When I started my new vegetable garden, spring of 2010, I had a lot to learn. I planted a myriad of different plants to try to figure out which vegetables I would enjoy working with. In Part 1 of My Vegetable Garden, How I Planted & the Results, I wrote about how I experienced growing a variety of different vegetables, such as tomatoes, corn, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans and carrots. In this post, Part 2, I will continue down the list, and cover my initial thoughts about bell pepper, jalapeño pepper, chives, parsley, dill, basil, leeks, scallions (green onions), romaine lettuce, spinach, strawberries, sun flowers, and I will link to previous posts about my experience with garlic. In the weeks and months to come, I will post more detailed information about many of these various vegetable plants. Though I’m not a big pepper person, I decided to try some just for the fun of it. I found that bell peppers and jalapeño peppers were easy and fun to grow, but I also found that purchased plants produced far better than my plants from seed. And the larger the pot, the better they performed. Being that peppers are very slow growers, my plants from seed never made it to the size I could get at the store. So if I do these again, it will from now on always be from plants I purchase in pots. Jalapeño: Bell peppers: [...] Read more »

2010 was a year of much learning for me, as I took on my first year of in-ground gardening with vegetables. Up until then I had for the most part only grown tomatoes in pots, so I had a lot to learn. I decided I wanted to try a fairly large variety of plants, to learn what I enjoyed working with, and what ended up yielding well for me. Tomatoes was a given, so I planted a ton of plants from seed, kept some of the stronger ones, pulled the weak ones, and gave the rest away to friends and family. Giving away plants, some of which grew to the height of a grown man, was very fun and satisfactory in itself. Later I had the pleasure of giving away fresh, vine ripe tomatoes to other friends. How I enjoyed the experience of planting seeds, and see them grow, be able to share with others, and then harvest delicious fruit to enjoy! (Tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables; you knew that, right? Of course you did! If they have seeds inside them, they are considered fruit.) To the far right, you can see the young plants soon after I transplanted them. The vertical strip to the left is potatoes, and the next one over, carrots. There is something planted at every white little marker. The season was just starting, and there was much anticipation involved. Other plants I grew this first [...] Read more »

Winter of 2010 I started seriously thinking about the possibility of putting in a vegetable garden. It had been on my mind for several years to try my hands at gardening, but with three young children I didn’t feel I had the time or energy for it. So it remained a future dream. Now, in 2010, I finally felt that the time had come. But where to start? The task seemed overwhelming, so much to learn and do, and so much information out there that I didn’t know where to begin. January became February, and I still didn’t have a clue what to do and where to start; it was easier to put things off and not really do anything until the soil was workable anyway. February gave way to March, and by then I had seen packets of seeds at the store, and excitingly picked up a few different ones. It all looked so fun to try! Soon thereafter I met a neighbor who had years of gardening experience. I told her about my plans, and that I thought it would be neat to plant tomatoes from seed. “Well, you’ve got to get started then, tomatoes take a long time!” she said. So that was a little kick to get me started. She gave me some advice on what to do, and before I knew it, I had little tomato seeds planted in styrofoam egg cartons. How exciting! I [...] Read more »