Mini-Garden Beds

We moved last summer from a house that had 12 acres of land, 5 raised beds and a huge garden space. Our new place is MUCH smaller on the outside, so we had to get creative in making a garden. My brother Matthew and I wanted to make 2 container gardens. I decided on a salsa garden, and Mat did a flower garden.

You HAVE to have a place to plant your seeds. We found some great little planters at Southern States and bought our BlackCow composted planting soil and seeds there as well...

Fill your container ALMOST to the top - leaving a little room for water (& mulch). Your seed packets give clear instructions on how close to plant the flowers & vegetables apart. We planted ours a little thicker (so we can thin them out later if we need to.) We would rather have TOO many things growing, than not enough.

Your seeds will do best in full sunlight. Until the threat of frost was over, we kept our planters in front of a window... but once it warmed up, we had a terrific spot ON TOP of the roof of a covered walkway! It will take a few days before the seeds will germinate (begin to grow) AND they grow at different speeds! The tomatoes took the longest to come up - while Mat's flowers grew VERY quickly!

Just 2 weeks after planting, the floweres are working hard!

Tomatoes STILL had not broken through the surface yet... plants are all looking healthy though!

Tomatoes finally popped through. Peppers are looking healthy. Cilantro is looking pretty good. Matt's flowers are all looking GREAT! Now - we just keep an eye on the plants and make sure they are thriving. Not too much water. Bring them in if there is a threat of frost (weird weather this spring in NC)... and ENJOY your Mini-Container garden!