Planning My Vegetable Garden

It's almost Valentine's Day and I'm not any more prepared for spring planting than I was in November. I am currently reading Sugar Snaps and Strawberries by Andrea Bellamy.  Her book is about "Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Gardens". Perfect. Simple ideas and simple steps are what appeal to me right now.  Anyone who knows me would attest that I can come up with some convoluted plans (although I must say they are really good plans).


I have loved plants all my life, but I am not a vegetable gardener. This is my chance to start small and to limit my choices based mostly on the small space I have to work with. My focus is container gardening with veggies and flowers combined. I can honestly say that if I had a large garden not much would get planted because I'd get bogged down with the plans for it. 

Hanging veggie basket
found on Pinterest no source listed

So far the book has been easy to read, while very informative about the basics of gardening.  She provides a list of the "Top Ten Easiest Edibles" and I think I will try to limit my vegetable choices to those ten plants. 


I was happy to find a glossary in the back. I came across the word "bolting" in reference to radishes.  I'd never heard the term applied to a vegetable, but I had first hand experience with my radishes last summer.  "Bolting; Elongated growth of a plant stalk, with premature flowers and seed; ...". I was given a packet of seeds and they sprouted just fine, I'd separated them, then they proceed to grow long and fast. They were the skinniest radishes I'd ever seen. Turns out they don't like heat and just as they'd started to grow we got hot and sunny here. So I may try radishes again after all, but it will be early while it's cool.


Andrea Bellamy's blog, Heavy Petal is at heavypetal.ca

Veggie container
found on Pinterest no source listed

I keep looking online for container ideas. I've got 2 window baskets and think I may buy more to use the space provided by the railings along both decks.  I have 3 hanging baskets and would like to use all of these containers to plant a mix of vegetables and flowers. These photos show bigger plants and more variety than I've tried before. I like the lavender and kale mixed in.


If you have favorites or plants that have done well in containers I'd love to hear from you.