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Category: My first Gardening experiences | Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:09 pm

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So this year I live very close to the beach and I don't have a huge yard or even really much grass. I have a whole lot of sandy dirt, so that being said I've decided to go with a container garden. I purchased a some nursery pots in 6 packs from the dollar store of all places and don't laugh but I also bought plastic easter baskets and put holes in them, they make cute pots. I was actually very lucky due to the fact that the last tenants here were also plant lovers and they left hooks and hangers on the fence and it had a nice feel to it, I'm sure they had this place looking lovely. But the best feeling was when I was working on my plants and noticed growing through the dirt morning glories. My first reaction was a holy crap I know that plant and then I was so proud of myself! I actually felt like a real gardener cause I started to look closely at the scattered weeds in the sand I realized hey that's not a weed either, then I found mint! Well hot dog that made my day, so I took these up and potted them too. I would of left them in the sandy dirt but I intend on putting pavers down to put my pots along the fence and id like to sod the rest of the area.
At this point I've planted a lot of green beans, wax beans, and pumpkin seeds and have been thinning them now its just a point of which ones I can keep alive from all the fungus, blight and bugs. I think I may try seven dust this year. It seems to come highly recommended. I have limited my squash and chili pepper plants. I didn't want to grow to much squash cause honestly I don't have much hope for it, but the two I grew seem to be doing well but they are still small. I started with 17 pumpkin seeds I believe and I'm down to 7 plants and they all are showing signs of blight. I had an upwards of 34 bean (wax and green) plants I got them mixed up but there are approximately 18 now and they are all starting to flower and just a few seem to have a little yellowing. I keep getting attacked by leaf minors and just remove the leaf its on. I have 3 chili peppers plants and they are doing great, two of them are my daughters and we grew them in egg shells and they are doing better then the one I grew in a pot! We just transfered one today cause he got a lil to big, we just cracked the shell and popped it in the pot shell and all. Oh my daughter named him Bob jr of course cause her older sister named hers Bob! Hahaha Kids! :) I've got mint ,oregano and basil. I've been trying cat nip but its very slow. I also have 5 garlic plants that were growing in my fridge, just popped them in a container! Hey why not I'm ready to grow anything! Except Mariglods! I still kill them daily! Hahaha I also have 2 cherry tomato plants that are fruiting like crazy, they are store bought.
I finally have a good selection of flowers cause I had my heart set on those marigolds and yeah no good, so now I have a celosia, a petunia and a african daisy from the store. From seed I've grown cosmos and marigolds and morning glories. But I don't think I will plant cosmos again, this year they haven't flowered either just like last year. And my dead marigolds from the store gave me seeds daily and I just kept planting them so I have them getting ready to flower and prepare for me to kill them! Hahaha My husband bought me a mini rose bush for valentines day and its the best bloomer in the crowd, at one point she started to get that rust on her and I went to kmart and found this stuff reccomended by the rose club called Rose Pride by Ortho and it kills insects disease and mites, it works great oh my goodness its the next best thing and its not limited to roses its for all ornamental use (still didn't save my marigolds from rust) hahaha!!! Or I should have said me! And that wheat(we think) my daughters teacher gave her seeds is getting really tall and has a stalk kinda now. Before it looked like grass and I thought the teacher was just joking with the kids about them being wheat seeds.
I also tried a few new things this year like I saved a peach seed in the fridge for a year in a bag with a couple drops of water like they said to do online. And plant it right before spring and I got nothing. :( I also planted about 20 romaine lettuces and I have 8 still going strong now. I have 7 okra just starting to show signs of life in the seed starter pots. I hate okra but its pretty, easy and fun to grow, I plan on giving them to my neighbors.
So this year seems to be going better then last. I like the safety of the container garden where when we get really bad weather I can bring them in. And my husband is not fond of it cause I make him help! Haha I've found a great product that works for me for my ornamentals. I haven't treated my veggies yet except I added dish soap to the water a few times. My major bug issue here are leaf minors but I see that white moth flying around pretending he's a pretty butterfly and know my battle with him will be coming in the near future! But my battles not lost even if I kill marigolds like crazy, I learned that no matter what some plants suck to grow in florida.



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