The Traveling Container Garden

This has been the majority of my summer. My traveling container garden. 

It started out small and then continued to grow and grow. I only started with a few plants. Honestly, I did. But soon, garden fever took a hold of me and things got real. The main idea was to stay in Providence this summer, but I had other ideas too that involved moving around, which is how my plants went from balcony garden to "traveling" container garden.

This horribly blurry photo is the back of my Prius. Yes, I own a Prius and yes, I looked like a huge hippie driving down the highway like this. Especially with my "No Farms, No Food" bumper sticker, my dream catcher hanging off my mirror and my moccasin clad feet. I'm that girl. 

My plants traveled with me for about 3 weeks. Providence, RI to Lake Placid, NY to North Rose, NY and back to Providence. I assume they liked the air conditioning but, I can't speak for them. I just know that I did.

I know what you all are thinking. Why didn't you just have someone water them while you were away you crazy person!? Well, I have a couple of reasons. 

1. There's a lot of them. (if you couldn't tell)

2. Some of them need water twice a day. (They're big)

3. There's a colony collapse happening in New England (a.k.a. The bees are dying and I hardly see any) - Which means, that if I want any produce from these veggie plants, I have to hand pollinate them myself. 

So, they rode with me. Tomatoes rode shotgun. Everybody else got in the back. The sunflowers (above) had to be tipped like this because they were about as tall as me at that point in time. (about 5' 7") Craziness.

(again, I apologize for the awesomely blurry cell phone pics)

Somehow, we made it back to Providence in one piece. Or mostly. We had some nights with extreme winds that knocked some little tomatoes off their vines and some crowding in the car led to broken limbs, but pretty much in one piece. 

When it comes down to it, I have learned a lot about gardening this summer. I've had container gardens in the past and they just somehow worked. This was the summer that I had to deal with extreme heat, no bees and making mistakes. It was worth it. Reading this post by the Herb Gardener really helped me come to this conclusion though. I saw the title, "When You Kill Your Plants", and knew I could relate.

Even though I did kill a few plants this summer, and tortured a couple others who somehow survived, I am so addicted to this that I can't help but keep planting. Just this past week, I planted more seeds. I just couldn't help myself. Besides, if I can keep my balcony/apartment looking like this further into the fall and winter, there's no way I'm going to stop now. 

♥ Kenzie