My Urban Garden

 

Back in Indiana I had 3 acres of land that was loaded with gardens of all different types. I had

strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, herbs and a large veggie garden. I have been canning for years and enjoy providing my family with high quality veggies I grew myself.When we decided to move to Texas I knew I would have little room for gardening and I would have to use every bit of space I could find for my urban garden. I am hoping to get my husband to build me a strawberry tower which I may put in my front yard because they are as beautiful as they are functional. My only problem with that is keeping the neighborhood kids from eating all my strawberries. Another issue I have to deal with is that everything I do needs to be mobile because we plan to put a pool in next spring and I don’t want all my work to be destroyed when the builders come.

I had been eye balling the beautiful raised beds from Gardeners Supply but until the pool gets put in I don’t really know what kind of space I will have to put them so I wanted something that I could put almost anywhere and be able to move if needed. I found some nice self watering planters from Ikea and I could shoot myself now for not picking up a few more of them but I couldn’t find the price on them at the time and I feared the worst. I think I will pick up a couple more because not only were they self watering and attractive but they have wheels which makes it easy for me to move them.  I was over joyed to find out that fall is great time to start plants and was able to pick up a couple things for my new planters. I soon learned I was going to have to start my favorite San Marzano tomatoes from seed because they only seem to sell about 3 varieties down here. I found tons of herbs and a good variety of pepper plants but I was very surprised to not find tomatillo plants. I have filled my two planters and they are doing quite well even thougt the one is a little over filled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see I am a big herb fan I love to use fresh herbs in everything I cook so I tend to plant them any where I can find a spot to suite them. I already have plans to rip out half the landscaping the home builders put in and replace them with herbs that will look just as nice. I am still impressed that rosemary and many other plants are perennial down here that I could barely get to grow back home. I do have a bay laurel back home in a pot that my parents are going to bring to me when they come to visit. I am have been babying that Bay for almost 5 years and he is maybe 3 feet tall so I am sure once I get him in the ground down here he is going to love it.

I had to find other cost effective ways to start my urban garden and while browsing Gardeners.com

and drooling on their cedar raised beds I found these awesome grow bags which are portable and won’t allow the plants to be over watered like when we get those typical Texas downpours. I had to move my planters from above out of the rain after a couple hours because the water indicator was maxed and I didn’t want my plants drowning. They are suppose to let the roots breath while not letting them dry out to fast. We will see how they handle the Texas weather though I am very careful about making sure they never fully dry out so it will be more of seeing how long they take to dry out. They had versions for tomatoes, pepper, potatoes, garlic and salad grow bags. I got a couple different ones to try because they were pretty inexpensive. Time will tell how well they work and at least they will let me attempt to grow something without worrying about having to relocate it when we finally put our pool in.

Next post I will let you know what seeds I am starting and what my goal plantings will be!

Enjoy Life!

Candie