My sister lives in town with her husband. Both of them work full time and they don't really have the space or the energy to devote to a garden. But Sis still dreams of living out in the country and having fresh produce. We discussed container gardening, but most of the articles and books that she looked at made container gardening look either too difficult or too expensive. But with a little thought and some prudent shopping, we put together a beginner's garden that was inexpensive and virtually care-free.
First thing we did was go shopping at the local Kmart for appropriate containers. We decided on the large 20 gallon buckets that they had on sale for $5 each. For filler we bought large bags of peat moss, playground sand, and garden soil. For the first garden we bought Sweet-100 cherry tomato seeds, zucchini seeds, and cucumber seeds.
To construct the garden, we first punched a couple of holes in the bottom of each container with a screwdriver. Then we filled the containers with equal amounts of peat moss, sand, and garden soil. We planted the seeds, watered them well, and placed them on a patio where they would get morning sun. Each day, Sis would check to see if they needed water and every two weeks she would water the plants with an all-purpose fertilizer.
Results - remarkably good. The cherry tomato plants are still covered with tomatoes. In fact, her garden had more tomatoes than any of her neighbors with "traditional" gardens. The zucchini are doing remarkably well (then again, zucchini are notorious for doing well). The cucumbers were doing well and had put out several cucumbers, but unfortunately they were over-watered and the plant rotted out.
I asked Sis and her husband how much time they devoted to the garden. She laughed and said that they checked the containers right before work, which took about 5 minutes. I asked them how much time they spent weeding. Her husband's eyes lit up - "None!" he said. They are so happy with their results that they are planning on adding a couple more containers with lettuces and radishes.
*Fast Pickles*
This is a terrific recipe for those with small gardens and without a lot of time
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