Summer Gardening Retrospective

This past Spring, we decided to do some container gardening. We'd plant a bit of this and that on our balconies, we decided, and see what happened. Growing your own food is a concept I love. Everything fresh, no pesticides, and the satisfaction of preparing and eating something you'd lovingly nurtured from the ground (from the pot?). While I was intrigued and eager to give gardening a try for the first time in my life, I quickly learned that mine were not the greenest thumbs in our household.

After we'd gone out and purchased a bunch of pots, dirt, and all the other necessary goodies, I watched in amusement as Roland transformed into opportunistic squirrel. Eating became less about sustenance and more about unearthing seeds from any possible source. No produce item crossed out kitchen without being inspected for seeds which were promptly then buried in one of many pots. In a short span of time, our many labeled pots scattered across our balconies, soaking up the early summer sunshine under their Master's watchful eye. Green beans, strawberries, tomatoes, green peppers, hot chilies, avocado, several types of grapes, raspberries, basil, apples, oranges...technically, we should have feasted - and feasted well - through the summer months.

Alas, the gardening Gods were not on our side this year. Spider mites, too much water, not enough water, pot too big, pot too small, sun too hot...the problems were numerous but the fruits and vegetables, not so much. We had one meal's worth of green beans before spider mites took over, and who ever knew tomatoes won't grow in heat warmer than the mid 80's? The rest of our pots have collectively produced tons of pretty green leaves, and not much else.

With one exception.

Fragolini! Or, tiny little baby strawberries. I suppose that if only one of our plant children could successfully produce fruit all summer, I'm glad it was the fragolini plant. This little guy grew quickly and has been giving us bowls full of sweet little berries for months. They are delicious on their own straight off of the plant (which is about as far as they ever make it) or particularly lovely floating in a glass of Prosecco. 

So, the end of summer gardening retrospective leaves us with a big win, a few losses, and lots of lessons learned for next year. Until then!

Fragolini in Prosecco, overlooking the lake in Nemi