INTRODUCTION: 2009 Vegetable garden

My wife recommend i start this Blog. I love plants and growing stuff. Ever since i was young, my parents had me doing yard work. I had to cut the grass twice a week. On sunday mornings, my pops would wake me up from my slumber to plant flowers and work on the yard. My parents had a corner house, so we had a big yard and more grass than the average house on our block and street. Our house wasn't a big house but it was big enough for a 4 person Family. The front door was in the middle of the house. We had bushes and pines trees on both side of the front of the house. In front of the bushes, we would plant flowers. More bushes on the left side of the house(if you were facing the front house) and a rose garden. On the right side we had a little sections where we would plant the green peppers. In the back of the house, we had a long thin strip where we would plant tomatoes and cucumbers. This just covers everything around the house, but there were more sections where we would plants flowers.
Its funny because I had a best Friend that lived diagonally across the steet. His father was very much into plants and making sure his grass was looking rich green. Anytime I would come over, he would start talking to me about what he planted or how his plants were doing. Since he was an elder in the community and very friendly to my parents, i would listen. He really just enjoyed hearing himself talking but i we would have some good talks about gardens. Shouts out to Mr. Davis.
Now that I'm older, i find myself gravitating towards planting and gardens. It started when I moved to atlanta and got my own apartment, after a fews years of living with my long time friends. I started with a hibiscus plant, which was a plant that mother would have around the house. After having one, i began to buy more and more. I did pretty good with them. I started noticing my nitch for them and other people were impressed. My mother told me how I did better with plants than my sister. So I began to beleive that I was passed down the green thumb gift that my parents had.
Once i moved into a house, i ventured into growing a vegetable garden. My first year, i didn't do bad. They started out well. I had two cherry tomatoes, one big sun master tomatoe, and 2 green peppers. The first couple of months they were growing great. Since the summers are longer here in GA, i didni't consider how big and long they would get. After August, they began to suffercate themselves and that was the end of my first vegetable garden season.
The second year, i was ready and excited. i had learned alot from my freshman year of gardening and plus i was blessed to have Baba Dale, Ekundayo's Father, show me how i should create these cages out of long sticks and string. I ended up buying these long bambu sticks and created tall cages for them so they wouldn't suffercate themselves. Also, Ekundayo donated some real great soil that he had purchased that was full of nutrition. The plan worked and my tomatoes were flurishing. I was excited. I enjoyed sharing my tomatoes and suprising people with my vegetable garden.
By late august, my lease was up on the house. My friends and i decide we weren't going to renew the lease. I started researching how i can transfer my vegetable garden to my new place. This is when i discovered how i can grow my vegetables in buckets. I started to dig up my vegetable garden and put them in 5 Gallon buckets. They didn't last long. My father told me that it was because the strength of the vegetables plants was in the ground that i planted them in. It made sense. so another gardening year came to an end, but i wasn't happy because although my vegetables were growing good, i didn't get to enjoy them for period of time i set out.
Another year came and i was anxious. By this time, i moved into a new home, i was married, and had my first son. The only thing was that with the new house, i wasn't familiar with what area got the best sun light. The back yard was covered with trees so i couldn't plant my garden there. The only place that got good sun light was the front yard. We didn't want to put them in the front yard bc we thought that may be tacky. Also what made things worst was that the soil in the front was that red hard clay. I instead decided to grow 2 tomotes and 1 green peppers in the 5 gallon bucket.
I started my garden season late. I beleive it was the beginning or mid june when i planted my vegetables. They grew pretty well but i didn't begin to enjoy the vegeatbles from them til about late july or early august except for my green pepper. The green pepper didn't produce much. i really dont' know what happen for it not to produce good decent size peppers. I think i only got one or two good ones from it the whole year.
Also for a mothers day present, i brought my Mother-in-Law some upside down turvys since she lived in an appartment. They grew but didn't produce any tomatoes. I couldn't figure out why we were not successful with these turvys. I wasn't sure if it was bc we planted them late, around late June, or if i just didnt put the right mixture in the soil that i planted them in. Since she lived 30 to 45 minutes away, i couldn't give them the attention they needed. She was good with plants so i naturally thought she was would be good with vegetable plants but she had no clue and relied on me to get these tomatoes to grow.
By the end of the growing season, i moved into an apartment and my vegetable plants came with me. This was in early october of last year. They lasted another month and i tried to bring them in but that didn't work out to well. i'm thinking the light was to powerful for the vegetables that they dried up. I consider it a good season but not a successful season bc i started late and my green pepper didn't produce.
Ok, now this year, 2009. I'm ready and I'm amped. Since I'm in an aptartment, i have to grow my vegetable garden in the same 5 gallon buckets i grew them last year. I'm thinking i will do great bc this year will be my second full year of growing my vegetables in these buckets. I began researching and figuring out what i was going to grow in April. I set out to begin planting my vegetable the first week of may. This year I have 2 upside Turvys that my mother-in-Law left me when she moved to Tennesse and the three 5 gallon bukets. I decided i would grow 2 Roma tomatoes and 1 green pepper plant in the three 5 gallon buckets. The 2 upside down turvys will have 2 sun master tomatoes and on top of them, i will grow 1 celantro and 1 Lettuce Leaf Basil.
You may think that i have alot of tomatoes and could have grown some other type of vegeatbles, right? Well, since my mother-in-law and i didn't do well with the upside down turvys, i didnt want to risk failing again this year and not have tomatoes to eat. So the upside down turvys will be considered an experimental year and the buckets i'm pretty sure i'm going to get vegetables to eat from.