A Glimpse of my Container Garden Space

Lantana - hummingbirds like this.  

I saw a post on Facebook this morning asking if blogging was dying off. My blogging has waned and it can only be attributed to the change in the way I'm gardening this year. Sure, a lot of personal milestones are flying by, I don't have as much time right now. But a year ago I was much busier with a community garden plot than I am with containers at home. 

I was out there every other day to water and I would always see such great plants and gardens. I took so many pictures there, always seeing something I wanted to try next. I have to admit that I prefer being outdoors (this time of year anyway) but my work and personal focus seem to be heading into a digital realm.

So for now, my garden is contained on our upper deck (with only two tomatoes downstairs). I realized I take a lot of close up photos and rarely show the entire deck. This isn't easy because it's so narrow, but I did get two shots that show it all. Our deck faces west and gets afternoon sun. Right now it is a wonderful place to be in the morning when it's cool.

Looking north - the bulk of my containers, all full sun

All the containers sitting on the deck (above) have veggies planted. The railing planters had lettuce and cool weather veggies in the spring. I haven't planted summer veggies there because they are all shallow planters. Might have gone a little crazy with summer annuals...

Looking south - almost all containers are vertical
to keep space for the table and chairs, and for us to get to them

This end of the deck gets some shade, except now during the peak of summer. I was tempted to plant shade loving veggies along the screen, but now it's mostly sun. This photo shows several things we've done to screen the deck for privacy and use the railing to get the umbrella stand off the deck. That idea led  to the tiki lamp and bird feeders being located there as well. I talked about that in previous posts, it's a simple concept that has allowed us to do more in such a small space.

This year my crop is smaller than the ones from the community garden plot. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen, for whatever reason I bought 3 "cherry" tomato plants. There is a zuchinni, 3 cucumber, basil, tomatillo, and melon starts that I will plant downstairs where there's some room. The one thing I miss: potatoes. I loved digging those up in the garden plot. I did read about growing them and corn in containers, but decided to start small.

I've picked my  first squash and cucumber, the tomatoes shown above are next.

My cat helps herself to the cucumber leaves. Truth be told, I bought 3 cucumber plants for her. In the past she ate the leaves like salad, but can no longer handle them. She shows no interest in the cat nip plant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gratitude is my word of the year. 

I post about it here to keep it present.

Today I am grateful for:
work, drafting work that keeps coming my way
air conditioning on these hot days on the 3rd floor
a dog who is easily learning to use her new back yard
a cat who figured out she likes to snuggle after 5 years of no contact
a partner who sees what needs to be done and acts