Garden Plans

I know I said I would post this yesterday, but I kind of got wrapped up in my new release.  (Rumor Has It... for sale now - $2.99.)

Okay... so... gardening.  If you've been following along, I've talked about doing some vegetable gardening here at Sanderson Acres.  (Hey, it's more than an acre here, so it counts as plural.)   You know, to help make us more self-reliant and junk. 

The main reason I haven't ventured into growing my own food is... DEER.  Those buggers will eat anything with leaves.  Sure, I have 'deer resistant' flowers and junk, but resistant isn't a guarantee.  Just because a deer doesn't usually eat something doesn't mean it won't in a pinch.  (Or play with it when they're bored.)  And I have yet to find 'deer resistant' food plants.  

So, how does a gal who invites the pesky critters to her yard grow her own food?  

Well, first I looked into fencing.  What a pain in the buns.  All the work of building the fencing turned this lazy gal right the hell off of the whole gardening idea.  And then there was the need for terracing because we live on a hill.  Umm... no.  Not only no, but hell no.

Then I stumbled across the idea of container gardening.  Everything in pots?  Pots we can put on our deck, safely out of the reach of the deer (if not the squirrels and the birds)?  Okay, there's an idea I can get behind.  And we have a huge deck off the south side of our house.  So, I printed off a bunch of stuff on various container ideas.  

At first, I was totally jazzed about this grow-box thing I found that I could make and then put casters on it so we could roll it around the deck to capture the best sun.  Hubs talked me out of that.  We have tons of regular containers... why re-invent the wheel?  

So, over the weekend, I bought a bag of dirt and three seed packets - beefsteak tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce.  Kind of home grown salad.  Yay.  This week, I will use some old egg cartons and start the germination process.  

We have a perfect spot in the garage.  There's a shelf in front of one of the windows - south facing with loads of sunlight.  Hubs will build me a shelf for the other window.  Put some dirt in the egg cups and a seed in each, set them by the window, and wait for them to grow.  Once I get some growth, I'll transplant them into larger containers.  Once all danger of frost is over, put the containers out on the deck.  Voila.

Note: From what I understand, you can't transplant carrots, so those will have to wait a bit to be planted directly into larger containers for outside growth.  Unless I have room on the shelves for a few larger pots.  Hmm.

I also got the wild idea to plant zucchinis in the front rose bed.  Here's the idea...  I have all this space in there.  Two plants could easily grow and stretch themselves under the two rose plants I have.  Between the roses and the fact that the bed is next to the house and the driveway, the deer should leave them alone.  :fingers crossed:  We'll see whether I do that.  I have to do some more research.  For all I know, zucchini and roses are incompatible growers.  If I can't do zucchini there, I'll figure something else out for them.  I've read that you can train zucchini up a trellis.  And then, I'll plant herbs in the rose bed.  Basil, probably.  Maybe dill.  Maybe I'll just transplant some wild chives.  I already have those growing in my iris bed (and all over the yard... LOL)

I'm also playing with the idea of a container full of strawberry plants.  Time will tell.  Those I can't protect from the birds, so it may be a waste of time.  But I would love me some fresh strawberries.  Or blueberries...  :drool:

Anyway, now that my book is done, I have some time to focus on gardening, so that's the plan.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Do you grow any of your own food?  Have you ever tried growing it in a container?