It’s been five years since I last attempted to grow vegetables myself. If you’ve been here for a while, you know not only is my property inundated with deer, rabbits and Lord know what else roams through at night, but my soil sucks. It doesn’t drain well due to our high water table and it is a nasty conglomerate of clay and stone. So fun.
Because of that, my attempts to grow vegetables in the past was limited to containers that reside on my back deck. On a scale of 1-10, my success rate was a 1.3 but most of the blame falls on me as my heart wasn’t in it. I used shit soil, whatever containers I could find in the garage and randomly tossed the seeds within the containers. I did thin the seedlings and I’m sure I shared that with you long-time readers to try and build cred, but I also failed to keep up with the watering and got started too late so my spinach and lettuce bolted before I could harvest just about anything.
Well we’re back and we’re going to do it right this time. My wife and daughter gave me their list and the seeds have already been purchased and are on the table next to me as I write this. Here’s what John will be growing in spring ’23 and here’s hoping he doesn’t screw it up this time.
A modest haul and nothing too exotic. We’ll start slow this year and then reassess at the end of the growing season. And yes, I know I could grow the cold-season veggies again in the fall and I vow to do that.
My seed buys weren’t limited to what you can eat. I added some green zinnias which I have had success with in the past (I’m not a complete amateur).
And some Dahlia tubers which I’ve never grown before and cannot wait to watch them emerge in late spring/summer. These were my wife’s favorites. Will look to buy some already grown from the nursery as well. A dahlia party it will be.
And for my proudest achievement, I purchased soil online and will do that right this time, realizing it’s kind of a big deal if I want this Markowski veggie resurgence (well not really a resurgence, resurgence means it actually worked at one time which it didn’t) to come to fruition. I identified the root cause (ahem) and acted accordingly.
So what do we all think?
Any key tips or advice?
What has worked for you and what hasn’t?