BUT it’s not as horrible as it sounds. I decided to start a mini container garden. I wish I could say it was the success of my herbs that inspired me but as I predicted, those never grew so I tossed them. Technically I didn’t kill them, because they never really grew more than the picture I shared in this blog post. And for the record, the scallions are still re-growing themselves and the celery is re-growing as well!
Anyway, so I decided to start a little container garden after the man at the farmer’s market convinced me that it really wouldn’t be so hard. I know he probably just wanted to sell me zucchini but he was so old and cute and sweet I couldn’t say no. I got a 4 pack of zucchini seedlings and a basil plant for $3.25. Not bad, considering one zucchini plant is supposed to produce several zucchini per week. I managed to get them home without killing them so I took that as a sign of good things to come.
Apparently zucchini plants are huge, about 3′ x 3′ feet so I planted 3 in a large pot and 1 in the ground, just to see what would happen. I figured once they started to grow I would transfer them to the ground as well, or give them away to someone who has more space. I also picked up a patio tomato plant and stuck that in a slightly smaller pot. I made sure to put rocks in the bottom of each pot, then I raised the pots off the ground with tiles to ensure proper drainage.
My new little garden had 1 tomato plant, 1 basil plant, 4 zucchini plants, scallions, celery, 1 garlic clove (an experiment to see what happens) and some parsley, which was the only thing that survived my herb garden. Here’s what it looked like on Mother’s Day when I planted everything:
That little plastic fence was my failed attempt at landscaping the front of our townhouse in FL 8 years ago. Yeah, so… that.
Everything looked great and I was so excited about the zucchini and tomatoes but then the weather decided to freak out and drop to the 30s. I remembered to bring the plants inside on the 1st night, but forgot the 2nd. The zucchini in the ground was totally fine with all of the changing weather but the plants in the pot weren’t happy about it at all. Then the weather freaked out again and rose to almost 90 the very next day, which completely threw the zucchini for a loop and 2 of the plants were pretty much dead. I tried to move them to the ground to see if that would help but it was hopeless. I think trying to move them sealed their fate. There was one remaining plant in the pot that looked like it might make it so I left it alone. I am happy to say a week later it’s starting to grow and looks like it’s going to be OK!
Here is the one that I planted in the ground. It’s so much healthier than the other! They were the same size the day I bought them.
My tomato plant seems to be unfazed by the wacky weather and is starting to flower!! I am so excited!!!!
Something is already eating my basil so I bought some Neem oil to battle that problem. Next I will have to figure out how to keep the bunnies and deer from eating my veggies. I can’t build a fence but possibly could build a cage of sorts out of mesh and pipe. Suggestions?
So that’s what’s happening with my garden experiment. Oh, and the garlic clove I planted is sprouting and you can eat the greens the same way you would eat garlic or onions! They are spicy and delicious! I am excited to see what happens next! Hopefully my vegetable/fruit mortality rate will remain at 2 per season. I will let you know what happens!










