Gardening

So, I decided that this was going to be the year for me to start gardening, I have been threatening to for years. The harsh Wisc climate, lack of time, and lack of a garden were basically my excuses for not starting sooner. I was inspired by a commercial for upside down hanging tomatoes (see right)... I thought, why would you ever pay for that when I could do that with 5 gallon buckets and stuff around the house. I put my money where my mouth was and decided to do it. I started with hanging tomatoes only at first...

I could use old kitty liter buckets too... here are my first 3 1 dollar tomato plants.
Here they are a couple weeks later... notice the buckets have reproduced and there is one more... this one has zucchini. I wanted to start small, but I got the bug. Then I realized that I could use the top to plant stuff too, so I have Cilantro, banana peppers, and a bell pepper growing on the top of the hanging plants.

They only sold the seedlings for cucumbers and zucchini in 6 packs so I felt bad throwing the rest away, so I rescued an old flower bed by the side of our house for the remaining veggies..It got close to 32 the other night, so I cautiously covered up the plants on the side
and made cocoons out of the hanging plants. Luckily it only got to 34 degrees.

Here is a close up of my peppers, I am not trying to grow mushrooms, they are just a bonus... I will have to check to see if they are edible too, I think they are straw mushrooms, but I am going to be on the safe side and not eat them. Here they are in all their glory a month after the first pic at the top of the page...

To my surprise we already have a tomato growing!!! yeah!!
Here is a panorama of the side yard garden with zucchini, cucumbers, and banana peppers, I am keeping my fingers crossed!