Because I live in an apartment, I don’t have much space to grow a garden. This summer I experimented with my first container gardens! The most successful plants were my zinnias. I planted them a little late (as in July), so they started to bloom shortly before the first frosts in Georgia set in, which was disappointing only in that I didn’t get to enjoy my zinnias when they were in full bloom. I’ve got a lot of left over seeds so here’s some things I plan on doing differently:

1) According to the zone map, zinnia seeds should be planted between April and June. I think I’ll plant mine at the beginning of April, which will give me a full three month head start. Hopefully this will give me more time to enjoy the blooms, and allow them to grow fuller.

2) In watching these plants grow I realized that they’re extremely competitive plants in terms of nutrients and oxygen. I had started with 7 plants, and by the end of summer I was down to 4. They couldn’t live in the small pot that I put them in. They just didn’t have enough room to grow out so they grew up. I think it might help if I started with 7 seeds again then pick out the 2 best growers and put them in a deeper, wider pot. Maybe then they’ll grow more outwards with bigger blooms.