The Cardiologist's Wife

Gardening Update – You Can Grow Your Own Vegetables

[ Post by Lisa Tedder ][ Post on May 21, 2013 ][ In Miscellaneous ]

I thought I’d update everyone on my gardening efforts.  Here is a picture of my cilantro.

 

 

That’s right.  There is nothing in the pot because the cilantro died.  I had heard that cilantro was difficult to grow and I proved that comment correct.  I wanted to try though because I use so much cilantro in cooking.  Here is a picture of my basil (left) and mint.

 

 

Ahh, you can actually see the plants!  I bought the mint at a local nursery already well started and it has more than doubled in size.  We have been able to use the mint in several recipes.  If you grow mint, put it in a pot as everyone has told me it spreads like wildfire in a garden.  The basil I started from seeds in those tiny peat pellets and transferred them to a larger pot.  Now the last fatality: the lettuce.  On my last update, I mentioned that I had trouble finding the plant nutrients locally for hydroponic gardening.  Well I ordered some online only it came too late for me to successfully establish the tiny lettuce plants in a hydroponic bath.  I still have some peat pots and lettuce seeds so I think I’ll try again now that I have the plant food.

 

Last, my tomato and squash plants.  Look closely and you will see two tiny green tomatoes!

 

 

I bought the tomato plant at the farmer’s market from someone who obviously did not care to question the home where her precious baby was going.  If she’d bothered to investigate, she’d have learned of my black thumb and denied me her offspring.  Interestingly, the tomato is a an heirloom plant grafted onto the root of a hybrid tomato.  It’s supposed to be hardier and produce more like the hybrid but have the better flavor of the heirloom, which in this case is the Mortgage Lifter tomato.  I added the zucchini squash after the teacher of the container gardening class I attended recommended adding a squash or cucumber plant in with your tomato.  This particular variety has round balls instead of the familiar long tube shaped zucchini.  Since I did so well with the basil last year, I have placed all my plants in the same fairly sunny spot.  Cross your fingers, I can taste those tomatoes now!

 

Some keys to container gardening are to make sure your pot drains well enough as you don’t want your plants sitting in water constantly, add a layer of mulch to the top to keep the dirt moist and mixing regular garden soil with peat and a soil free growing medium.  Just adding garden dirt to a container may yield poor results as soil tends to compact to a hard mass making it difficult for the roots to grow.  Another key is to know exactly what you are doing and have plenty of sunshine and time to tend to your plants.  Still wish me luck this summer.  Everyone should try growing something – the results may be fantastic!

Upadated on May 21, 2013