Tuesday, May 21, 2013

(Micro) Container Planting












After years of fighting groundhogs, it's really amazing that I found myself back at this little farm market on the corner of two busy roads on a sunny Sunday in May.  I tucked Rosemary in her carrier and Fiona skipped ahead, still in her church dress, talking nonstop.

"Can we buy these?  Can I pick?  Can I put everything in the cart?  Oh look Mama, that one already has baby tomatoes on it!"  When I mean talked nonstop, she really did.  A man perusing the basil plants glanced my way with a raised eyebrow and a smile.  I smiled and shrugged back - followed that babbling brook of a 6 year old girl right down those isles lined with plants.

After years of fighting groundhogs, there's still hope on a sunny day in May.  A link offered by an old friend, suggesting raised container beds, sparked an idea in me.   Those flower boxes on the deck just might do the trick.  Sure, groundhogs can climb a bit, but maybe...maybe not?  Another friend carried old hanging baskets to my car after church in response to my pleas for help on facebook.  If I can't plant greens in those 12 boxes out back, then I'll hang them - salad bowls right outside the kitchen door.  Micro-gardening for sure.

Fiona finds a slug on a plant and carries him like a beloved pet during our shopping trip.  After ringing up spinach and bean seeds, ruffly kale, basil, lettuce, chard and a few tomato and pepper plants, the cashier gives her a dum-dum sucker that she stands on tiptoe to accept, popping it in her mouth and stopping her chatter for the first time since we arrived

The next day dawns grey but we're out there anyway.  There's always optimism in spring, no matter how misguided.  Always the hope that maybe, just maybe, this year will be the year we figure it all out.  Or maybe not.  But no matter what, we'll have a great time trying.

After all, we haven't tried coyote urine...yet.


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5 comments:

  1. Fiona sounds like Reece today at the garden center. He came home with a little tray of flowers for his garden and had to plant them as soon as we pulled in the driveway :)


    I do hope the containers keep those ground hogs at bay and you can enjoy some of that wonderful food you are planting. Good luck!

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  2. i just love the beginnings of gardens. so much promise.

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  3. Oh yes, the endless chatter, multiplied by the number of children some of whom can't even talk yet, but chatter all the same! I remember one summer getting so fed up with the groundhog family that I poured Quickcrete down the hole in an attempt to block it...they just dug a new one and kept right on eating! Including climbing the lower limbs of the apple trees to get the apples! Boxes on the porch rails should be pretty safe though...K

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  4. I have ground hogs and pesky rabbits galore. I just plant stuff they do not eat, like tomatoes, peppers. We just fenced in a raised bed and planted spinach and lettuce, I'll let you know if they scale the barrier ;)

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  5. Since this is kind of on the subject of food, can I ask you a question? I have been struggling mightily with feeding my family. How in the world do I feed my crew crowd pleasing meals, on a budget that pack a nutritional punch!? Do you have this figured out? If so, would you consider posting about it? With all of the other wonderful thoughts you share, I would love to hear how this works for your family. Maybe you have posted about it somewhere and i missed it. If you've already covered it somewhere, maybe you could point me in that direction. Thanks in advance!

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