I took the dogs out just before dawn and noticed that the squashes and cukes I seeded in the driveway garden were just starting to push through the surface of the soil. So cool to witness that.
Cucumber seedlings
Two of the winter squash varieties have also sprouted, and after a full day of soaking in the sun, all of them are a healthy green and appear to be off to a good start.
Of course now the cukes in the back garden have upped their productivity, so I may live to regret this little cucumber experiment.
My house was built in 1951 and my neighborhood followed along a few years later. It’s pretty woodsy over here, one of the characteristics I love most about Atlanta, but the tree canopy is a constant irritant for me the gardener.
In the spring I was still adjusting to my job and wasn’t devoting the time I could have been to the garden. I started close to fifty tomato seeds in February, but only a handful survived the hardening process as I raced off to the office and was often stuck there late.
I’m lucky to live in Georgia, where the climate allows summer crops to produce into October and sometimes November. Last night and today I’ve been setting out a few more things in containers (a new experience for me), and now have a couple of zucchini in a large pot, a watermelon plant (say what? Well, I’ve never!), a styrofoam cooler adapted to try another batch of Armenian cukes (my cukes aren’t thriving out back this year, even with fertilizer, even with a compost mulch), and I’ve got three buckets to which I added three different types of winter squash (one variety per bucket).
Behold: The driveway garden!
The Driveway Garden
No, it’s not much. I expect to collect more containers though. I can really see converting about half the length of my driveway to food production. I was hitting the yard sales bright and early today, but ended up buying the three buckets at Lowe’s (and branded, no less, so I can advertise their stores as I grow my winter squash!) since I guess this isn’t an ideal time of year for people to be downsizing their gardening equipment.
