I wasn’t sure, having been away for a week and change, how my deck container garden would fare while I was away. I had recruited a neighbor to help while I was gone, to check on things and make sure everything was getting enough water.
Turns out, it rained quite a bit while I was gone and there was some pretty remarkable growth. Coming back to see how things changed was really thrilling, in a way that I think you may not totally understand if you haven’t been through it yourself. I certainly wouldn’t have.
But I’ve now finally eaten some real actual (and delicious) vegetables grown from dirt and pots on my back deck. I have successfully eaten (as opposed to attempting to eat and failing) three Early Girl tomatoes, and two green bell peppers.
Before leaving for our trip, there was one tomato on the Early Girl plant, and two bell peppers. That’s it. Everything was a decent size, but no real vegetables showing.
After coming home, things in my garden had exploded. I’ve got four Czechoslovakian black hot pepper plants, showing sixteen black peppers now – of varying sizes. I’ve got one green bell pepper plant with three peppers on it. I’ve got two yellow bell plants showing six different peppers between them.
Two of the black pepper plants are in one of my favorite containers… I ran out of pots.
And the tomatoes are really starting to take off. Mostly Green Zebras now – they are seventeen Green Zebras (none large enough to eat just yet), and six Early Girls. The Cherokee Purple is doing well too, but no tomatoes yet. Same with the soybeans – huge vines growing like crazy, but they are not showing any beans just yet. I’m not really sure what their time to maturity is though.
Also, potatoes and asparagus. The potato plants are huge and healthy, but of course I have no idea what kind of potato production might be going on underground. As for the asparagus – that’s a bit of an experiment, as they are not said to do well in containers, and they won’t be putting up shoots/spears for another year at least anyway. You can see the asparagus fern there in the front.
Compare that one to how those potato plants looked a month ago.
It’s wonderful to see it all coming to life so vibrantly. It totally changes the atmosphere hanging out on my deck, too.
What I’ve tasted so far has been incredible. I can’t wait to see what the coming weeks and months will bring.
