Time to Enjoy One Simple Planter

Right now it is nice to have only one thing to focus on in the garden. For me that is a container on the upper deck that I can see from the kitchen and living room. I've started some seeds downstairs on the deck, but they are just getting started. As you saw in my last post I've got compost at the community garden and am waiting on rototilling to be done Wednesday.

Once the rototilling is done my focus will expand to include the upper deck containers, the lower deck hanging baskets, and the community garden plot. But for now I get to enjoy this one planter. This container was planted just after I'd come down with the flu and had missed the first sunny "spring" day. A couple days later I took some better 'before' pictures. 

I planted snow peas, a couple of sweet peas, lettuce, and spinach in with some pansies already growing in the container. We've been eating the lettuce and spinach for a few weeks, I can't tell you how much better that is than bagged lettuce. One of the great things about early plantings like this is that I've rarely had to water.

Flowering peas mixed with pansies

Mixed lettuce with spinach

Planting this container has given me some ideas about where I want to grow other veggies. Last year I had lettuce and radish at the garden plot. This year I'm going to try having all salad items here at home. For Easter I got two railing planters and I'm thinking I'll use them for more lettuce, spinach, radish, onions and mix in some flowers for looks. When it's time for tomatoes I'll try another cherry tomato on the deck.

When I planted the container I added a couple of sweet peas for color. I decided to plant the remaining sweet peas in a container with a topiary stand. They've been growing steadily but no blooms yet. About a week ago I got some morning glory seeds (blue of course) and planted them. They have already sprouted and I can't wait to see how they look together.

New morning glory sprouts with the sweet peas