Summer is Here!

So it's getting pretty hot here in Phoenix AZ, and the planting season is long over. My garden has experienced a few setbacks. First, caerpillars have been eating my gorgeous pea plants. I tried using some organic spray on them, but I'm not sure it worked. I think they are gone now though. They were also in my parsley and kale, which was really annoying. Next time I notice caterpillar activity, I'm going to get a fungus that kills them and sprinkle it on the plants.

My pea plants are kinda recovering. I don't think I'll use hanging baskets for peas in the future, I think instead I'll plant in a 4-5 gallon pot with some polls for them to climb.

The corn plants are making corn! I didn't think it would happen, but I see two ears growing! I'm not sure I'll do corn again, but I'm glad I'm getting something from my current plants.

My tomato plants are getting really big! I can't believe they were started as seeds. For awhile they were dropping all their flowers which was very frustrating. I moved them to be more in the shad and started shaking their cages to help with pollination. Now I see at least three baby tomatoes growing! I'm really excited, I hope I get lots of tomatoes.

I planted some kale maybe 8 weeks ago, and it seems to be doing OK despite the hot weather. These plants are in full shade.

I bought a jalapeno plant and kept it in the shade and watered it everyday, and it's growing but it dropped the flowers it had made. I thought maybe it was getting over watered or it needed more sun. I put it in the sun for a day, and it was SO droopy by the end. I watered it and moved it to partial shade. I hope I can get it to produce, I buy jalapenos from the store quite often and would love to get them from my garden instead.

Since it's getting too hot for most vegetable plants, I've decided to try focusing on planting herbs for the rest of the summer. I planted some basil and I bought a parsley plant. I figure it will be easy to move them inside if they get too hot. I'll probably start some more herb seeds indoors.

Tomato Plants Getting Big!

My tomato plants are growing really fast! And little yellow flowers are starting to appear! I'm really excited about the progress of these plants. I need to move them into bigger containers. I read that a 5 gallon container is the minimum size for tomatoes. I went to Home Depot to find some 5 gallon nursery pots, but they only had 7 gallon and they cost around $8 a piece. I thought that was way too expensive since I need six of them. I ended up ordering some containers online. I hope my tomato plants won't mind their tight quarters for a few more days.

Window Garden

I've been making the most out of the space around my window that overlooks my patio. It is getting hot here in Phoenix, and I'm finding that many plants prefer the shade since the sun is so string. First, I bought a parsley plant and a jalapeno plant from home depot last week because parsley comes in handy when cooking, and my jalapeno plants that I tried growing from seed didn't make it. I am hoping that the jalapeno plant produces!

Second, I decided to plant a window box with kale. I did some research, and it looks like kale plants prefer colder climates, so we'll see how it does now that it's getting hot. I'm hoping that by keeping it in the shade, it will grow better.

The third thing I did was move my hanging pea plants some hooks over the window. Here they have shade almost all day. I think the pea plants are doing much better now that they are out of the harsh sun. I've already gotten some peas from them, and it looks like they are still blossoming. I've decided to freeze the peas I harvest until I have enough to make something with them, since I've only been collecting 4-6 pods every few days.

I want to grow food!

Hi All,

A couple weeks ago, I decided that I want to make a garden. The problem is that I live in a town house that does not have a backyard. The solution to this problem is to create a container garden!

I've already started and I'm really excited. I live in Arizona and the weather right now is BEAUTIFUL, so I've decided to start this garden perhaps a little earlier than most people would. I think there is no more frost danger and if there is, I can bring my plants indoors.

I've decided to blog about this little project because I figure some people would be interested. Also, I've seen a bunch of pictures and you tube videos about starting a container garden, but they mainly just show how to start a container garden. I have not seen a lot of photos/videos of the plants actually producing food.

Oh yeah, I'm planting mostly vegetables because I want to harvest food. I think it would be awesome to preserve the veggies if I have extra by canning or freezing. We'll see if I get that far.

So this is my introduction. I'm going to see if I can take a few pics of my project's current status and will make a second post here in a bit about what I have going on right now. Hope you enjoy!