Below you will find a video on how to grow your own Salad Bowls (with a big thanks to my mother, who sent me this link). This is a perfect way to start your children in gardening. They will also love to make their own salads for dinner when they have grown the produce themselves. Enjoy!
Yes, I can grow something!
As we all know, I have admitted that my thumbs are anything-but-green. Yet my children and I have decided to make another go of it and plant our container garden. It was so precious to guide them as they pressed little holes into the pellets, dropped in their seeds, and then gently covered up the seeds with loose soil.
What are we planning on killing growing?
We are using one of those little greenhouse thingamajigs and I know in this warm weather, they will be seedlings in no time. I am still trying to decide which containers will be best, and which plants should be grouped together. I did read that Basil is a perfect pair with tomatoes.
One book I highly recommend is Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckey. It is a great, easy read and gives excellent advise on what is wise to plant in containers and what you had better not attempt. I have not found the need to buy any other book on the subject.
I’ll end with some helpful links on the subject:
HGTV’s ideas
Better Home and Gardens’ page on Containers
Kids Gardening
Did that title grab you? No, it is not some gimmick to entice people to read my poor blog. And no, it is not the name of my new band.
Besides, I do not have a band, new or otherwise. So why would I name one?
I digress.
Anyways, over the years, I have tried to grow living plants. I have wanted to feel the fruits of my labor and the wonder that is eating what you have carefully nurtured from seedling to the end product. Lofty dreams have filled my head since I was teenager of becoming my own gardener.
And that dream, dear friends, has yet to become fulfilled.
You see, it all started when I was probably around fifteen or sixteen. My mom had granted me permission to start a small garden in the back of our home. Armed with all kinds of tools that looked garden-y to me, I headed towards a peaceful spot on the berm.
Remember those lofty dreams I was talking about? Yep. Those were filling my girlish brain. I thought of tomatoes and corn and potatoes and watermelon while I tilled and hoed and threw out rocks. Then I laboriously made rows that my precious baby plants were going to be cradled in.
Then one day, it happened. Someone, who shall remain nameless, ran over my garden.
Sigh.
Now he, I mean, this person, did not know I had a garden. And this parental unit person did not know as he backed up his pickup truck over the berm that he was crushing seedlings and ruining rows. Poor things never got a chance.
To this day I have managed to kill 99.9 % of everything I have tried to raise that involves photosynthesis and dirt. Their was that one year where I managed to grow several different herbs and actually use them in our food. But that hasn’t happened since.
My husband jokes that when people give me plants as gifts, that the plants are screaming on the inside, yelling “HELP! Please don’t let us go to THAT woman!”
And yet, here I am again, planning for something new: container gardening.
I wonder what will come of it. And will I turn over a new leaf?
Sorry. I couldn’t resist that last sentence.
Look out for further updates. . . .
