Hanging Planter Labels

I just made the cutest labels for my hanging planters!!  Last summer, we wrote the name of each plant in sharpie on the front side of the milk container and it lasted for the entire growing season.  But this summer, for some reason, the sharpie washed off after only a few days.  I decided to make some labels that are cute and hopefully durable and weatherproof.  Check them out:

What I did was take one of those 9 by 13 aluminum baking pans and write/engrave the name of each plant with a pen.  I took a box cutter and cut a square around each plant name, and then I took some pliers and folded the edges back so no one could get cut.  I went over the engraved names with sharpie so they stood out more and covered the front in a layer of packing tape to protect the sharpie from washing away again.  The last thing I did was use a single-hole punch, thread some twine, and tie them to my hanging planters.  They look so good!  I hope they last all season.  (Also, see the end of this post for an update on how my plants are doing!)

Baby fruit update:
     - I have at least 9 baby tomatoes and the biggest is already the size of a grape!
     - I have 1 baby bell pepper, but it's so tiny, the flower petals are still around it.
     - I have 1 open flower on the banana pepper plant that should show fruit soon.
     - I have 3 baby zucchinis!  The largest is only about an inch long.

Red, White, and Blue

I made a beautiful arrangement in my window box!  I didn't mean for it to be so patriotic, but I guess it is heading toward that time of year.

I reused my little yellow bucket from last summer for some of the extra flowers.

I sat outside and read for a couple hours this morning and I was surrounded by flowers near my veggies, flowers on the table, and flowers hanging in my fabric planter.  It was so nice!

Planting SEads for the Second Summer

I'm back in business for my second attempt at growing a mini vegetable garden!  Last summer, I grew 2 roma tomato plants, 1 cherry tomato plant, 2 bell pepper plants, 1 jalapeno plant, and 1 unsuccessful zucchini plant.  That was a lot for me to keep up with, so this summer, I'm taking a step down and only growing 4 plants.  I'm growing the bell peppers again, but this time I only have 1 plant so none of them go to waste.  I'm doing the same thing with my roma tomatoes, but this time I'm growing it in a planter on the ground instead of in a hanger.  I was most excited about my zucchini plant last year, so I'm trying again in hopes that it will properly fruit this time.  The last one is a banana pepper plant (sweet and mild rather than spicy), which I'm trying instead of jalapenos this year.  The jalapenos grew the easiest out of all my plants last summer, but I just couldn't keep up with it and I hate to let any of my veggies go to waste.

I got the plants 3 weekends ago, and once I brought them home and put them in the planters, here's what the set-up looked like.  The tomato plant is in the planter on the ground, and the hanging planters from left to right are the zucchini plant, the bell pepper plant, and the banana pepper plant.

And here's a close-up of my baby roma tomato plant:

3 weeks later, here's what the plants look like:

And this is what my cute little roma tomato plant has grown into:

I finally had a break from homework today and was able to go pick up a tomato cage from Lowes.  I know I should have done it a couple weeks ago (before my tomato plant turned into a monster!), but I'll get it to work.

This is the most exciting part... I have baby zucchinis growing already!!  They're pretty tiny, but you can definitely see a couple thick stems that are definitely the beginning of a little fruit.  I'm so excited!  Check out these zucchini babies:

Maybe that only excites me, but you have no idea how badly I wanted some homegrown zucchinis last year!  It better work this time.

I'm also growing flowers!  I just got my window box and my little yellow bucket set up today after my trip to Lowes, so I'll get pics of that tomorrow.