I’m trying my hand at container gardening this year. I won the bid on a container gardening kit last fall at a silent auction for Chester Bowl. It came with 15 containers, stakes, instructions and seeds that were mailed to me in the spring. I also bought two tomato plants and a pepper plant to add to the container garden. It was a bit of a rough start with all the rain that we had at the end of May and early June. None of the basil from the first planting came up. I think it all got washed away when we had several downpours with many, many inches of rain. Luckily, I had extra seeds and replanted. Unfortunately, cutworms and slugs thrived during the wet weather and ate the leaves off the spinach and also tried their hand at the peas, beans and pepper plant. I’m not sure if the dry weather at the end of June and early July solved that problem or if it was the ground red cayenne pepper that I sprinkled on the soil that put a stop to their eating spree (my Mom’s recommendation). The spinach almost came back and then the 85+ degree temperatures hit. The leaves that had sprouted, began to shrivel up. Fortunately, everything else enjoyed the heat. We have already harvested lettuce and sugar snap peas. The cucumbers, mini pumpkins and summer squash are blooming. The tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes and the onions and carrots need to be thinned. Here’s a look at what we hope to enjoy on our table in the next few weeks.
As I was taking the vegetable photos, I also got some shots of the grape vine, apple tree and various flowers blooming in the yard.
I wouldn’t mind a nice rain storm to give me a break from watering all of the plants with the garden hose or watering can. I can’t believe I’m hoping for rain after the flooding we had just four weeks ago. As long as I’m asking, it would be nice to have a day that is less than 85 or 90+ degrees. With no air conditioning in our house, a good (cool) night’s sleep would be glorious.
M. Sullivan Photography 
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