Scarborough Seashells: vegetable garden

What a difference a month makes!

Taken the day I planted- June 19th

Taken this afternoon- July 14th

Things I've learned for next year:

1. Cucumbers are crazy! They grow like an inch a day and they are leafy as all get out! Next year they'll be planted on the western edge of the garden so they don't shade any of the other plants. I am constantly tying them up to keep them contained!

2. Tomatoes get tall- FAST! I put cages over them last week and already have two that I had to replace with larger cages because they shot up over the tops- literally overnight!

3. Peppers are SLOW. And I am impatient. One each of the Green Bell and the Portuguese Hot. That's all I've got so far.

We've already mapped out the garden for next year and it will quadruple in size (at least) from this year. We're going to grow about 15 tomato plants instead of 4 and we're also going to add some melons, some lettuce and some more variety of peppers. I can't wait!

Since we've always been renters, I've never had the opportunity to plant a garden of my own and so have become quite adept at container planting. This summer is our first full summer as homeowners and while I started out prepared to plant in containers again, I wound up deciding to do a small garden in the backyard.

I have been working on clearing out some extremely overgrown forsythia (as you can see in the below photo) and doing so gave me the perfect spot to plant some veggies.

When I say small, I mean small! This is a 4'x4' frame, but I think I've managed to make good use of it!

We have a row of Portuguese Hot Peppers

Burpless Cucumbers

Three different tomatoes- an Early Girl

a Sun Gold Cherry

and a Patio Tomato

and a row of Green Bell Peppers

And because I've heard rumor that planting different herbs too near each other will make them start to take on each others flavors, I decided to stick with containers for my two basils.

My African Blue

and my Sweet Basil (still need to get one more plant for this pot)

This is all stuff we eat with regularity, so I figured best to start with what I know. if I am successful this summer, I think I'll double the size next year to include some lettuce, a few more tomatoes and maybe some melons of some sort...

I've also been working on a new flower bed. This entire bed (save for the two sunflowers I bought for $1 a piece) is made up of freebies given to me by my mom and mother in law. I've got Day Lilies, Iris, green and variegated Sedum, Coreopsis, Tiger Lilies, Lupine and Bee Balm. I call it the scraggler garden because it's sort of just a mishmash of stuff all plopped together. But I am patient and in a few years it will fill in and look lush and lovely! (Now if I could only get my ~~weeds~~ grass to grow in!)

And finally I leave you with a photo of a pretty yellow flower growing in my window box. I have no clue what it is- I got an 8 pack at Home Depot for $1.88 and there were none with tags that had names, lol! They bloom in red, magenta, yellow and white. Anyone have any idea what it is?

And a final reminder! Today is the last day to enter my $40 CSN Stores gift certificate giveaway!