thanks for all the rain!

After many days in a row of heavy rainage my pool looks like crap, but my garden's doing great! I planted corn seeds last week and I already have 1 1/2'' buds coming up. My yellow daisies have returned to life along with the African daisies. The egg shells and coffee grounds are working well to fertilize. The only planter in the jiffy pot that's showing growth are the flowers and one of the peppers. My attempt at planting a blueberry doesn't seem to be working. The jalapeno seeds I planted in the ground last week are also not doing much. It's so much fun to run outside each morning and see my garden. These plants are my babies!

So here's the update... rosemary is doing very well, as is cilantro and my blueberries. The daisy flowers all died, but the roots remained green. I purchased 2 water globes and plugged them into the plants. I feel that this is helping because I see new flowers budding. I purchased some organic soil with natural fertilizers in it last week. I mixed this with the soil I already had to create a more nutritious ground. I also purchased a generic topsy turvy tomato planter. This turned into a topsy turvy mess. I came home to find it smashed and busted open on the ground in front of my house. (sigh) failure!

I planted cucumber, per suggestion by huppiemama. This is doing quite well. The bud has doubled in size since planting it. I also purchased seed packets and found jiffy pots. I planted some flowers, bell peppers, and 2 blueberries that prematurely fell from my bush. I am keeping them in the window sill in the kitchen. When they outgrow the pot, I can plant them in the pot. Huppiemama also gave me some jalapeno seeds, which I planted directly in the ground today. I planted corn seeds directly in the ground as well.

It rained a lot in the morning today, and then we had a lot of sunshine. So this was an ideal afternoon to do some gardening. I noticed there are a lot of rocks in my flower bed. Each week I keep pulling up new rocks after the rain and then more appear the next week.

Welcome to my blog!

I can't cook. Or atleast until recently I couldn't cook. But I'm changing that because I bought a house and have an awesome kitchen. I hated buying fresh fruits and vegetables only to find them rotted in my fridge 5 days later when I tried to use them. I started a garden because my homeowner's association made me. But I got more than gorgeous flowers. I planted herbs and fruits. And as they harvest I am going to use them in recipes and share them with my friends.

So this is my garden inventory-

My first plant to survive was my basil. I tear leaves off regularly when I am cooking Italian- homemade sauces, stuffed mushrooms.

I took home 2 poinsetta pots that my work was going to toss after the holidays. I planted them and they're thriving. The old leaves are red and the new ones are green, so it's a good indicator of progress. I was told that if it becomes all green I can put a bag over it for a few days and as it retains the O2 it turns green. Kind of like a reversed COPDer.

I love daisies! They were in my bridal bouquet. I have small yellow daisies that are struggling to survive despite much food and water. I also have African daisies which are gorgeous shades of purple. These are doing much better than the yellow ones.

The only thing I love more than daisies are lilies! Calla lilies were in my bridal bouquet as well. The ones I have planted are orange and pink. When I first planted them they withered quite a bit. Fortunately we got a lot of rain this week and new buds opened up. They look so bright and healthy.

In Polish tradition, rosemary is supposed to bring luck. I am more Polish than any other race and can use all the luck I get. My rosemary is the first plant in the row of my garden.

Cilantro was cheap and is mentioned in a lot of recipes I like. This plant and the rosemary both came in the ecopots that can be planted directly into the ground.

Last but not least, my baby, my blueberry bush. Every day I come home from work and find more blueberries ready for picking. These blueberries taste nothing like the ones from a produce departments. They are so crunchy and tart it's like eating a whole other fruit! I have shared my blueberries with 2 other people now. I also put them in my oatmeal the other morning.

Tomorrow I would like to buy a strawberry bush, parsley plant, and cucumber plant. Gardening is filling the hobby void I've had for too long. As a taurus, it's hard for me to have hobbies that don't somehow have a practical purpose. Helping the environment, saving me money over time, and increasing my fruits and vegetables intake sounds pretty practical to me!