Gardening on the Move: Planning

Seriously, how could I not talk about planning a container garden? Is there anything I don’t try to plan? (cue ArmyMan hysterically laughing in the background)

I’m actually new to the planning side of things. This is the first year I’ve really been deliberate with the timing and organization of my veggies. When we first started in 2007, it was really more ArmyMan’s gig than mine. But he’s not a planner and the disorganization of our backyard flower/veggie garden began to annoy me. Plus, I was the one doing most of the maintanence so I figured I should learn what it was I was doing.

I have two goals this year for my little container garden. One is to have a continous harvest of the things I use all the time in my kitchen: lettuces, herbs, tomatoes. Second, I’m trying to minimize the effect our PCS will have on my growing things. Now, I haven’t really figured out how I’m going to attempt these things but at least they’re on my radar, right?

The biggest desicion we had to make this spring was where we were going to plant. We do have the room here to plant in the ground. I decided against it though and went with my containers mainly because of the low quality of the soil. We would have had to spend about the same amount of money on garden soil as we did on potting soil. At least in the containers, I can try and take some of my plants with me. And I don’t have to walk as far in the mornings to water them.

We’ve been collecting pots over the last few years and I’m hoping to add some raised cedar planters this year if I convince ArmyMan to spend a weekend making them.

With a last frost date of April 6th here at Ft Campbell, the bulk of our gardening season is still to come. But I couldn’t help a little head start with the plants that I knew we wanted and a little help from our little mobile green house.

Well, it’s more of a “green shelf” than a “green house” but you get what I mean. Thanks to the three grow lights that ArmyMan rigged up on the lower shelves, I was able to start seedlings while there was still snow on the ground.

What I currently have growing:

Romaine lettuce

A lettuce mix ( I love surprises)

Cucumber (this is a bush variety that I started from seed and am really excited about. It’s supposedly perfectly suited to container gardening)

Squash

Brussels Sprouts (this is the first year we’ve given sprouts a try so we’ll see)

Broccoli (we haven’t gotten much of a harvest before but broccoli is just fun)

Strawberries

Herbs (Parsley, Cilantro, Rosemary)

Leeks (love, love, love growing my own leeks because I can harvest while they’re small, tender and fabulous)