Who has a green thumb...

Ok - Last spring I promised that THIS spring I would post pics of my garden as it grows and document the life of the plants. But I've been busy...real busy! And I had the garden in the ground 3 weeks before I remembered to take pics. And well, the plants grew. They grew allot.

But I took some and will explain each as we go. The important step before you put any plants in the ground is a Very Good bagged Soil (not the cheap bags that have no nutrients in it and water flows too fast thru it) and a really good Compost. Now my garden soil has been established for several years now so each Spring I only have to add one bag of soil and one bag of compost and mix them together really well. If you are just beginning, you may need several bags of each to get the soil just right so the roots can relax, take hold and grow.

This cute little booger is why there is a green "fence" up around the garden as he likes to dig and bury ROCKS in the dirt!

The compost feeds the plants and fertilizes them, while the good soil retains the water so the roots can drink.

Now, where were we? Oh Yea, what did I plant?

First we have Zucchini and yellow Squash. I plant several of these each year because these are great to puree and freeze and use them all winter long hidden in foods that my kids have no idea they are eating it in! ;o) Oh yea, and see that little Light green thing growing off to the far left??? Yea, that's Lettuce from seeds I planted LAST WINTER that somehow finally took root and randomly grew where it wanted. All the others grew last spring and we ate and enjoyed 15 heads of lettuce. Next we have peppers. I have a Hot Habenero Pepper and a Sweet Banana Pepper. These are great to also slice up and freeze and pull them out all winter as I need to add to dishes. They are also great in Fresh Salsa. And rounding the corner we have Cabbage. Now let me explain. I have never grown cabbage before. And I would never grow cabbage normally. But Emily brought this home from school planted in a cup and barely clinging to life as a classroom science project. And I plopped it in my kitchen window and gave it my TLC and it came to life. In a BIG way. So it is now in the garden and taking off!

I also planted Lemon Cucumbers - but I don't think it's gonna make it.

Now I am trying this year White Sweet Onions. I have never grown these kind of Bulb onions before. And they come in a huge bunch of stems that look like Green Onions, so we planted them per directions and they freakin took off! So I have like 30 white onions that will be due to be picked all at the SAME TIME. Does anyone like Onions? Anyone? Is this thing on? Every year I plant a different type of tomato. Grape, Roma, Roman, Cherry. But this year I planted the Beefsteak Tomato. Last year I grabbed a tomato plant that the tag "said" Beefsteak and I got a Green Tomato. I was NOT happy. So this year I grabbed a tomato plant from the back of the pack where no one would have switched tags. HA!

I also have Green Onions that I planted last spring and they survived all winter and are really growing this year.

Now over in this planter I have Garlic Chives which I use in just about EVERYTHING.

Hubby wanted strawberries. I'm not a fan of growing them. I have before. They are WILD plants and you can't control them. They spread like crazy (can you see them trying to get out of the planter and take over my yard?) and slugs LOVE them. You hardly get to eat any because while your sleeping the slugs come and eat them all up before their are ripe enough for you to pick. And they leave slimy messes everywhere.

I better stop here or Blogger is going to ban me for using too many pictures or having a posts that reaches to the end of time. But come back soon and I will show you more!

XOXO

P.S. Today officially started my diet of Nutri System. The Snack bag of Pretzels was like eating cardboard...next time i'll try dipping them in a lil peanut butter.