Autumn Asks: So What Happened to My Garden Plans?

I started the spring out wanting to plant a garden. We have a very expensive tomato and pepper habit at my house. And in Nebraska we managed to grow a few tomato plants...and they were fantastic.

So I looked at seed catalogs and tried to talk hubs into gardening. He was all for it as long as there were tomatoes. So I told him I needed him to build me a raised bed. I was pretty intimidated by the thought and so was he....so it looked like it was all going to fall through.

About that time I decided maybe I could do a few plants in pots on the patio and see how that went. I knew it would take some care with the Texas sun and heat. Pots tend to dry out pretty fast around here. Still, it was worth a shot. So, with the help of my mother, I acquired a couple of half barrels and pots from a house that was abandoned 6 months prior, due to the whole mortgage mess. Very frugal. And we stuck some tomatoes and such in the pots.

Also, while talking to a friend (who lives on a little bit of land, not in a neighborhood) she told me how she loves to plant a garden, but they lose it every year when they go on vacation so it never really does them much good. After putting our heads together, we decided we could work together. So, they doubled their garden size, and we both bought plants/seeds and started working together. With lots of help from her husband, who grew up on a farm. He laughs at us. Alot. Because we are CLUELESS.

Then, I showed hubs a plan for a simple raised bed garden that I found in one of my magazines...and he says lets do it. Really? Well, I didn't give him time to change his mind. We went down to Lowes and purchased what we needed and came home and did it.

So I went from being intimidated and giving up to patio plants, a raised bed and part of a real garden just up the road.

That's about how my life rolls.

To date we have eaten several things from these two places. In the big garden we harvested the baby bok choy first. LOVED this. Will grow this from now on. I think I'll only plant about 3 at a time about a week apart for as long as I can. This was good not only in stir fries but also in salads as a lettuce.
My patio cucumbers are GOOD. Wish I'd planted more of these. Hubs and I fight over them. They are a smaller veggie for growing in pots. Love these.
One of the patio tomatoes. We are very impatient to get our hands on the ripe stuff. It takes too long!!!!!
The raised bed. Cucumbers, peppers, tomato, squash, beets, lettuce. This poor guy has a story. We planted it and it was doing so great. But our yard had some brown spots. I asked if hubs had fertilized in the fall. No? Well, that was probably the problem. So he goes and buys fertilizer and proceeds to broadcast it with a hand broadcaster. About two days later my tomatoes and peppers start to die. So I ask hubs EXACTLY what was in that fertilizer and did any get into the beds. Needless to say the plants and soil on the far end were replaced and we now have new tomato plants...which stinks as I already had tomatoes on the others. Lesson learned.

My miniture roses must love all the company because they have doubled in size and are beautiful this year. I have yellow, red and pink. I have a new one that is called plum but I'm not sure he is going to make it.
The big garden. Corn, beans, beets, bok choy, squash, peppers and tomatoes. And they are taking off! I went out today to check to see if it needed any weeding and came home with....
...to go with the other bag of beans from yesterday.

So the garden is a sucess. But. For those things we covet the most (tomatoes and peppers) -- we will probably miss out on most of that because of the move. Doesn't that just figure?

I wonder how hard it is to garden in Ohio?