2008 Garden - Containers Everywhere

Since I'm taking my garden to new production levels, I needed additional space for planting. I don't really want to get out the tiller and chew up more sod, deal with weeds, and all that other "making a new garden spot" work. At the encouragement and advisement of my friend Maria, I'm using all sorts of containers to make additional space happen. Here's a sampling of the various "growing ons" in my 2008 garden:


Above are pictures of yellow bean plants growing intensively in pots, cucumber plants in hanging basket pots...which will eventually be hanging, strawberries in a pot-tower, lettuce and radishes growing in an under-the-bed container, various bedding plants growing in newspaper pots in the garden flats, and pumpkins.


I planted pumpkin plants in Halloween Candy buckets. These are for selling at the market, but I think what is going to happen is I'm going to have quite the "field" of container grown pumpkins. These are the Cinderella variety! Could get very interesting.

The 2008 Garden, June 16th

The following pictures were taken a little over a month from the previous ones. First, you can see that the barren bit of land has blossomed with life. Secondly, you can see that I've "tamed" the area with my "French-style" raised beds, and am coaxing an assortment of vegetables to grow to grace my table, as well as supply other folk's tables.

Note, the straw bales are surrounding my "giant" tomato plants. I purchased several from a small greenhouse in Crivitz, WI. These were half-grown when I got them. The weather was so cold, that I decided to surround them with bales to try and bring some warmth to them, blocking the chilly breeze that just kept blowing here in our lakeside region by Lake Michigan.





After reading about Urban Gardening projects in Milwaulkee and Chicago using children's swimming pools for containers, I have planted 2 of these to add space to my backyard garden growing area.

The 2008 Garden's Beginnings

In early May, I started working on this year's garden. It's been a slow start of getting things done, as we had cold weather, snow, rain, and more cold weather. Not really "ideal" for getting a garden going, let alone plans for an intensively grown, large backyard garden.

My efforts started May 5th, and continued off-and-on across May. Here are pictures of the prep, the re-establishing of my "French-style" raised bed.

Okay, Okay, Okay...yeah, its been awhile

Well........I think the title tells it all. It has been a long long while (April 29, 2008) since I posted here on my blog. I've been a busy gal! Fact is, there are other Blogs, now maintained by my friend Maria, that tell of our various ventures and adventures!

Of course April 29th marked the near end of the college school year, and since that is now a few months past, yes, the papers got graded, the grades got posted, and graduation happened, and so forth. Oh, I still have cleaning and sorting and other stuff to do. In fact, have to have "my" classroom ready for the janitor and floor cleaning this next week - July 7th to 11th. I'll have to make a quick trip to the college and move boxes and materials to other locations so the furniture can be moved about and the carpet cleaning machine be run.

As the semester came to an end, I made a vow to myself that I was going to find some things to do that would help me "avoid" the blues and blaaaas I typically fall prey to when my life slows down with the coming of summer break. As a teacher, I go full tilt for 9 months, and then "boom"....everything that had me busy suddenly stops. My mind and body and spirit tends to get very confused by the sudden void...so......

This year I have "RAMPED UP" my gardening! (No, I didn't build a ramp...haha) I made a decision to take on having a farmer's market booth. Maria then suggested I "fill the void" of being a "Community Supported Agriculture" garden, so I did that, too. I'm "piloting" that....and all of this has brought new life to my interest in gardening, as well as my creativity. Rather than write it all in this post, I'll post some photos and other comments here, so you can enjoy my summer journey! I'm having a blast!!!!

Soozee