Container Gardening Part 3 – Getting Started

First off, completely unrelated to anything:

This post is Loki’s Kitchen’s 200th post!!!! It not being a recipe post feels strange, but I’ve been branching out a bit, so I think that’s ok.

Thank you all for being here, and reading my musings, and keeping me in line. I appreciate it very much.

On to the Gardening

So now that we’ve done some research and we’ve gone shopping, it’s time to get gardening!

Of course, I chose the warmest day of the year thus far to get started. It was 80 degrees, full sun, and just afternoon (and after my MMA class). I was exhausted, but so excited to get started that I couldn’t help myself. I went out to the patio, started getting organized, and realized the first downside to gardening – there are wasps. I know these will be fine later, if not helpful, but I don’t like being around them.

And thus, garage gardening was invented:

First, I grabbed a giant bin that our housing complex gave us when we moved it, it was full of cleaning supplies and a few mugs we use to this day. I threw the 2:2:1 mixture of potting soil: top soil: perlite into the bin. If you ever do this, by the way, it is easier to mix as you go rather than throwing it all in there. I got a bit of a workout mixing it up!

Once that was done, I started filling my containers with soil. Since we’re a week out from this actual process, I will tell you this: make sure you fill the containers with soil. It will compact a bit, and soil is cheap enough to not worry about having to get more. My containers are a bit low right now, and I don’t know how to fix it.

Alas, fill your containers with soil.

Now you need to understand your seeds.

On day 1 of gardening, I was planting my frost-resistant and cold-weather plants – spinach, bibb lettuce, and radishes. The back side of the seed packets have a ton of information as to how to grow those seeds best. You’ll find that different sources will tell you different things, and I think that using the info on the back of the packet is best.

Radishes:

Bibb Lettuce:

Spinach:

Now you just follow the directions!

A few definitions I find helpful, and wish I’d know when I was first getting started:

sowing – to plant a seed for growth

sow thinly – there is no exact guide for this, except make sure you don’t place seeds too close to one another; if you look at the second picture, it shows you how far you want your seedlings to be from one another after they start to sprout

Based on thinning distances on each package, I planted my radishes about 2″ apart, 3 seeds in each spot. For the lettuce and spinach, I planted 3 spots in each 24″ pot so I can sow to the wider 8′ distance for each.

Then I placed my containers outside on the table, where they will get about 8 hours of sun right now.

I’ve got more soil and containers for later this summer when I can get my tomatoes going.

Up next: an update! We’ve got seedlings, and we’ll see how they are doing. Plus, I’ve got some plants a friend gave me that I’ve not yet killed! Amazing!

Stay tuned.