Out in the Garden

I worked out in my garden last night. That was FUN! My sister helped me rake up all the leaves that I was using as mulch. I tore out the old tomato plants that had been there all winter. Looks much better in there now. I have new growth on all my herbs – three thymes (the orange thyme is so cool! It is a ground cover, has really low feathery tiny leaves – and they do smell citrusy! It is about 16” in diameter this year.), the green sage (we dug from Grandpa Sterling’s house), the purple sage, tarragon, bergamot, winter savory, the English lavender, St. John’s wort, lemon balm, the chive and the garlic chive already have harvestable shoots, and the parsley I planted last year is already back with a vengeance! I did not even know the dumb thing was a perennial. But, it is! Sweet. My rosemary did not die again this year…does not have new growth on it yet, neither does my Echinacea. I have a hollyhock we got from the plant sale at the church across the alley last year that has about quadrupled in size…it should bloom this year. I am excited to see what color it is. I can’t believe what a tiny sickly plant it was when I put it in and how big it is today! The raspberry that Rob got me has new buds on it – I need to trellis it this year. It is a third year plant, so it should produce this year!!! Yay! We got some other berry (two plants survived) from the neighbor last year…again, terribly sickly baby plants that have grown up. Not great, mind you, but grown up nonetheless. I ordered all my seeds yesterday – I decided to start my seeds indoor this year. We shall see how it goes! This is what I got… Tomato Better Boy Hybrid Tomato Early Girl Hybrid Tomato Sweet Baby Girl Tomato Tomande Zucchini Burpee Hybrid Winter Squash Early Acorn Squash - Autumn Glow Sunflower Chianti Hybrid Sunflower Honey Bear (pictured above, so cute!) Basil, Genovese Basil, Green Ruffles - Basil, Thai 'Siam Queen Basil - Sweet Nufar Hybrid Basil Summerlong Nicotiana Nicki Mix Portulaca Magic Carpet Zinnia Pinwheel Series

Oh man. Basil. Basil. Basil! BASIL! Can't wait. I've done my research and I think that I have the harvesting thing figured out. Stay tuned for pesto. Lots and lots of pesto!

I also made a border out of old beer bottles. I will try and post a picture of that soon. If it remains stable, I think it will be a great way to recycle the beer bottles. The dark brown glass should absorb the warm sunlight, so that should be helpful as well!