Improving my Gardening Skills!

Last year I made my first attempt with "gardening." We don't have great light in the back yard to maintain an actual garden, as pictured below:



So, I tried to experiment with growing some veggies and herbs in pots on my front porch, where I get more sun. I did pretty well with basil and rosemary, but my red bell pepper plant was not as fruitful as I had hoped. Here was my only result--



One freaking pepper. And you might think it looks appetizing. But, it actually wasn't all that great. Quite disappointing actually. So, I thought I would give up on veggies. But, come the "Summer of Mike," I decided to give it another try. And, it is already looking much more successful! My yellow pepper plant is already going crazy with three small peppers budding and at least 10 other potentials ...as long as they survive!



Along with the peppers, I gave tomatoes a try. Out of the million of tomato options at Home Depot, I picked 'Rutgers' Heirloom Tomatoes. Don't ask me why, I just thought they looked good. The description says that they grow "tall vines," like most other tomato plants. Well, my plant must be experiencing dwarfism, because it hasn't grown any taller since I planted it and cared for it. However, it has begun to sprout a few tomatoes and if I'm lucky, I count that it might give me at least 10 fruits. Let's cross our fingers!


And finally, I've got the basil going. Basil may be the easiest thing to grow, so I can't say that I'm proud of myself or surprised it's growing well, I'm just happy because I love basil. The most recent experiment featuring my basil is my summer ale. After kegging 3 gallons of the beer without the basil (since Colleen didn't want that flavor in her birthday beer), I cut up a few leaves of my basil, added them to the remaining 2 gallons in the bottling bucket, and then bottled the rest. I'm not super confident that the flavor will be strong, as the beer did not get a long exposure to the basil, but it was still fun to try on an impulse. I can't find my pictures of the basil in the beer, so you'll have to just take the picture of my plant and imagine the leaves floating in the beer. Maybe I'll add some to people's glasses, kind of like an orange slice in Blue Moon!




I'll keep y'all updated as to how my yellow peppers and dwarfed Rutgers Heirloom Tomatoes turn out!