Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Garden thoughts from Xmas to NYE

Making the list and checking it twice. Not a Xmas gift list, but a list of garden seeds and plants for the garden of 2016.  The garden always starts anew every year, and the failures and the successes give us hope and give a sad face. So much hope! So much reward! and some failures. Just like life.



The container garden worked out pretty well. Just pretty well. I won't repeat it because: the no5 plastic boxes were very heavy, and cracked at the end of the summer since they aren't meant to last a long time (and not meant to last outside either).







I was surprised by a seedling that turned out to be a cherry tomato....probably a Sweet 100, since I do grow it every year, except 2015, but one came up on its own anyway. It's tough and I highly recommend it to novice and old-time gardeners alike.




The plants in the boxes didn't grow very well (probably  not high quality dirt), except the peppers and the marigolds.

The garden of 2016 will have more cherry tomatoes, more striped tomatoes, and my favorite peppers... Corno di Toro. Those amazing little Japanese eggplants and more pickling cucumbers because of their smaller size, and they are multi-purpose. Pickle them or eat them fresh! Another Meyer Lemon because Lemon! And I'm buying a miniature fruit tree or 2 to grow in a big wine barrel or 2.

More marigolds, more morning glories and nasturtium, more zinnias, more sunflowers. More alyssum, more daisies. 


On the other hand, the morning glories were glorious! And self-seeding.
pics from 2015 --- Oh, we didn't have any Japanese beetles but we had a late season tomato hornworm. UGLEEE. and a darling praying mantis lived in the wild geranium weed for a week or so.
The mantis is hard to seeeee, but he is there, right in the middle of this picture.



But the tomato hornworm is pretty easy to see. It did take us about a week to find him in the cherry tomato.




Here are some pics that I especially like from 2015. The weeds in the cracked concrete were especially adorable.