It’s that time again and I’m back in the garden. This is my second attempt at gardening. I’ve found working in the yard to be so relaxing and I’ve learned so much. I have a few summer projects, but setting up the garden was the first one. I decided to expand my garden and add a few new plants. I’m still working with plants in containers and I probably will for the next few years until I gain more experience. I’ve been reading and researching all year so that I could expand my knowledge about the plants I wanted to grow. One important thing that I am learning about is the soil. Each plant requires different variations of soil blends. I started blending soil a few weeks before planting and I can see the difference in some of the plants already.
I am a little ambitious so I planted tomatoes, squash, zucchini, bell peppers, bush green beans, and spinach. I planted all of these in containers. I am also growing basil and cilantro in the Earth box my aunt sent me for my birthday. Spinach is a cool season vegetable so they can handle a little frost and dislike too much heat. I waited a little too late to plant the spinach and it died as soon as it started sprouting. I’m not giving up and will plant some again in late summer. So far the plants are doing well, except for the bush beans. I direct sowed the seeds. They were growing fine and then the leaves started turning yellow. I tried everything from pruning to watering to fertilizing, but nothing has helped. The plant is pretty much dead and I think I know why. Apparently you’re supposed to do what’s called inoculate the seeds and I didn’t do that. I’m going to see if that is the issue when I plant them again. This is such an amazing experience.
In spite of my first two losses I’m feeling optimistic about the other plants. They are all thriving. The tomatoes have blooms. The squash plants have beautiful leaves and the flower buds look like they’ll be opening soon. If all goes well, I’m going to have a decent harvest to carry me through the winter. We’ll see how they progress.
C-Sweet Chronicles 
I think you have gotten the right attitude of your seeds. Sometimes you can get bad seeds. Unfortunately, you don’t know they are bad until you plant them. Then they do not grow. So, replant new seeds. I have to replant green beans seeds. My spinach seeds were bad. My mustard green seeds have not germinated. My collards seeds are growing. Wishing you more successes.Grateful,Aunt Janie
Please add more soil to your pots. You don’t want your food of your vegetables to touch the pots. They may get burned from the heat of pots. Aunt Janie