As far as growing food in a garden has gone over the past several years. April was perhaps the easiest month I have ever had growing. Outside of watering, pruning, and harvesting I was more or less on top of any major issues before they turned into disasters.
If every month was this easy I’d be adding a lot more to what I’m attempting to grow for this year. Along with growing more in my offseasons in the cooler months. Perhaps with some luck and just experience things are starting to get quite enjoyable.
Every day of April I enjoyed taking a short break from whatever I was doing and just enjoying the garden. From slowly watching everything grow to the wonderful aromas from the herbs and other plants I have growing.
Potatoes And Carrots
It’s coming near an end for what was planted in the winter of potatoes and carrots. I had two large containers this year as a test to see how successful they would be. Along with what kind of quality would be yielded growing from containers.
The potatoes themselves had almost fully died down and were ready to harvest. They were started from a couple of older potatoes quite a few months back during our “winter” season. We only had a couple of nights that reached near the freezing point when they were first planted.
The recent warmer month we had seemed to have caused some unwanted attention from bugs and worms as the leaves began to decay on the potato. Next year I’ll be pulling it away from everything else I’m growing much sooner in hopes it will help cut down on some bug issues.
While I was hoping to harvest the carrots as well this month they seem to be a bit small for baby carrots. With how close they were to the potatoes I decided to move them away from everything else as well. Just in case that soil has started to be overtaken by any larva found in the potato soil.
While I had hopes of reusing the dirt and just mixing in some fresh dirt before replanting in the container a couple of other plants. The potato soil is quite covered in larva from something. I’d rather just play it safe than reintroduce it back into the area I have everything.
Green Beans
Both containers with many green bean plants in them have grown quite a lot since last month. The container that was planted first has been harvest almost weekly every week this month. The second container should be ready to go next week.
It’s true what they say about green beans the more you harvest the more you get! At around five to 6 inches I have been harvesting them in a given week. Once a week I end up making a side dish with them by boiling them and then adding garlic and butter.
I have been quite happy with the amount we have been getting per week. Once the second container is ready to go we should be set for our weekly green bean needs and then some. It is also nice having two different containers with a few in them just in case something happens.
Jalapeno And Something Else
Over the past three years, growing Jalapeno has always been the easiest plant I’ve had to deal with in my garden. This year however was a bit different. You might notice something from the photo not quite adding up.
While I have not attempted to grow a Jalapeno from seed perhaps next year with this mix up I might consider it. While this was labeled as just a Jalapeno. After doing some research and talking with another person about the color and shape it appears I got a sweet banana pepper instead.
I love sweet banana peppers and I never thought of growing my own. The only downside is I had a lot of plans for Jalapeno peppers this year. My plans now for cooking with them will have to be delayed by over a month as I just now got a Jalapeno from a different store. Here is hoping it is label correctly.
The sweet banana pepper also as of today seems to have an outbreak of something. The past couple of years have been riddled with whiteflies and I’ve already moved it away from anything else. I’ll be washing its leaves with soapy water and hopefully, after a couple of times of that things will be resolved. It’s just something I got used to dealing with over the years.
Tomatoes And Bell Peppers
For the moment I have an entire wall of tomatoes and peppers. Growing from seed this year I was not expecting so many to not only be successful but get so big. All the tomatoes as well have started to flower.
I’m hoping this is going to be the year I get lots of tomatoes. For anyone not following along over the past couple of years. Every year I get a single tomato to eat and then things just go downhill or the plant stops producing for one reason or another. With all the plants I have this year here is hoping a few of them work out.
Almost all of the bell peppers I grew from seed have been transplanted into bigger containers as well. I think I have 6 or more plants of them. I was not expecting so many to have made it this long.
There is even one with a decent size bell pepper that I did not get a photo of. The plant survived from last year and came back stronger than I thought it was with how dead-looking it was for quite some time.
Cucumbers
With the amount of space cucumbers take to grow. Growing them in the area I have for my container garden would not work. So far they seem to be untouched by all the wildlife we get in trying to eat them or damaging them.
For a little while, it seemed like they were trying to avoid using the white lattice that has been set up for them to grow on. They were attaching themselves to some other things around the area that they are in. It seems for the most part now they have accepted the deal of using what was put in place.
While you can’t see well in the photo there are a bunch of baby cucumbers already growing around where the yellow flowers are on them. With this being the first year trying to grow them I hope this setup will be good enough.
Herbs
The stacking containers for growing herbs have been working great. I’m also rather happy I did not stack them more than two high. They are quite easy to move around when I need to do so. They have also been easy to prune and manage what you can get to grow out of them.
The basil has gotten to the point once a week now I just go in and prune them back a little bit. Most of the time I just cut part of the top off leaving where it branches out alone. Along with harvesting some of the bigger leaves from the lower sections.
The cilantro on the other hand I’ve just taken what I need and left it alone. Next week I’ll more than likely prune them all back as well. Some of them are getting quite long and in the way of walking around.
The parsley, chives, and other herbs I have been growing are going great as well. I’ve been tempted to add more with how great everything has been going. Perhaps mint will be next.
Final Thoughts
It’s been quite a fun month with being able to harvest from herbs to potatoes. There is just something about being able to go out to the garden and clip this or that to add to a meal. Things are getting a bit overcrowded and hopefully next month I can move some stuff around once there is more space. That is unless I add a bunch more stuff.
I hope everyone’s gardens have been going great. Have a great next month.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.
