All my plants are fine, but today I broke down and bought two tomato plants.  My seedlings are so tiny and I'm so impatient.  The new tomato plants are supposedly specifically designed for container gardening.  :fingers crossed:  Meanwhile, the seedlings will continue to grow - hopefully - and I'll get tomatoes from them later in the summer.  

I'm okay with this.  After all, this is the test year.  If growing tomatoes from seeds doesn't work, I'll go with plants only next year.  

The zukes are growing right along - all 17 of them.  We'll see what happens when they start to spread out.  My back deck could turn into a jungle.

Shuttling Plants Around

 Yesterday, I thought I'd read that we were supposed to get splooshed upon, so I brought all the plants inside.  (Because they're too tiny to take a big splooshing yet.)

Then I realized I'd jumped the gun and the plants were going to need to be watered again before the big rain, so I moved them all back outside for watering (because I don't want a big drippy mess in my sunroom.)

16 zucchinis, twelve tomatoes, 5 lettuces, 8 carrots, and one pot with the two baby cedar trees.  42 pots.  And I still have an egg carton with lettuce seedlings in the garage.  Umm...  Yah.

Anyway, I got them all out and I watered them all.  Later, once they've had a chance to drip any excess water, I'll bring them back inside until Tuesday when the weather is supposed to be better.

At some point, these babies will be big enough to handle a splooshing on their own and they'll stay outside, but for now, I'm okay with toting them around.  Huge thanks to Hubs for toting them with me.

Oh, and here's a closeup of some of the baby zukes and lettuces.  Aren't they cute?  I can't wait to eat them up.  

Note: 4/30/21

A FB friend of mine was showing off pictures of her new greenhouse - like 6'x3'x3'.  It's a kit!  Holy cow.  I don't know why I never considered that they had kits to make little greenhouses.  I've got my eye on this one now:  https://www.wayfair.com/outdoor/pdp/vidaxl-984-w-x-492-d-greenhouse-xlvd6942.html .  Too cool.  

But first, let's make this container thing produce food.  Then I'll think about whether the expense is worth it.

Update 5/1/21 - MAY DAY!

Heh, there's no problem.  It's just May Day.  The first day of my favorite month of the year.  =o)

All of the tomatoes are transplanted into bigger pots - one egg carton space worth per pot.  So, I have 12 pots of tomato seedlings - some with only one but most have three to five in there.  I'll probably thin them after they get some more height.  

I've also done away with the carrot transplants that didn't take well and reseeded those containers with the new carrot seeds (they're pink!) and done two more Tampico Punch jugs with seeds.  Five seeds per container at the corners and in the middle.

The zucchinis seem to be thriving in their new pots.  The lettuces are also doing well in their containers.  I started new lettuce seeds last week and those are coming up gangbusters.

I never mention it, but I took one small onion out of the last batch I bought for eating and shoved it into the rosebed.  So far, so good.  Not sure what'll happen, but it was already going in the fridge, so I wasn't planning on eating it anyway.

Yeah, I'm kinda nuts.  This is all sort of a test to see what works and what doesn't.  If the tomatoes don't work well from seed, I'll buy plants next month.  Fingers crossed, though.  I really want my babies to grow and give me fruits.