My mini garden

This is the first summer that I have not been petsitting since I was 18 years old. Just to place that in time and space, I'm in my mid-30's now. To say I'm excited is a vast understatement. I have plenty of land in which to place a sizable garden but I'm not ready for that kind of commitment. Petsitting was giant commitment in and of itself and I don't want to load up with another quite so soon. Thus, the container garden! It's my first attempt and I've never been terribly successful with plants that are not in my office at work, so we'll see how it goes. In the hanging baskets, I have cilantro, rosemary, and strawberries. The large pot has some beautiful wave petunias and the small one an arm of Christmas cactus I accidentally knocked off of the 50-60 year old plant at my Aunt Cathy's house. As penitence, I'm going to try to grow it. It has some little root filaments 2 or 3 inches long, so maybe it will like all this fresh country air!

Below are what I hope will be my big producers. Even though I don't like tomatoes or most tomato based products, I do love salsa and I make a mean lasagna. I hope this lone plant may contribute to both dishes over the course of the summer. The other plant is eggplant.

I don't like okra and everything else available at the time of purchase grew on a 6-8 foot vine which I don't really want on my porch. I though about getting one of those basket that hangs from a deck railing and just letting the vine hang over the side but I haven't made up my mind. I'm not certain whether or not that would work. Plus, I'm not sure if the bunnies like squash. Anything on the ground is game for the live action Watership Down going on in the back yard...and the deer, although I've never seen them in the front yard and the bunnies aren't so shy.