Black thumb versus Garden box

[dfr1973]

We'll find out who will win in the fall of '12 ... but ...

In this corner, we have a notorious BLACK thumb, which has even had MINT! die off at this location ... aloe plants survived in-house until the third cat arrived and promptly ate them.

And in this corner we have a garden box, consisting of a cardboard bottom to kill the underlying grass (hey, shouldn't it be easy to kill grass with a black thumb?), peat moss, fallen leaves, lawn clippings, store-bought compost, some wood ash, and a whole mess o'kitchen waste: carrot peels, broccoli stalks, sweet tater ends, cantaloupe rinds (and seeds), acorn squash skins (and seeds), eggshells, coffee grounds ... and some locally-grown potatoes that had a mishap with the dog's water dish and a plastic bag that keep trying to sprout in between frosts! Not only was there about a dozen of those bad taters that went mushy, but I also cut them up thinking they'd compost quicker in smaller chunks ... I may end up with only potatoes. Hubby's platoon-mate who grew them one county over had so many he gave most people in Rear-D two plastic bags full and told them they could use them as softballs for all he cared because he was "overrun" with them and the monster-sized carrots.

So it's 4ftx4ftx1ft of not-really-dirt versus the legend of the dead mint ... and a dream of fresh spinach, strawberries, green beans, broccoli, carrots, taters, squash ... and maybe a mint plant.

 

[Wannabefree]

Dream BIG! I likey so are ya gonna plant all that in that little ole box? You may need about 10 more boxes

 

[BarredBuff]

YES DREAM BIG!!!

 

[dfr1973]

Baby steps here ... let's see what survives the first month!

 

[Wannabefree]

You'll do fine i'm sure

 

[dfr1973]

I haven't updated this recently ... but this afternoon I FOUND BLOSSOMS! I "cheated" ("If you ain't cheatin then you ain't tryin ...") and bought two types of tomato plants - one for hubby to slice and eat, one for me to try to make ketchup, sauce, and salsa out of - and an "Ozark Beauty" strawberry plant from Lowe's, and they survived (so far) not only 3 weeks on my property but now each plant has at least one blossom!

Oh yeah ... those potatoes I mentioned in the OP? Not a single piece composted, and I gave some away to neighbors this morning, along with acorn squash, which also did not compost! I joked to hubby today that the best way for me to grow any kind of plant is to attempt to compost it! Oh, I still have over a dozen plants that could use a new home (in addition to SEVERAL in one corner of the box ... and more sprouting on a regular basis).

I've added a second garden box, and one of my neighbors who adopted a tater and a squash has offered to bring me stuff to make at least one more - along with dirt to fill it. He says his yard is much more shadier than mine, so I told him if he built them he could plant some stuff in them and we'd just have ourselves a neighborhood garden going. Both of my neighbors this morning perked up big time when I mentioned the red wiggler worms that "magically" appeared in the original box. Yup, they are both avid fishermen.

Along with strawberries, tomatoes, the stubborn taters and squash, I've also planted some garlic, turnips (sprouted finally), dill (half sprouted so far), cilantro (hubby is happy - they sprouted yesterday), two kinds of spinach, green leafy lettuce, and "short-n-sweet" carrots, a couple sunflowers, a couple sweet corn, bush beans, and sweet peas. I'm still trying to get basil and marigolds to sprout ...

Of course, the weeds in the yard are also going great guns, along with the vine-type plants that keep trying to infiltrate the siding on the house, a shrub plant I've been trying to kill for a dozen years, and a whole mess of dandelions ... but once the spinach gets going I can grab some dandelion leaves for salad.

So far, so good! BTW, is there anyone in the immediate area who'd like some tater or acorn squash plants?