The Summer Garden
June 25, 2007 by Andrea 
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Filed under Gardening
This year our summer garden is in containers. I usually start seeds indoors in early March for May planting, but we were moving around that time and didn’t have a place set up in our new house for starting seeds; plus, we’re putting in a fence and replacing the deck this summer so we didn’t really have a place to set up our raised beds this year. So for the first summer in our new house, we’re doing a reduced garden in pots on the porch.
We usually grow tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and sometimes squash and eggplant. Since we couldn’t start our own seeds, I bought some plants from a recommended local organic nursery, and I thought it was great! They had a wonderful variety of plants, including heirlooms, and everything was very reasonably priced, so I came home with a few favorites plus some new things for us to try. I like the nursery so much that I may just start buying plants from them every year, that is if these do well. I tried to choose a mix of peppers and tomatoes that would be ready at different times, but we’ll see how well-spaced they are in a few weeks.
So this year we are growing the following:
Tomatoes: Red Grape, San Marzano, Roma VF, Pineapple, Sungold
Sweet Peppers: Big Bertha Red, Marconi Yellow, La Rouge Royale
Hot Peppers: Habanero
Herbs: Genoa Basil, Thai Basil, Italian Parsley, Spearmint, English Thyme, Oregano
I’m also going to pick up jalapeno and thai pepper plants, plus a few more herbs that I use regularly.
What about you? Do you grow some of your favorite vegetables and herbs? Do you start your own seeds or do you buy plants from a local nursery? I would love to hear about your garden, what you grow, and how you grow it. Please feel free to share in the comments.
oh i wish i has similar successes to report… but i planted a container full of different varieties of basil (orange, lemon, cinnamon, etc) plus borage and others, but when i came back from my holiday in Tuscany, i had to find that nothing had happened, except for the soil getting incredibly mouldy! on previous occasions, snails had taken over my herbs, so i am afraid it’ll be down to the local supermarket again for my herbs, luckily they have got a good selection!
I have been good in previous years and have grown tomatoes, carrots and peppers, but this year my beds are weedy as I just haven’t had time.
I do have pots of thyme, rosemary, sage, mint and chives on the patio though, and a mini chilli pepper plant in the kitchen!
That basil looks so lovely I can almost smell it.
I buy herbs from the grocery store because they have little containers that can be indoors in my sunny laundry room (I live in a condo). Basil never dies, it keeps coming and I use it a lot for salad dressings, pizza and tomato sauce. Another favorite is small celery, that I like to have it handy. Nice post!
I”ve got all my plants in containers this year, too, despite having a huge plot of land. I only moved in with my partner last autumn, and his garden has been totally neglected – it”s simply a huge grassland
Sadly we”ve got no time nor money to redo the whole thing – a pation, new soil, grass, raised beds etc – so I”ve got a small corner outside the door leading to the future terrace/patio, with containers. I”ve got some Alpine strawberries (1 container), tomatoes (2), butternut squash & zucchini (3 containers) and some green beans; additionally I”ve got quite a lot of various herbs and salad leaves in my kitchen “windowsill garden”. We fried some zucchini flowers for a snack yesterday, and I expect to harvest my first zucchini later this week – very exciting 
Good luck with your gardening endeavour, Andrea!!
I have a pretty garden, with lots of herbs and fuits. They are doing really well. Thank you for your information.
I too do most of my gardening in containers on my front deck–full time employment, 2 kids, tomato-plant-devouring goat in the back yard–all that contributes. I have a huge pot of the basils as well. Cinnamon, lemon, lime, gigantic, etc. loveLoveLOVE the basils. and tomatoes. one regular patio tomato plant to get things rolling. 2 sweet 100′s. 10-20 Brandywines and Black Brandywines. Garden Peach, Big Zebra, and Mortgage Lifter. I am going to have the prettiest tomato salads in town this summer! hehe