The Best of Intentions...

Last spring Katey asked if we could have a vegetable garden. Well, it was probably more like a plea for a fruit and vegetable garden and the request probably consisted of an apple tree which the girl is dying to have in the yard for some reason, even when we tell her it would be about 15 years before the tree produced fruit. But, I digress. So, Katey asks for a garden along with detailing elaborate plans on what should be grown and how we can sell extras to make money. We decide to go slow and plant a few things in a container. The only thing that came up were cucumbers. The vine was doing really well and had all sorts of little cucumber babies on it. Then we went out of town and forgot to ask neighbors to water it. When we returned there were dried-up cucumber babies. Katey and I were so sad and vowed to try again this year.

Spring rolls around this year and we decide to do a few things in containers again (really, digging a plot of land and having to WEED would so not be happening around here!). This time I did a little research and we ended up planting beans, peppers, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. We started them from seed in the house and were amazed at how quickly some of them grew! At the appropriate time, we transplanted them to pots and put them outside. And then we waited. And waited. And waited.


Finally, we had 2 beans. Now, the beans were a last-minute, non-researched decision. And, only one plant came up. So, this summer, we have had about 7 beans total. Sad.

Then, a cucumber appeared. We were so excited! It got bigger and a little bigger...then it started getting round. For some reason, we ended up with a cucumber BALL! Seriously, it was about the size of a pool ball. What in the world!?! But, there were many more sprouts, so we ate our tasty little cue-ball and waited. And waited. And watched the vine die a slow death for no apparent reason.

Next came a pepper. We watched it grow for 3 weeks, I think. Red peppers take FOREVER to get red, by the way. When it finally turned red, it was probably 1/3 the size of the peppers you buy in the store and a bug had gotten into a piece of it, so we all had 2 bites of a very small, though yummy, red bell pepper.

Finally came the tomato. Katey LOVES tomatoes. I had envisioned having to give tomatoes away to neighbors, knowing that the plants usually produce like wild-fire. Not ours. We had one, yes that is right, ONE cherry tomato. But, as you can see, Katey loved every, er um, THE bite of it!

Shouldn't a tomato plant be fuller and more leafy than this?? That is our pepper plant in the background.

So, all in all we probably spent $40 in containers, soil, seeds, fertilizer...and had visions of saving so much money on produce this summer. 7 beans, 1 cucumber ball, 1 tiny pepper and a cherry tomato. That is roughly $4 per vegetable. Awesome.

Maybe next year we'll just break down and plant the apple tree.