As a record keeping venture, I’m going to try to document the progress of my very first container garden. Hopefully my efforts will help someone along the way.

I posted about my gardening adventure back in May and there has been significant growth since then! Not only have my veggies and herbs thrived, I also planted flowers and learned some interesting things.

I’ll start with my little flower patch. Honestly as much as I love the veggies, seeing these flowers always brings me great joy!

The marigolds I purchased from one of my oldest son’s friends through a fundraising program and when I got them, they were already blooming and beautiful. Behind them are either zinnias or bachelor buttons, I’m not sure yet. My neighbor gave me the seed packets and I started them inside in an egg carton and didn’t label! Whoops, I’ll find out when they bloom – which should be soon. In the back are some more of the sunflower seeds we picked out of the bird feed. The kids planted a bunch in a pot in the back, but my husband stuck some in between my marigolds and when they started growing good I realized I needed to move them! I did some research before I moved them to the back of the patch and found that as long as they were not flowering they would get mad but would do fine. So I moved them carefully and within minutes they were keeled over totally depressed! BUT 4 days later after watering them 3 times a day they sprang back to life!

The leaves look  chomped but really it was from their brush with death. They are doing fine now and even have buds! They are quite short but look like they will flower soon 🙂 I can’t wait to see!

We expanded the container garden a bit since I last posted about it. Initially I just planted the things I started from seed but have since added some purchased plants.

All the veggies I started from seed have sprouted and grown considerably, with the exception of the peppers. We have had lots of rain and found that all the peppers seem to do poorly with too much water.

The acorn squash is blooming nicely.

Beefsteak tomatoes growing tall but no blooms yet.

Carrots are doing wonderfully and they smell fantastic! I am just dying to pull them up and see what they look like!

The celery is doing great too, but we lost one plant I think because there were too many in the pot. That is something I learned, no more than 3 plants per pot was the right suggestion and I should have listened.

Cucumbers are blooming so pretty and I can see little veggies starting to form! So exciting!

My poor waterlogged green peppers. I drilled a few more holes in all the pots containing peppers and the kids dug up and added some worms also to hopefully help.

I have pumpkins and cantaloupe in this old pool. The pumpkins are taking over, totally, so we turned the pool around and kinda lead the pumpkins out onto the ground so they don’t devour the poor cantaloupe. The cantaloupe are blooming too, but the pumpkin is a camera hog 🙂

These cherry tomatoes were the last things I planted from seed and I did not start them in the house but they came up great.

Some of the herbs Willow planted seem to be growing much slower than everything else, but they are coming up.

Basil is doing great and after the last rain, 2 more plants popped up also.

Something has been eating the poor dill. The good thing is it seems to bounce back quickly and within days looks full again. Hopefully whatever is munching on it will leave me some when I need it!

Scallions are doing great, they sprouted first and have had no issues whatsoever.

This tiny parsley plant seems like it has been this size since it sprouted, but it IS growing. Hopefully it flourishes, I love fresh parsley!

This mizuna I started in the house separate from the Girl Scouts herb garden project and later too.

There are two little oregano plants doing pretty good in addition to these that I somehow did not get a good picture of. And the chives were eaten as soon as they came up and have not come back.. I have considered planting more, but I think it’s a bit late.. we will see..

Now onto the plants we purchased …

Habanero, doing the worst of all the peppers, but still hanging on!

Butternut squash flowered, but all the flowers seemed to fall off and I’m not sure what it’s doing .. but I ask it all the time.. haha

There was a happy little caterpillar chomping its way through the collards, which we happily transferred over to some muskmelon that grows like crazy in the back.. hopefully he will stay there.

These hot cherry peppers are doing the best of all the peppers. Still affected by the overabundance of rain, but thriving better than the rest for sure.

We are not exactly sure what these peppers are. Initially when we purchased them I thought I pulled purple belles from the flat but when we got them home we found a little yellow belle tag hidden by one of the plants… so it could be both or it could be either.. or it could be something completely different..

There are some tiny little yellow tomatoes growing here! So cool!

The zucchini is flowering and I can see some starting to grow too. This was one of the things I was kicking myself over not planting from seed. I have very fond memories of my mom making friend zucchini as a kid that I can’t wait to replicate! We also just added an eggplant into the old pool that I must have missed with the camera.. or maybe the giant pumpkin leaves hid it on me!

Last but not least is the little strawberry plant we found in the yard that is growing like a monster! I’m not sure what to do with it, but I know this little pot can’t contain it.. any advice would be appreciated!

So, there is my container garden.. not too shabby for a novice gardener, huh? I’m so excited to be doing this and just love love love watching everything grow. Any feedback or tips would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Happy gardening!