learn to garden

We planted a veggie/fruit/herb garden. Had our first strawberries that were yummy! Peppers and corn are developing well. Tomatoes are growing like crazy but have yet to have one grow to full term.

Also planted sunflowers and lavender in a pot. The sunflowers are going crazy! Looks beautiful. Only one sprig of lavender is growing but one is enough for me. I hear lavender is really hard to grow from seed.

I am soo bad with flowers, but have always wanted to grow a vegetable garden. i love taking out the weeds from the flower beds, but then my allergies get the best of me.

Our vegetables are growing splendidly. The flowers had a very good Spring and the pots are now ready to be replanted. The trees are green and thriving. The Butterfly Bush is attracting its assigned demographic. There are hummingbirds all over the place. The resident finches, sparrows, doves, mockingbirds and peach-faced lovebird have been joined by several cowbirds, red sparrows, and the occasional hooded oriole or some other beautiful migratory creature. Our garden is alive and well—even in the desert southwest.

The zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, cantaloupe, bush beans, tomatoes, onions, and mesclun are all growing! No signs of fruit yet, except on the tomato bushes – they are thriving – but it’s all coming up and spreading out.

The pomegranate bush has one lonely blossom on it, plus a lot of spiral carvings from some as yet unseen parasite, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting the plant any, so no chemicals yet.

The trees we planted are doing great. The ficus has dozens of tiny little figs on it. I hadn’t known before that even ornamentals bear fruit. The little palm trees have tons of new growth, so their old stuff got a trim-back the other day.

The butterfly bush, honeysuckle and other small hummingbird attractants are all growing and the transplanted ruellia is coming back vigorously. The gardenia bush is going crazy. Every time I take a flower off, it grows 3 more!

Even the grass is growing on the side of the yard we seeded. It’s all so lovely!

Oh. Here, I’ll post a picture. :)

All but a dozen or so of the seeds we sowed a couple weeks ago are up. In fact, the sweet peas are already about a foot high! NONE of the passion flower seeds have germinated. NONE. The package doesn’t say how long they’re supposed to take so I’ll give them a little longer.

The vegetables and nasturtiums are out in the raised bed garden and doing fine. We bought a big pot for the courtyard and I put most of the flowers in it. There are English and African daisies and another daisy looking flower called Chocolate Sundae. I will set the sweet peas in the little bed under the window today. I’m excited about having a nice little garden again. :)

I haven’t written anything here since last summer?! Well, I’m not that much of a slacker on this goal really, but still, now’s a good time to get back into posting on this.

This afternoon, the Dearest and I sat out on our new patio and planted seeds in about a hundred Dixie cups. We bought both flower and vegetable seeds, and it was 84º here today, so I’m pretty sure any danger of “frost” has passed. ;)

We’ve built a raised-bed garden on one side of the house and will be transplanting the veggies into it once they germinate.

The flowers will go in several different spots, but we thought it would be better to get them started with some TLC instead of tossing the seeds right into the ground.

Also on my list of gardening basics is my little plot below the front window. I had the porch chair in front of it until we built the courtyard, but now I can use it again and I’ve dug up the dirt and mixed in a rich combination of planting soils, so my flowers will be extra happy there.

I’m most excited about the passion flower seeds. There were only 8 seeds in the little packet, so they’d better grow! and the sweet peas!!! I LOVE sweet peas! I think that’s my favorite smell in the whole world. :)

I just love to watch things grow. It’s like watching a miracle before your very eyes, each and every day. But I don’t know much about gardening! And at the moment I have no way to do so because I travel too much. Maybe I should buy a potted plant and take it with me… (;_;)

We planted a Buddleias bush in our garden. It was lovely at first but I keep forgetting to get up early enough to water it… my friend told me if I watered it in the heat of the day I’d scorch it’s roots! I suppose I could water it at night but it’s weird going out in your pajamas to pour water over it. Lol, that’s what I’ll do if I must though.

The Buddleia bush attracts butterflies and is gorgeous. It’s a perennial so it’ll keep coming back. It’s a great hardy little thing.

My terrarium is full of little green pixies dancing in the moss!

Nothing is going to grow outside right now, so I planted some wildflowers in a terrarium. There’s already a dormant orchid and a tiny little pitcher plant in there, so the wildflowers, when they bloom, will be a nice addition. The box is set up in my bathroom so there’s plenty of humidity for growing things.