Green Thumb

I have been remiss in blogging about my garden! Since we are now in our house, this is the first year my garden can be planted in the ground and not in random containers and pots strewn about my balcony. The garden also gets full sun all day long instead of partial sun for a few hours each afternoon. I'm sure to produce a bumper crop this year, right?

A few weeks ago, John and I hit up Lowe's to acquire all of my herb and veggie babies for planting. We marked off an area in the backyard by the fence because it was already dug up and I wouldn't have to disturb the grass. Plus, Sadie's lead doesn't go out that far so she can't eat any of the plants. Ha! I had kind of a hard time narrowing down my selections for planting. I nearly had multiple pepper plants in my cart before John reminded me that I'm not really a pepper fan. Oh, right. Last year my poor tomato plant bit the dust and I didn't get to harvest a single fruit from it. This year, with reckless abandon, I purchased two different varieties, Jet Star - a hybrid tomato and Sweet 100, which are grape tomatoes. These babies are well on their way to producing lots of fruit for consumption I can tell. I've already had to cage them for support because they're growing so fast!

Tomatoes!



In addition to the tomatoes, I also latched onto a spinach plant. We eat a spinach salad every night with dinner so I thought even if it didn't produce many leaves, it would be neat to eat my own. Well, only a few weeks into my gardening endeavors and the spinach has already completely shriveled up.




I'm probably going to remove it and put something else in its place. I wanted to grow some kind of melon or pumpkin until John pointed out that the vines grow to be many feet long. OK, pass on that.


As for herbs, I have two kinds of basil, cilantro, lemon balm and rosemary. My parsley didn't fare so well either but John is trying to nurse it back to health. I must have one green thumb and one black thumb.


Poor parsley.

But the basil, oh the basil! It's already so luscious that we used it in a pasta salad the other day. I think this may finally be the year that I'll have enough leaves to make my own pesto. I have been aspiring to homemade pesto ever since I started my burgeoning garden a few years ago. Can you imagine jarring up pesto to use all winter? Me neither! So stoked!









Basil times two!



And last but not least, I planted strawberries! This is a total experiment but I have really high hopes for them. John even transplanted them from a pot to the ground the other day.





This is going to sound really stupid but, there are worms in the ground. I completely forgot this fact when I planted the garden back in May. Potting soil and containers have no worms. So, imagine my surprise when I dug my first little hole and one squirmy guy crawled out. I don't get grossed out by worms, I just plum forgot about them! These are things you don't know when you don't have a yard for 5 years. I guess maybe I wouldn't make the best farmer. But, I know they're good for my soil so they can stay. John and I have been religiously watering and even giving everyone a little plant food to get them started.


And check this out! Since we moved into our house in October, we had no idea what kind of foliage would be growing in the backyard. Much to our surprise, we have what I think are calla lilies! Growing right in our very own backyard!




This is also going to sound stupid but I had no idea calla lilies came from the ground. How dumb am I? I only ever think of them in bouquets! Hey knowledgeable garden people, if I cut these blooms, will more grow in their place? We also have a rose bush that has already bloomed but I think it may bloom again. I don't know why I think this but I do, so it must be true!

Lemony lemon balm!

Stay tuned to see how my garden grows!