September 3, 2003
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My Potted Garden
Last year's garden worked much better than the one I have going this year. Last year I had more tomatoes than I could eat all summer long. This year I just have a few tomatoes, one or two per week instead of dozens, and several plants have just died on me. My other ventures have also shown spotty results.
I have three kinds of peppers: yellow bell, jalapeño and a hot red ball. I have gotten one of those last although all three plants now have fruit maturing on them. But there are only three peppers on the jalapeño plant instead of the dozens I had anticipated.
The garlic plants started to wither, so I pulled them up and found respectable bulbs had developed. They were a little hard to peel because we didn't really give them a chance to dry, but they worked just like the garlic from the store.
Sometime soon I'll have to dig up the horseradish to see how it has done. It has nice healthy leaves but I have no idea if it has developed roots that can be used for anything. It would be nice to have a couple of roots to grind up for eating and a few to re-plant for future crops.
Cathy had some herbs she bought and then neglected. I've been keeping them alive but nobody has been harvesting them for use in the kitchen. It's too bad. Some of them could be useful.
Several years ago, Delia abandoned a number of plants into my care. Some of them have survived, including two frangipani. One frangipani is blooming while the other just sits there about two yards away doing nothing despite getting identical care.
It isn't much of a garden. Having everything in pots keeps insects from becoming a problem but doesn't keep weeds from springing up. I'll have even less time and energy to devote to the plants in the future but they'll still get a bit of water a couple of mornings each week, just enough for survival.
Maybe next year I'll cut back.