Veggies (Eventually)

This year we decided to try our hand at a little vegetable and herb gardening. Back in April, we sowed some seeds into one of those Burpee growing kits and crossed our fingers. There was basil, cilantro, parsley, scallions, and tomatoes.

Right off the bat, I wasn't impressed. I watered everything to the exact specifications and put the pots somewhere dark and under their little biodegradable cellophane greenhouse. It must have been too humid or something though because when I checked to see if there were any sprouts, I saw that everything was totally covered in mold! It was so nasty! Because there were some sprouts too, we decided that the pots had lived in the dark long enough and we moved them to our picture window where they would get lots of sun (and have to compete with the cats for real estate--the cats were not too happy to have to share). The mold didn't go away completely but it got a lot better (you can still see the white fuzz the white spots on the pots):

Fast forward about 4-5 weeks. The scallions never really took off but we did end up doing pretty well with the tomatoes. I didn't have the heart to throw out all the ones that I had thinned from the original pots, so whenever I could (i.e. when I didn't break a root too badly when pulling it up), I repotted those too. We gathered all the flower pots we could for temporary transplant. We moved them into a protected outdoor space (our breezeway) for a little over a week so they could acclimate to the outdoors.

Finally it was time to pot them in their permanent homes. Looks pretty pathetic, eh? It was hard to decide how much space to give them because I knew that if they survived, they would grow pretty high. But they all looked so lonely in there. A last minute addition was some white cucumbers that Burpee sent for free with our blueberry order (that's another story...). We planted them directly into the big pots without germinating them indoors.

Sometime in June, a switch got flipped and these guys started growing what seemed like several inches a day. Here they are on June 12. They got so big that we had to tie them to stakes to keep them from tipping over and snapping:

Here they are two weeks later on June 26. They had grown at least 6-8 inches!

The cucumbers in particular took off like crazy. They didn't have the head start that the tomatoes did and check them out--equally huge. And with giant prickly cucumber leaves and tendrils.

We still didn't see any flowering until about July 4th weekend. The plants by then were so tall that they have overgrown their 6-foot high stakes. We tried pruning back but I wasn't sure if we were supposed to prune veggie plants so mostly I just hoped for the best. I had expected them to stay pretty dwarfed in their tiny pots. Of course now I'm reading that the tomatoes we bought (Sweet 100) actually often grow up to 7 feet tall. Yikes! It got so bad that yesterday we took all the stakes and tied them together in the center, because the weight of the plants cause the stakes to lean very badly. They looked like they wouldn't be able to take it much longer.

But the good news is that we're getting close to harvest! The cukes are tiny (about 3 inches) but getting there.

We're nowhere near the 100-yield for our tomato plants, but we have our first delicious few of the summer this morning with breakfast.

The basil has been going so well that we had to make a double batch of pesto just to keep up (no complaints there...) and the parsley has grown at least adequately enough to save us from having to buy it a couple of times to use in some recipes. The scallions never really took off at all and we don't have a single successful plant (bunch?) so now we know they may not be worth the space and effort next year. 

As for our decisions on where and how to garden, having them in containers has made it much easier to make sure they are getting enough water (much easier to water a few pots than an in-ground garden). I think it has stopped the hordes of bunnies in our yard from being able to decimate them, as well. And being in the front of the house where all the sun is probably accelerated their growth. The only negative is that they got a lot bigger than expected, so they have become a bit of an eyesore in our front yard (and are way too big to move now). I never expected them to cover most of our front window. 

I think the cats like being able to hang out in the window and feel like they're in a forest though...