So today we got out in the yard and weeded out every planter and bed out there. I started with the sunflower plants, which are now about a foot tall, and looking great! Got them out of the containers full of water. Looks like all the root systems on them got a great start, and we might have to get them in the ground here in the next few weeks, before they become root bound in the pots!

The cherry tomatoes in the big garden bed aren't fairing so very well. We are down to only four plants, and two of them aren't looking so great. Two of them are really starting to put on leaves, and look more like what a tomato plant should look like. But still they are only about three inches tall after like five or six weeks of growing. It just doesn't seem right to me. But we'll see what happens. Might just start some pole beans or zucchini, or something, because it appears I cannot grow a tomato this year to save my life.

Got all the onions sorted out and weeded. Had to pull some of their planters out from the edge of where we set them on weed cloth up against a pile of brush. Now due to bug damage and weeds we have about 37 onions left out of 45. But at least I know the ones we have are going to make it. There are a few that are kind of leaning over, and not looking so hot besides the 37.  Might just pull those up early. Cropped all the tops of the onion greens also, only leaving like six inches of growth on each top. Did that last year and they really took off after that. So I diced and got a quart jar full of dried green onions to use in soups and eggs and such. They are very flavorful.

We also got a nice harvest of mint, and oregano, and got them all washed and dehydrated and jarred up also. Now we have stevia and mint for teas, and oregano for spaghetti, lasagna, and other cooking.  I'm saving my next big harvest of mint to try a jelly recipe I came across. Actually it was a recipe for violet jelly, but you can use rose, or mint, or lemon balm, or other flowers just the same. Here's where you'll find the recipe with lots of ideas of different things in your flower garden to make the jelly from. Just perfect when you don't have berries, but would like a little something for your breads or cookies.

And that's about all from here.  I want to start another round of things to plant, but just the same I don't think the plans we have for this summer are going to allow me the time to put in a big garden. Maybe I'll just plant things, and work around it all as best I can.

PHOTO BLOG!!!!

First off I must link the John Kholer video though! This weekend Home Depot is having a nation wide sale on plant starts! If you haven't taken time to start a garden and you really would like to go down there and at least get a few plants while they're half price.  For some of the four inch pot sizes that means just 49 cents per plant!!!! Watch the video though because he has some great tips for getting the best plants for the money.

Time to take a tour around the garden!

Here is the mint two weeks ago when we first bought it. Awww, isn't it cute....


Kaboom!!! This is the mint as of yesterday.   I think this is like a fifteen gallon pot. Maybe bigger.


Here's 8 yo dd's mint.  I got plain ol sweet mint this year, but she wanted more apple mint. Our apple mint from last year and the year before got frosted this winter and never came back.


Here's the stevia. The green pot in the back is 12 yo ds's the pot, next to it is 9 yo ds's, and then the pot at the front is the new plant we got this year. The pot next to that is the garlic bulbs I planted out of the fridge. Little bits of garlic green starting to show there with a few weeds. And the kiddo's want everyone to know that if you take a leaf off the mint, and a leaf off the stevia, and roll them up, you can chew them just like gum and the flavor last just about as long, and is a better product than the sugar loaded gum.


Here's the lettuce patch.  I just cannot keep up with it anymore. I've gotten seven or eight big ol store size lettuce tubs out of this in the past two weeks and lookit. Didn't even touch it. I could easily get three more right now, but if I leave them they'll go ahead and bolt, and then I can get the seeds before it gets too dang hot and these plants wilt away.


Nom nom nom. Fresh picked salad every day for lunch *and* dinner! And to put on sandwiches, and wraps. I tell ya I am really trying hard to find new things to put lettuce in to try and use it all up. LOL


Here are the pepper plants. The one on the left is my sweet banana pepper, and the one on the right is 9 yo ds's cayenne.  He likes spicy!!!!


Then there's the sad Moringa story. This winter four of my Moringa trees got frosted. I read over at the website, and they swore up and down you cannot kill this plant. And now I am starting to believe!!! This one I lopped off, and just about gave up on it, and then all of a sudden little buds started forming on the sides and now three weeks later look at all that beautiful green!!! *whew*


And then the other one. It didn't start budding out the side, and I was all worried... but then... something started happening at the base of the tree!!! Dh almost pulled it out as a weed one day! !!!!! But boom!  A whole new tree is coming out of the base of the stem!!!!


And then hooray!!!! The one surviving tree!!! I trimmed back it's top stems, and three weeks later now I have this wonderful green top to the tree. It's about six foot tall now.  I have two other two foot tall Moringas that aren't really showing signs of life yet, but I'm not going to give up hope on them until the weather has been solid in the 80's and 90's for a few more weeks!


Here's 12 yo ds's oregano in the black pot. And then in the white five gallon bucket the potatoes from last year that started sprouting before we could eat them all, so I tossed dirt on them and set them on the porch over winter. And this spring wasn't expecting a thing but, oh my!


And then speaking of potatoes... a few weeks ago we tossed out some potatoes into the compost pit that had started to go bad. I think there was like two of them. Part of me says, it's time to turn the compost pile, but then there's a nother side of me that wants to get in there and save those potato plants first!!!!


Random shots of the fig trees.  Here's the tallest.


And then the widest, and behind the widest there are two more in smaller planters.  I think it's about time I dug four really big holes in the yard, and got these things planted.  Hard to believe we got them for two dollars and fifty cents each three years ago!


Here is the pride of my garden again this year!  The onion patch!  And yep, I will be getting more! There's only 45 here, and I think last year we had 65 or so, and I only have three cups of fresh chopped onions left in the freezer from last years harvest.  Good in soups, beans, meatloaves, spaghetti, and  just about every other dish we cook!


Here's a better shot of the ones we first planted. I think next week sometime I'm going to go out and clip all the onion tops halfway down.  It worked well last year, and then we dehydrated the greens and they are yummy in omelets and cheese dishes. Gives a nice perk of color. And yeah I gotta get to weeding out these planters too. It's a never ending job keeping the weeds down.


And last but not least... seven days ago we started this! Starting from the right, we have two rows of Moonbeam sunflowers, then three rows of Mammoth sunflowers.  Then all that green in the next two rows is about 45 kale plants (guess what we'll be doing this weekend). And then over on the end divided off by the paper (note to self: when you water plants, the paper is gonna get wet. Derp!) I've planted 25ish cherry tomato seeds. As of checking them this afternoon fourteen tomato plants are up!!!! I'm gonna need to make up more planters! LOL And this afternoon I was startled (much to the delight of the children) by a big fat toady toad that planted his big fat toady bottom right smack dab in the middle of the row of kale up against the paper. His butt literally fit right into one of those toilet paper tubes, and mushed down three of the kale, and he was dark enough that I didn't think he was anything other than a clod of dirt. Bounce! /scream


So that's how our garden is growing.  How is yours doing???

Today we planted a whoooole lot of seeds. The past couple of weeks we've been saving toilet paper rolls and I've been cutting them in half and putting them in those tray flats that people use the peat pots in. Filled them up with dirt and went to town filling them with seeds. I had some Moonshine Branching Sunflowers and planted 15 of them. Had some Mammoth Sunflowers and I think there were about ten seeds in that packet. Then planted about fifteen rolls with three kale seeds each in them, sooooo 45 to 50-ish plants of them because some seeds escaped here and there. And then we planted 15 more with Sweet 100 cherry tomato seeds. So a full tray and I hope we get a nice turn out of sprouts from it. Most of the seeds are between two and three years old so even if we only get 50% germination I will be overjoyed!!!!

We'll keep ya posted!