Spring has Sprung!

[waywardcats]

My attempt at a veggie garden on my deck was an utter failure last year , yielding only a handful of carrots, three small broccoli flowers and a few bunches of too small kale.

Being the never admit defeat sort of person that I am, I spent much of the weekend planting a much expanded version.   If this attempt doesn't do a lot better I'll switch to flowers I suppose.

I am using better soil this year, mixed generously with compost, and allowing a lot more space per plant (I was way to optimistic last year and overcrowded everything.) Thanks to a friend who gave me some of her leftover large containers, and to buying a few more, I hope I have given the plants enough room to develop this time.

2 Bush Bean plants
6 Ruby Red Chard
6 Pole Bean plants on two trellises
8 single lettuce plants of different varieties
Carrots (including a couple of transplanted immature carrots leftover from last year that I hope will survive)
2 cucumber plants on a trellis
and 6 marigolds, just for color

Inside I am working on some spouts.  Two of the pole beans don't look happy (already after only 3 days), so I moved the leftover seedlings I bought into larger temporary containers in case I need to replace the ailing plants (I didn't really want to throw the extras out anyway).  I planted a few of the seeds from my old broccoli plants hoping they will sprout and will be ready to transplant when the lettuces are ready to harvest.  I also moved some of the old kale plants into the new soil mix to see if they would start growing again, though I don't hold much hope for these.  I need to go get seeds I think to plant a few more things to replace the lettuces. 

The whole is a bit of a motley collection of plastic and clay containers, but once the growth really begins I hope it will look ok.  It's not really an ornamental garden after all.