Experiment #1 – Tomatoes
During the summer of 2020 I decided to plant a veggie garden in containers out in the yard. I am really not good at garden planning. With our short growing season in the north, when I am ready, the soil isn’t – plain and simple – because I hadn’t prepped it. Letting you in on another secret, I am also a lousy weeder. I keep up on it in the beginning but then, BAM, it will get out of control. I thought maybe a container garden would be a win/win.
Everything grew well that summer except for one scrawny tomato plant. It looked really good when I initially planted it, but it never took off. I think it gave me one cherry tomato during the growing season. I felt so sorry for it in the fall because it was still alive and I didn’t have the heart to toss it. I waited as long as I could before bringing it into the house to see if I could limp it along through the winter. Maybe I would get lucky and it would bear fruit.
Well, it did. We ate on home grown cherry tomatoes over the winter of 2020/2021. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought about doing it before. I was so excited with each tomato, I would send pictures to family members. In hindsight, I should have given the tomato plant its’ own Facebook page.
This winter I have 2 tomato plants that are starting to produce. 😊
Experiment #2 – Hanging Flower Baskets
Yup, here I go again.
I didn’t have the heart to throw out the dead looking petunias that were hanging off our garage last summer. I am not a great green thumb so I really didn’t expect much. As I sit here and type, one basket has a dozen or so flowers and the other basket has two beautiful purple flowers.
Today we are expecting about a foot of snow – we won’t know until it is over. I sit and look at my winter experiments and I am happy I have a little spring and summer surrounding me.
Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
