I love to garden. I really do.

I’ll plant a vegetable anywhere.

No kidding. I LOVE container gardening in addition to my earth plowed garden.

I have a traditional garden with potatoes, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, cucumber, watermelons, canteloupe, zipper peas, okra, and lots of pepper plants.

I also have another flower style garden.

It has a rock border around it that I placed there years ago.

It is the one where I find a lot of snakes. I hate snakes.

I won’t stop living my life outdoors because of them.

If you live in the country, and in the woods, you are going to see a snake.

Eventually.

More on snakes later.

The rocked flower bed has a crepe myrtle in it along with some seeded zinnias.

Just behind that I planted a row of potatoes. I love flowers, don’t get me wrong.

But you can’t eat flowers. You can eat potatoes. So if there is a garden area with flowers, they will have to share their space with some vegetables.

There is also one tomato plant in that bed along with two squash plants and a cucumber vine.

I make my own salsa and pico de gallo so tomatoes and peppers come in handy. We also make our own tomato and pizza sauce.

LB does not eat onions. I can sneak in some onion powder sometimes.

And I have even rehydrated dried onion flakes and used them in some certain dishes.

But we do not eat onions. I used to. And sometimes I get to thinking about my momma’s home cooked green beans with a slab of cornbread and a great big green onion. And I miss it. But it just ain’t worth the hassle. I want to get up close and personal with LB, and that won’t be much fun if I smell like onions.

But more on food in the food section.

I also have two 50 gallon drums.

One has, of course, potatoes in it.

I start with a little dirt. A few potato pieces. There will be a whole article on this but basically I plant a few potato pieces in the bottom. Then I cover with more dirt. When those plants peek up through the dirt, I add more dirt. Sometimes I even add a few more potato pieces if I happen to have some older potatoes in my bin. I continue to do this until that whole barrel is full. Then I wait. I will eventually push that barrel over, and retrieve my potatoes.

Next to that barrel is my compost barrel.

It is a SIN in my home to throw away anything that can be composted.

You will be punished.

NO MEAT and NO FISH in the compost bin. My dad used to plant fish under his grape vines and that is different. Meat and Fish in the compost pile attract rats and other undesirables. So it is best to keep those items off the list. I also avoid oils in the bin, like cooking oil. I find also that corn cobs do not compost well.

Egg shells, lettuce pieces, pepper stems, tomato cores, squash ends, old bread, watermelon rinds, canteloupe rinds, apple cores, pear cores, avocado peelings, cucumber peelings, coffee grounds, used tea bags, cabbage leaves, beans, pea hulls, potato peelings, leftover pasta noodles, onion skins, garlic skins. I kind of ride in the middle about cheese. I might put it in there if it is very finely grated. But you get the idea.

I start with a little of dirt in the bottom. I had LB punch holes in the bottom sides around the perimeter so water would not stand in the barrel. Same with the potato bin. If it can’t drain, the potatoes would rot.

A compost container sits on my kitchen counter all the time. When it is filled, it goes to the compost barrel. Then a little dirt shoveled over to deter flies. When that composts real good, it is wonderful to put around your garden plants.

Then up close to the back porch of our home, there is an old fountain that we filled in with dirt that contains plants now instead of water and fish. The fish were just too hard to take care of. There are flowers in there, impatiens and zinnias and nasturtiums. Marigolds too. And of course I snuck in four pepper plants. I could not stop myself.

And I have six great big roll around pots that can be moved around as desired. I usually plant in those really early in the spring. If it gets cold, we just slide them inside the back door.

I have tomatoes and peppers in those as well.

If there is any place in any garden or pot that does not have something in it, I will find something to put in it, and it will most likely involve a vegetable of some sort.

Gardening is hard work, but it is the kind of hard work that makes you feel really good afterwards.

I am thinking of a pot and dirt, and I will have to leave now and go PLANT something!