have a garden

So I was in Starbucks today and saw that they were offering coffee grounds for the garden. I picked up a couple of bags. Never heard of this type of fertilizer but I am going to give it a try. Free fertilizer. Maybe my veggies will start tasting like coffee….lol

I was and stopped and began again to be a green thumb. If your not start off with somethings simple. Root plants are easy to grown and hard to kill. Thing like potatoe, garlic, onion, chive, an scallion. All you have to do is but it from the store sit it out for like a week until the root starts growing out, for onions the middle turn green, for potatoe its white and many. After doing this get deep soil and pot and plant deep and water once daily in the afternoon. they soak up lots so afternoon will give them more time.

I have one this year and it is wonderful to just go out and pick what ever veggie you want for your meal and know that you grew it yourself.

The avacado, peppers, and basil are doing great. the flowers are all pretty much dead, but I will try different varieties and see what happens

I bought some herb seeds today. I plan on planting them tomorrow. I figure I can fit them on my balcony in a pot when they start growing. Is there anything better than fresh basil on your pasta, or chives on a potato? Also got some oregano & rosemary. Yumm. I only hope my balcony isn’t too sunny. Sounds odd, but for me it seems herbs are easy to burn.

I bought a lovely confederate jasmine; I think I can construct a simple frame and train it as a container grown topiary. When I planted one of these at my old home, it grew prodigiously – so I’m guessing it wouldn’t take long for this one to cover any frame I might make…

I had some leftover tiny potatos that were sprouting in my kitchen, so I threw them into a container. Danged if they aren’t growing and making wee little potatos! I shared about half the plants with a friend, who put them in the ground – we’ll see if ground vs. container affects yield.

Last year’s thyme is coming back, and the oregano, catnip & sage never fully died. I bought a purple ruffled basil seedling this weekend, and that should round out the herb collection for ‘08.

The yarrow, dianthus and lanterna all survived the winter in their containers – even without any frost protection – and are either blooming or in heavy bud.

A yard clean up company is coming this week to bushwhack, clean the gutters, prune the overgrown shrubs, etc. – which will make a big difference in this sadly neglected landscape.

I didn’t realise that this would matter so much to me when I brought my house. I have a container garden on the patio but I want to be able to plant rose bushes and grow my own vegetables.

I spent a wonderful couple hours in the garden in the late afternoon sun. I always seem to pack things in too tight and a month or two into things I have to do some re-arranging. Sadly I had to take out the dessert section because my soil is just not cutting it. I re-potted what could be salvaged and made a tower of succulents on the plant stand. The agave and some smaller cousins got moved amongst the wildflowers.

In the salsa garden I caged the tomatoes which wasn’t easy. One is already huge and covered in fruit. I always wait too long and end up hurting some of the branches trying to wrangle them in. The other was just the right size and now will have a proper chance at life. I moved the peppers out of the tomato shade and gave them their space. A few blossoms in promise of peppers to come. Planted some garlic and spread out the beets in between.

And a few new additions. Green beans and a beautiful jasmine along the fence. And the very coveted gardenia in the shady corner.

Been house hunting. I’m very firm that I MUST have a yard. For my garden. And for my hammock. Having a yard is a “deal-breaker”. I won’t buy a condo because I must have a yard.