The planting has begun!

This is the best photo documentary of my flowerbed being transformed, ever.

To begin we have the tools of the trade. I started out buying a bunch of stuff last week, but after going to the post office yesterday I walked down to this other garden center, and they had a bazillion herbs and veggies. Plants are like crack to me. I'm obsessed with buying them. So I might have overdone it given the plot size I had to work with. It wouldn't surprise me if I go back and get even more herbs now.

My special tomato plant. He was originally going to be in that container on the porch, but once I got the OK to use the flower bed by my landlord, he got the shaft into the garden. The small one beside him is a Golden Boy (so yellow tomatoes)

My original tray: Basil, Apple Mint, Kentucky Colonel Mint, Rosemary, Celosia, Argertum (the blue flowers), Bloodleaf (red leaves)

My new tray: Dill, Marjorum, Oregano, Catnip, White Spearmint, brussel sprouts, summer squash, cauliflower, more tomatoes (Roma), begonias, and Salvia.
So here is the plot in the back yard, not so big as you can see, and overgrown with weeds.


So I weeded it! What hard work!



When I was done, it didn't look like I wanted it to... However, all of the veggie plants needed tons of space. I didn't have tons of space, so everything is spaced as far apart as possible, but still way too close. I think it'll be fine. But right now, it just looks sparse. I didn't know what to do with the flowers since they had to be an after thought and use minimal space, so I just made a row around the edge of the garden bed - doing one of each and repeating the pattern.



I couldn't even fit the herbs into the garden, so I had to place them into containers!!


And lastly, this is my new BFF.

Where it all began...

I'm starting this blog in order to chronicle my adventures in backyard gardening. I can only imagine the success and failures you'll witness here - most likely many, many failures if my history with houseplants is any kind of indication as to just how not-green my thumb is.

Now in theory, I shouldn't have such a bad time. My actual experience in gardening started from the time I was a little, toddling by my parents' side as they plowed the earth and nurtured seedlings into full grown plants. I grew up with 40 x 20 ft full vegetable garden in the back yard. We had a seperate herb garden, and flower patches scattered about every corner of the lawn. Each spring I watched as my dad revved up the rottatiller, airating the soil into fluffy parallel mounds, and then again in the fall as the finished crops were tilled under for winter.

My mom and I would go out with the hoe and rake, creating delicate ditches where we scattered seeds of peas, green and yellow beans, broccoli, asapargus, yellow squash, zucchini, and more. We'd go to the local nursary where we'd pick up six packs of marigolds to plant at the end of each row in order to keep away pests with their strong scent, and cheer up the garden with bright reds, oranges and golds.

Around this time, the fall bulbs would be headed into full bloom. Grape hyacinth was a family favorite that we planted at the end of the house amidst tulips.