Container Gardening

I was thumbing through lifehacker a couple of weeks ago and they had a suggestion for a weekend project - start a container garden. The post had a link to 'Vegetable Gardening in Containers', by Sam Cotner, Extension Horticulturist. The page was a public service by the Agriculture program of Texas A&M.

Since the apartment I have been in since last August has a patio, I can actually do this, and I was pretty psyched about the idea.

I went to WalMart that weekend and got some seeds, containers, a watering can, a spray bottle, gardening soil and misc. other stuff.

Today I planted the seeds for 3 types of tomatoes, spinach, romaine lettuce, and cayenne peppers. Also I planted 4 small pots of onions which came in bulb form, if thats what they are called, not seeds. (Interesting to note, I guess the term 'Vidalia' onion is a trademark or something. The ones I got came with a note saying they come from Vidalia, Georgia (I think), but they can't call them Vidalia onions for some reason.)

The seeds are supposed to take 7-10 days to germinate (which I think means become a small plant instead of just a seed.) The theory is that you are supposed to get started with this sort of stuff around 4 weeks or so before the last frost, which in Colorado, or the Denver area at least, is supposed to be mid May, so I am fairly on track.

After getting those seeds going, I went back to WalMart and got some more seeds and some small plants. So now, on top of the stuff previously listed, I have Lemon Thyme, Rosemary, Jalapeño, and Oregano plants.

We'll see how all this turns out. I haven't really done much gardening before, I don't generally keep plants, and it seems like kind of a touchy business. But it's been fun so far. Kind of like a science fair project. Plus the season is just getting started, so if I fuck things up, I can try again later in the summer. (Some of the plants take a couple of months til harvest, so there is plenty o' time.)