our little garden

We live in an HOA and while there are a few benefits (quiet neighborhood, a playground nearby... that's all I can think of at the moment) there are many drawbacks. Maybe for other people an HOA is great, but we are chafing under all the "guidelines." We had applied at the beginning of April to build an enclosed 10x10 raised garden bed but were turned down because it might be "too unsightly."

 

So we have decided once again to grow a little garden in large pots. Last year we weren't very successful with this, mainly I think because we had inadequate soil and it was SO hot. This year we bought what had to be the world's most expensive potting soil, sold to me by a very nice, very relaxed man at the local hydroponic gardening store. He told me to come back in the fall because he could equip me for gardening in the winter in our basement.

 

We came home and got started planting. I got the brilliant idea to use cardboard egg cartons as seed-starting pots, and they worked perfectly.

 All our supplies--the dirt, our "seed pots" and seeds.

 Holes poked waiting for seeds.

 Jed had planted marigold seeds in preschool, and every day after that he kept telling me "it is springtime, we need to plant some seeds!" He was thrilled that we were actually doing it. He was such a good helper scooping the dirt from the bowl to the egg cartons and planting the seeds in the holes.

 All our seeds planted and ready to go.

 Although we cut the lids off the cartons, we left the other side for labeling purposes. Works really well, until the cardboard gets wet. Then it's pretty hard to read.

 We used a piece of plastic that had insulated our windows all winter to act as a little greenhouse. And we let the plants sit in the nice warm sun--on our porch in the morning and on a table in the living room in the afternoon.

 We planted everything on Thursday and by the next Monday we had seedlings! The plastic worked so well to insulate and keep everything moist and some of the seeds just popped right up. By April 29th we had all of our zucchini, squash and cucumbers and marigolds had made their entrance.

By that Friday, our tomatoes and some basil were popping up as well.

And the cucumbers etc had run out of room and needed to be replanted!  

 I was thrilled when I cut apart the egg cartons and saw all the little roots poking through. This was exactly what I had hoped for when I got my brilliant idea in the first place--the egg cartons are supportive enough to hold the dirt, but thin enough to allow the roots to push through. We repotted them in larger peat pots and they are ready to go.

Now we are just waiting for our peppers pop up. If they haven't put in an appearance by Sunday, I am going to replant. My pepper seeds are a couple of years old, so I am not too surprised. It certainly isn't the soil's fault!