My Garden Revisited

Plans are in the works for a garden expansion this spring. Maybe its the cold weather prompting these dreams of warm weather, but in any case I thought I'd fondly remember last summer's garden.

The soil in our yard consists mostly of fill, and though we have found many bricks and the occassional cool bottle, it is just not very good for growing things. While researching inexpensive ways to grow vegetables in raised beds, I came across this idea from a professor at Messiah college.

The kiddie pools are inexpensive and can last for several years I'm told. We grew all sorts of things between these two swimming pools - Amish paste tomatoes, Hutterite beans, romaine lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots.

This was our bucket brigade. We picked up food grade 5 gallon buckets from the bakeries at Walmart and Giant, drilled holes in the bottom and planted them with tomatoes, green peppers and jalepenos.
Of all of my gardening experiments, the lawn waste bags were my favorite hands down. Turns out, these bags are just perfect for growing potatoes - and completely compostable when finished. I planted eggplants in the brown pots, they were moderately successful too, but unfortuately eggplant was not a big hit in our household.

This year, we are hoping to neaten things up and grow even more. I have to admit that looking out over our ice and snow encrusted yard, it is hard to remember how it looks when it is green and growing.