Veggie Garden: Take 2

Garden 2.0
It was somewhat inevitable, but basically all of the seeds we planted a few weeks ago did not take off. I repeat, the only sprouts of green from our labors of love rows were the pumpkins. And while we're thrilled the pumpkins took off (at least we did something right *happy dance*) that was the one we wanted the least, if only because we can't/won't use that until the end of winter! {cue the dramatic music, you know the "dun dun dunnnnnnnn"}

Trying not to hang my head in shame (my first attempt at being a gardener was not a success, though I never really thought it would be) we went to fix the "situation". So we went to Native Nurseries (for what seems like the 50th trip this spring already, but clearly isn't) and bought some great looking seedlings: watermelon, croon neck summer squash, baby bush zucchini, yellow bell peppers, sweet basil, Genovese basil (I don't know what the difference between the two is but I guess we'll find out), and white lightening eggplant (that's the only kind they had and while I'd wanted a Japanese variety I figured whatever Native Nurseries had for sale would be a really great variety). 

"Pansy is my favorite!" -Zoë  (As in Pansy the dog at Native Nurseries. Who Zoë goes on a hunt for every time she's there. They don't play, they sort of sniff each other and then Pansy walks away, probably thinking "that little thing is crazy!" All the same, Zoë's favorite is another dog, whenever she gets the opportunity.)

We tried to stay rather true to the original garden, in actual plants and location. That way if by some miracle the seeds do take off (what they took a vacation to the Caribbean and will come back later?) we'll just have extras of things. That's a much better scenario than if we'd gone completely different than the original plan, could you imagine: "Honey, I think that's a cucumber growing in between the watermelon!" Of course I couldn't help but deviate a bit, though I think it's perfectly acceptable for zucchini and squash to mingle in the garden and well given the chance I just had to try to growing my own bell peppers.

A few grueling hours in the garden (again) and we've got a second version of the garden. This time though there's green growth all around! And funny enough the pumpkins (the only seeds that took) are about the same size as the seedlings we bought! I'm not sure if that's funny funny ("haha") or funny sad.....

Fun with Containers  
Oh did I forget to mention I filled the big container? Yep, I can now proudly say that the big container now has white lightening eggplants, 2 types of basil, and my Ciudad Victoria tomato plant. We filled it with all kinds of goodies as well (soil wise), some rocks for drainage (thank you Lowe's for only being $3.39), sticks/branches for air/drainage, soil, compost, and worm castings. I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I'd like to say if there's ever a chance for a plant to do well it'll be in this container. 

And thanks to a really nice lady on Craigslist (who told me about several containers she'd left by her curb for the trash to collect) I added some new containers to the mix. So far we have only used one of them for actual plants: squash. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we'd found out 2 squash seeds had taken off, which was nice but threw a monkey wrench in the seedling planting scheme. Well we're now trying our hand at seeing how crook neck squash do in a large container. (Thank you Craigslist lady!) We used several of the other large containers to help in dispersing the compost. That was really handy, I may just keep those containers just for that use. I'm talking to another really nice lady from Craigslist who has several other promising and exciting containers for me. I'll let you known hon that goes. 
 

I'm also hoping to do one more thing for the yard: a Tipsy Pot. It seems whimsical and fun and it might be something creative and fun to have. My biggest obstacle to having one: pots. I've spend way more than I should have (read: can afford) this year on the garden. While Zoe's Dad has tons of rebar we don't have any spare terracotta pots. I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, there's people out there with terracotta pots they're not using and are willing to give me. If I get that lucky then I'll be able to build one. And if in fact that happens I'll make sure to share that here!