Update with Pics - 6/10/21

 Good morning!  I know I haven't been here in a while, but that's because nothing major has been going on.  Well, that changed a couple days ago when my zucchinis started blooming!  Yay!

They're going crazy!  Which gives me a decided happy.  Way to go, Zukes!  

In other plant news, the tomatoes are doing well.  Still no blooms on anything but the one I bought and those flowers are gone now.  Hopefully, I'll see tiny fruits start there soon.  

The carrots are okay.  One of the planters where I never separated the seedlings has halfway died.  The others are doing fine.  All the containers planted with single seeds are doing well.  

The lettuces are being eaten a few leaves at a time, mostly on burgers and sandwiches, but are a disappointment.  The lettuce itself is nearly flavorless and easily bruised.  And it wilts quickly.  I won't be doing this species again.  Next year, I'll move to spinach.

In onion news, I am starting to see green on a few members of the set.  Fingers crossed for onions I can actually harvest down the road.

All in all, the container gardening experiment is working.  It's a bit of a pain, but then again, all gardening is.  At least I don't have to worry about critters eating my plants.  The true test will be how much I harvest and whether it was worth it overall.  Time will tell.

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.  

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.  

Container Update - All Pics

Here's the container garden today, taking in the lovely sun.  They'll go back into the garage this evening and stay there through the next few rainy days.  

It doesn't look like much now, but it's going along.  

Container Garden Update w/ Pics

 Hello again.  I've got the plants out getting some sun right now, so I thought I'd share some pictures of the gang.

Here they all are...

Here's a closer pic of the zukes, the cedars, the tomatoes, and the lettuces...

Here's a closer pic of another zuke and the carrots...

Now that the lettuce is getting multiple leaves, I need to separate them again.  And plant a new round of lettuces.  The carrots are in desperate need of thinning, but I think I might leave these and see what happens.  Meanwhile, I bought another pack of carrot seeds and plan to plant those more judiciously.  Maybe take Janet's suggestion and use a salt shaker.  

I now have at least ten tiny tomato sprouts.  Those are in the egg crate and they'll need to get a bit bigger before I transplant them.  I also have about seven zucchini plants.  Woohoo.  Zukes galore.  I can't wait.  

I feel like a mad scientist.  And I want to plant more stuff!  Bwa ha ha.

The Beginnings of Growth

 Let's start out with some pictures...  

Those are my carrots.

These are my lettuces.

Both the carrots and the lettuce are 14 days old.  The lettuce started out in an egg carton and were transplanted into ice cream tubs at 9 days old.  I attempted transplanting carrots this morning.  Note: There's a reason why they say you can't transplant carrots.  Their roots are like fine white hairs at this point and I don't think it's humanly possible to get those roots straight so they can grow into nice carrots.  We'll see.  I may have to simply thin those out and be satisfied with only a few carrots reaching maturity instead of the plethora of shoots that came up.

I also have three containers with zucchinis planted - 6 seeds per container - and an egg carton with tomato seeds planted.  One tomato showed itself this morning.  15 days out.  Slow pokes.  

The zucchinis were planted later than the rest, so it's only been 7 days.  

I have a spreadsheet to keep track of the dates and progress.  I'll talk about that another time.

I'm also keeping track of two cedar seedlings. I pulled them out of my flower gardens and transplanted them into a pot.  They're only about 2 inches high, but I hope to get them big enough to put into the north side of our yard.  

Let's face it, folks, I'm a writer by nature not a farmer, so there's every possibility I will totally screw this up.  Every regular veggie garden I've ever planted was a bust.  But hey, if it works, we'll have fresh veggies without having to trek to the store.  Fingers crossed.