Gardening Update

I had briefly mentioned previously that I may end up trying my hand at growing some fruits and veggies this spring/summer.  Well, I did.   Everything started with one little strawberry plant I brought home.  From there, my obsession with growing stuff began.

Currently, everything is growing... and growing well. I have strawberry plants, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, okra, a purple bell pepper, and a red bell pepper.  I also have my small pots of herbs: parsley, chives, basil, and lavender.

I haven't been able to harvest from all of my plants yet.  The strawberries and herbs are really the only things I've been eating from.  ...and on that note, for the time being my strawberries have stopped putting out flowers.  They are everbearing variety so I can only assume they've stopped because the heat has gotten beyond their ideal point. I'm thinking once fall rolls around and the temperatures cool back down I will be getting more.

For now, I'll just simply show you a couple of the small fruits that are growing.  :-)

This is a sugar baby watermelon.  This was about a week ago, so it is even larger now!

This is a purple bell pepper.  It is just a wee thing right now, so it is still small and green.

I think I will touch on hand pollinating in a later post, too!  I started out with zero bee activity so I was hand pollinating many of my plants.  However, several kinds of bees (from bumblebees, to sweat bees, to honey bees!) have found their way to my yard and have been helping pollinate all of my plants for me!  YAY FOR BEES!

This was one of the first bees I spotted!  He was hanging out on my melon flowers.

Spring Gardening

chives

I don't know about you, but I really like the idea of having my own herbs growing.  However, my husband likes to say I have a black thumb.  I can get things growing (sometimes) and then they'll die off.  A few years back I had a fabulous herb garden going in my backyard.  But, fall rolled around and I neglected them and by spring they were long gone. :-(   

parsley

That is why I now am trying another round of growing my own herbs...  indoors!  I have a big, wonderful window that gets fabulous light.  It is especially good in the morning.  It is an eastern facing window so the plans love it. I have my aloes there, too (not shown).  

This actually started because my son had a school lesson on seeds and how plants grow.  We created a germination bag and watched as our seeds sprouted. I had a bunch of seeds left over so I potted them!  Now I have baby chives, parsley, basil, basic grass, and celery growing.  We did have lavender but I've already managed to kill it. So sad. 

celery

I would like to put together a raised garden and get some veggies and such going outside once it gets a bit warmer.  I've seen a lot of pinterest ideas that look easy enough.  Don't they always, though?

What are you doing to kick spring into high gear and get in the mood for the warmer, brighter weather?