For my first foray into growing things I can eat, I decided I wanted kale. I live in Florida, so winter is a good time for me to grow it, and I love to eat it. For some reason, I just had my heart set on kale. Now I had no idea what I was doing, so the first thing I did was buy a book. I got "Container Gardening for Dummies," because that sounded like it was written for people like me. There's a lot of information available for free online, but I wanted to get an overview that would make me feel somewhat competent, and I didn't want to have to open a Google tab every time I needed to do something with my plants. Next, I went to the plant section of the hardware store and asked a lot of questions. I filled my cart with a watering can, a shovel and a little scissor-like thing. I got a potting soil recommended by an employee and a fertilizer that can be added to water, and for the containers I just went with cheap plastic ones. I figured there was no need to upgrade to the pretty glazed clay ones on my first real attempt at growing things. I ended up with a mix of different styles of pots to break up the monotony.
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| My cart about halfway through my shopping trip. |
After I had all the accouterments I got to do the fun part: picking out plants. I had expected to have to start them from seeds, but when I talked to an employee he told me that it was a little late to start kale seeds in my area and pointed me towards a display with already-growing vegetables, including kale. Facing rows and rows of little nursery trays, I did what the book recommended and picked out small plants with good radial symmetry. After I had my tray of kale, I was struck by a sudden inspiration to try two vegetables and grabbed a cauliflower tray on a whim. I potted them later that day, but that's going to have to be it's own post.
