Gardening, Rent-Style

I grew up among gardening folk. Nana, in Jacksonville, will tell you that her mama had a real way with things that grow out of the ground. I know the truth. She's just as much a green thumb as "Mamama" ever was. Charlie takes pictures of Nana's flowers all the time. They are truly lovely, but what fascinated me most about being with Nana and Grandaddy during the summers of my youth was the nightly trip out to the garden come sunset. The heat of the day would be passing lazily over by then, and out we'd go with a bucket or a tin pan to collect the bounty the Carolina sun had ripened to perfection for our harvest. Okra, snap beans, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash. Nana's gardens produce some of the most beautiful fruit and vegetables I've ever known, and to this day her crops are the standard by which I select produce for my own family's dinner table. Sadly, the choices seldom measure up.

Nevertheless, I had some success with my own 6' square garden spot along the lake--mostly okra, which I love lightly dusted with salted flour and fried in just a little canola oil...mmmm, summertime.

Charlie and I don't live on the lake any longer. We rent a home in a suburban area with very little water around. And though the ground is not ours to do with as we see fit, I still wanted a garden for the summer. Last summer we had a brand new baby boy to cultivate, so I did not want to pass another summer without one. What to do...

Container gardening.

Charlie andI live on one income--his. So I knew I wanted to keep our expenses to a minimum and invest most in the plants themselves. I had been collecting old formula and coffee cans, and we had an old entertainment center that got demolished in our cross-country move. I salvaged two drawers from that and had Charlie drill holes in the bottom of them for me. I used a scredriver and a hammer to punch holes in the bottoms of the cans. Voila! Containers. I did, owever, purchase a couple of 88-cent pots from the Big Box.

Potting soil at the local Big Box Store was relatively inexpensive--I think I paid $2 per 40-lb bag, and I also bought my plants there--all for under $3 each. I bought tomato, okra, bell pepper, strawberry, and [what I thought was] squash plants--turned out to be zucchini rather than yellow, and where I come from zucchini is zucchini and squash is yellow squash!

Only the strawberry plant has suffered. It must not like containers. I tried the hanging method with one of the tomato plants, and it's working out just fine. Still no fruit but it's early yet. The okra and zucchini are going to take over. Seriously, save yourselves.

I added mint and rosemary plants to the collection after a recent trip to the local farmer's market, and a lady I interviewed for one of my news stories graciously sent me home with several starters of angel's trumpets to plant. They need to be repotted but are also hanging in there.

Now, I'll have more to say about container gardening once it actually produces fruit for us. We do have some tiny okra buds coming in. For now, the jury is still out, but I will say that container gardening, so far, has been a real pleasure. I get such a kick out of nurturing these tender plants, watering them in the mornings and evenings, closely inspecting them for health and defense against rodents and insects. There like little babies who need special care, and that touches a deep place in me that needs to nurture and protect. I also relish the appeal to frugality that gardening satisfies. It's just one of the many means to the end of keeping me home with our son, yet affording pursuits that interest, challenge, and inspire me.