Tag: Gardening

Gardening

Office Plants Edition

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Look, I have no excuses for the growing (pun intended) collection of office plants except that they make me super happy and proud that I’ve kept them alive. They give me oxygen, clean the air, and also provide dopamine. There are three plant ladies in my office and I gave some spiderwort to one of them so now both of our offices are exploding with them. She gives them away to people who even look remotely interested.

Heart Philodendron- this one started, if you can believe it, as a few struggling cuttings from my buy nothing group, as well as a very overgrown clearance plant from the fancy plant store. It’s doing really well at the office, as you can see! The cup was given to me last spring by a dear friend and it now stands as a memorial to her, as she passed away from unexpected health complications. It reminds me when I see both the mug and the new growth, to stop and appreciate my friends, family, and other blessings.

Shark Pot- Variegated, Hoya Spiderwort/Inch plant variety for the other two. I’ve killed two hoyas by not enough light and overwatering, so this is my last attempt at it, I think. This one seems hardier than the other two though, so I have high hopes for it. The big spiderwort was given to me by a coworker, who had a client come in with a cup full of water and these giant vines. My coworker said they wouldn’t grow well in her office because of the light, but knew I had other varieties of them. Who am I to refuse free plants?! Spiderworts are fascinating because they really follow the light and are very agile. They do eventually die out along the bottom of the plant and you have to keep cutting them to keep them under control so you just have a continuous stream of new plants.

Garden pot- Spiderwort variety (seriously, this thing will not quit, even though it looks a little sad. Be-leafing pot- Swiss Cheese Plant (mini Monestera): I’m surprised this one likes me! Nerve plant in the polka dot plant. These are so dramatic and I love them for it. They are actually pretty hardy as long as you water them when they start to droop. You can also see my accidental adventuring group, my fidget shark, a snail made from a shell, and a tiny clay fairy made by a friend on the side.

Ignore the messy shelf. It’s been a terrible month and I did just reorganize after taking the picture. The spider plant on the left has two babies! It also got some babies from a friend, so it’s got a stolen baby from my Mom’s plant, two from my friend’s plant, and then the rest is the original plant. You can’t see it well, but in the flamingo planter, there’s a zebra haworthia, which seems to be doing well. the Aloe plants are from a friend and I think I maybe overwatered it by accident, so it’s feeling a little rough. There’s a kalanchoe from a former intern in the blue patterned pot. More spiderwort in the grounded pot and in the rooting vase. A string of hearts that I haven’t killed yet (it’s maybe not so happy with me though,) and the original green variety of spider plant. I used to not like them, but as it turns out, I’m good with them, so I decided to try my hand at keeping a few. All the ones I stole from my mother (yes, she knows now, but I was sneaky at the time) are growing really well, so… I guess I like them now.

Once I rearrange my home houseplants, I’ll have to give you a tour of those as well. I think they have all adjusted to living in my house and I’ve got a reminder set to check if they need water twice a week. My office plants bring a lot of connection with clients, I’ve found, and they make my office seem more comfortable and homey as well. Most of the ones there haven’t done well at home, so I’m glad I’m able to bring them in and give them more space. I hope they bring you a little joy too!

As a bonus picture, this is what my coffee table looked like the day I had a few unexpected cancellations and decided to repot my spiderworts. You can see what they do in the white pot when the bottom leaves start to die off. Don’t worry, I did clean it all up and my table looks good as new. Lol.

Gardening

Garden Update

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Hello friends! My garden is not doing well this year at all. After reinjuring my back, it’s been really hard to keep up with weeding it, coupled with super hot temperatures, it’s not looking great. Even watering twice a day wasn’t super great, so I’m not very hopeful for some of it. A few of the herbs are growing really well, but most are a bit crispy. I may have to buy at lot more produce than normal this year to make my salsa. The squirrels have eaten every single pepper that has started to grow and something else munched on my zucchini. It’s been a disappointing harvest so far.

Luckily, I took pictures quite soon after planting things, so they look nice! I’m looking forward to my blackberry harvest as well, because there are so many on the bush! Some of my tomatoes have fruit on them to, so hopefully those will perk up. So here’s what I planted this year and what I’ve gotten so far.

Tomatoes: Mr. Stripey, Green Zebra, Large Cherry tomato, Sungold, Bonny Best, Early Girl, San Marzano, Roma, Grape Tomato, Midnight Snack, Yellow Oxhart, and Celebrity.

So far I have gotten Sungolds, Midnight Snack, and Grape tomatoes. All my cucumbers (Gherkins and Japanese Cucumbers) died, I think. But I did stake them in the middle of the tomatoes to save space and they started to grow.

For peppers, I leaned into the hot pepper side of things, although I don’t know if I will get any. I planted Cherry Bomb, Jalpeno, poblano, Sweet banana, hot banana, and habanero.

I also planted tomatillos- which seem to be doing alright, peas, beans- squirrels ate them.

I did get two zukes before the plants got attacked and eaten, so I don’t know if I’ll get any more. I’ll have to see if the neighbor has any extras.

I planted three kinds of mint- Strawberry mint, variegated pineapple mint, peppermint, and I had spearmint, but it died. The rest of the mints are growing really well and I want to make strawberry mojitos, maybe this weekend, with the strawberry mint. It actually does smell like strawberries! I didn’t like the variegated pineapple mint, so wouldn’t buy it again.

I also had anise hyssop, cilantro, parsley, wine and roses thyme, common thyme, eucalyptus, variegated sage, dill, rosemary, and three kinds of basil- lemon, sweet, and thai. The thyme is still growing well, as is the rosemary.

I did have lettuce come back and planted bok choy, arugula, and swiss chard, but I think they needed less sun, so I may clear out the pots and try again in a shadier spot.

These are the blackberries! Excuse the weeds. I haven’t had a chance to manage them with my back.

The mulberry tree went crazy this year and I managed to pick a few handfuls to throw in some jam. Next year, I need to get a sheet and start shaking the tree instead of harvesting them one by one. This year I was foiled by an unexpected patch of poison ivy underneath the tree.

I’m not sure exactly when I’ll can this year. I think I might buy some produce ahead to freeze and can in the fall. We have plans that might disrupt my normal Labor Day Canning. It’s so satisfying to have rows of home canned things though, so I really want to keep doing it. This year I’ve just been off kilter a lot and not able to do what I would normally get done. Hopefully next year, I can plan a little better and figure out some easier ways to do things. I hope you enjoyed seeing my garden this year and that your gardening efforts are going well!

Fairy Garden Party
Adventures · Gardening · Party Posts

Fairy Garden Party

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Ready for some magic? I had a fairy garden party with some girlfriends a month or so ago and it went rather well, I think. I may have gone overboard with plants and containers, but that just meant that people could have more than one garden if they wanted to! Some of the plants were indoor plants and others were outdoor plants and I tried to get ones that I hadn’t been able to kill yet, or were marked as easy care or good for terrariums. Here’s what the table looked like. I apologize for the cut off end. I was attempting to take a pic and it was super duper sunny, so I couldn’t totally see.

For supplies, we had rocks, glass bead fillers, moss, gravel, and sand. We had just all purpose potting soil too for the actual dirt. I went to the thrift store to find containers and bought a few at other stores as well. I even got a mini bathtub from one of the craft stores that I love and I’m probably going to go back and get another one for me. The teapot is my friend’s that she brought. I used my tiered treat stand to display all the accessories and it made me so happy!

For accessories, I found little fairy garden items like bridges and tiny yoga frogs, mini furniture, and some mini fairy houses too. We had shells, rhinestones, and mirrors, and shiny rocks galore. We had some houses you could paint too, but I don’t think anyone painted one.

I found a variety of containers. The thrift store must have gotten a set of wedding table centerpieces in because they had about 6 of these really big glass vases that matched. You’ll see some of the other ones throughout the post. I only had the little ones on the table. We had a bunny yard ornament, left by the prior owners, and it had a broken bit in it. My friend T made the cutest and most charming terrarium with it! Some of the other odder containers were a lamp shade (far left, white round dish,) a mini bathtub, and a chipped mixing bowl.

My friend donated a bunch of aloe starts and I had a couple of philodendron and spiderwort plants that I had started in my office. I bought a couple of succulents, a pepperomia, a mini nerve plant, a croton, and a purple thing that looked super fun! There were some others just marked “Terrarium assortment.” Basically anything I thought I might not kill. Outdoor plants included vistas, marigolds, alyssum, lobelia, something named “Gnome Pink,” and a coleus.

I also made snacks, but tried to keep it under control, so we only had two homemade things- lemon ginger muffins, and Cathedral bars/fantasy bars. Recipes for those are here: https://www.momontimeout.com/5-minute-fantasy-bars-just-4-ingredients/

Muffins- https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/lemon-yogurt-muffins/

I did switch out butter for oil because it was 7:30 AM and I didn’t have thawed butter or the will to go find it in the freezer. The muffins were a little overbaked, but they tasted good! The Cathedral bars were the stuff of dreams and now I want to make a pan again. I might get mobbed at work for it though, if I was nice enough to share. I did not take a picture of the snacks!

Here are some close ups of the terrariums. Some of these are from friends, as my phone overheated and got cranky. I hope you enjoy seeing them!

The Plants Are Taking Over
Gardening · Life Posts

The Plants Are Taking Over

LSieh2 Comments

I, for one, welcome my Plant Overlords. The Husband… maybe not so much. I’m going to firmly place the loving blame on my mother for this one. She’s always had plants and had a garden too, so I’ve missed having them. My house is super dark though, even now that we have new windows that let more light in, most plants don’t really like our environment. Piggy will almost immediately try to eat anything she thinks is food on the floor as well, so I was nervous about some of the pet toxic plants. After some experimenting, I finally found plants that are both non-toxic and easy-ish to keep alive! I then rejoiced and bought all the plants. (Whoops!)

I thought it might be fun to show them off since they are doing so well! My at home plant list is:

-Fittonia/nerve plant. This one is a diva. It droops so dramatically that it lies flat when it’s thirsty and then two hours later is back up and perky. So ridiculous, but also easy to keep track of when to water it! This is an old picture, but demonstrates the dramatic nature. I now have potted this cutting with a bigger mixed plant of white and pink leaf plants and I love it. It’s called a nerve plant because it the veins are so pronounced, but I like to think also because it’s such a drama queen.

-Three Hoyas- one pink princess, a rope hoya, and one heart hoya. The pink princess is a climber and look how pretty it is with this trellis! I’m so excited for it to start vining all around it. The rope hoya has a really interesting texture, although I think I may need to repot it. It may appreciate a bigger space to grow in. I saw it in the Potawatomi Conservatory on the Wine Hike Trip and was fascinated by it. There are lots of varies of hoyas and they are not fussy plants and all of them are non-toxic. The rope hoya is in a little green pot and the heart hoya is in the dog butt pot.

-Three haworthia- These are succulents that seem to be ok with my house and are non-toxic for pets. They’re also pretty showy and there seems to be a lot of varieties of them. They are pretty tiny plants, so I can use my cute little planters. I may also plant one in a tea cup some day. How cute would that be? The haworthia in he little gold pot has a pup starting too! I love free plants!

L-R: pickle plant, heart hoya, zz plant, haworthia, anthurium cutting also from my MIL- blue, haworthia

-ZZ plant- green pot, (jury is out on if they are poisonous or not, most says yes, but it is safely secured): This is extremely drought tolerant and likes my light. There’s a raven version that I want as well, but I can’t find a small one of it. It’s black!

-Pickle Plant: I had to get this one because it made me think of my mother and now I will always have pickles around, not that I would ever allow myself to run out of pickles- the horror!

-Snake Plants: These are poisonous as well, but they don’t drop leaves and the big one is on the counter in the bathroom, as they are extremely tolerant of low light. I bought this Bird’s Nest variety from the clearance plant shelf at English Gardens (my favorite plant store so far.) It needed to be repotted so badly that it was deforming the pot, poor thing! I ended up getting 8 smaller plants out of it. I gave them to people at work and also to my younger brother, who needed some green and living things in his new apartment.

L -R: Hoya brown pot, snake plant white pot, nerve plant, mystery succulent in elephant, rope hoya with a seretonin molecule, haworthia, purple shamrock.

-A purple shamrock: this one is poisonous to dogs, but I keep it safely up where if anything fell off of it, she couldn’t get it.

I tried to grow a Christmas cactus from a cutting that was at my grandma in law’s house, but it didn’t survive. I really like how they look though and they are non-toxic to pets, so I bought another one in memory and it seems to be doing okay.

-Spider plant: This one I didn’t steal from my mother! Instead I bought it from the store. This is the third spider plant I have had and so far it’s doing really well!

I have several cuttings that I’m nurturing. Three heart leaf philodendron (not pet safe, but up on the windowsill until they’re big enough to go join the work one) that I got from my Buy Nothing Local group, three spider plant babies that I definitely stole from my mother at Christmas (what? They grow better!,) and a silver pothos cutting from my MIL. Don’t they look pretty in the purple glass?

Pothos, spider, air plant, philodendron, spider, air plant, philodendron and spider, philodendron.

My office has a window now too, so I started buying some plants to brighten up the space. I saw a meme online about someone not going to a therapist who had fake plants in their office because “if they can’t be trusted to keep a plant alive, how will they keep me alive?!” and laughed, as I now have plants everywhere at work. For some of the office plants, I’m going to blame my coworker M, as we’ve now traded a few plants back and forth. Plus, she brought in a rubber tree and now I want one! Gosh. Office plant drama. Who knew it could be a thing?

At work I have A Swiss Cheese plant. a pink philodendron, which actually looks like a smaller heart philo, two Crotons, a stripy snake plant, more haworthia, a zz plant who absolutely loves my office, Wandering Jew plant cuttings, a huge spider plant, two aloes, a pearl and jade pothos, and a bigger heart philodendron. Let me just say, if you don’t have pets or want plants in your office, or in low light, the philodendron seems to do very well in all those conditions. Mine are all looking super healthy!

Bottom row l-r: ZZ plant, wandering Jew, haworthias. Top Row l-r: Swiss Cheese Plant, Philodendron, Captain Croton, variegated snake plant.
L-R: Spider plant, aloe from M, Pothos, Croton

I do think that they have helped our air quality at home and at work (totally how I sold my office jungle to my boss), as well as improving my mental health. The Husband’s too, I think, although he’ll probably tell you they stress him out. He told me the one in the bathroom that was leaning sideways towards his sink was making him “claustrophobic.” I switched that plant back out to the living room to make it grow straight again and put a snake plant in there instead. It seems to be working out.

I just saw a post from the farm store where I get most of my garden plants from that they now have houseplants, so this may not be the last of the houseplants I have, if I can figure out how to make more room. We don’t really need to be able to eat on the table, right?

I hope these have made your day a little cheerier! It’s been grey, nasty, and rainy for a lot of the past couple of weeks, so it’s nice to have the plants around to brighten things up. I’m going to start some seeds soon too. I’m a little late with them, but have a hard time getting them to stay good until it’s time to plant, so I think it will be ok. Wish me luck with them!

Gardening · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Plants For Life

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“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
― John Muir

“Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul. — Linda Solegato

“The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.”
― George Orwell

“In the rain forest, no niche lies unused. No emptiness goes unfilled. No gasp of sunlight goes untrapped. In a million vest pockets, a million life-forms quietly tick. No other place on earth feels so lush. Sometimes we picture it as an echo of the original Garden of Eden—a realm ancient, serene, and fertile, where pythons slither and jaguars lope. But it is mainly a world of cunning and savage trees. Truant plants will not survive. The meek inherit nothing. Light is a thick yellow vitamin they would kill for, and they do. One of the first truths one learns in the rain forest is that there is nothing fainthearted or wimpy about plants.”
― Diane Ackerman, The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds

“Plants are like people: they’re all different and a little bit strange.” — John Kehoe

“We may think we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is really nurturing us.” – Jenny Uglow

The Squash Have Invaded
Gardening

The Squash Have Invaded

LSiehLeave a comment

I hope y’all didn’t think the squash had gotten me in my post absence! We have had a lot of them, but I think they’re under control for the moment. Possibly. I trimmed my vines pretty drastically to get rid of the mildewy and dead leaves, so we’ll see if that helps or hurts. At last count, I think I had gotten 15 yellow squash off the single plant I have. Only about 4 zukes though. Luckily, the people at work are still charmed by my increasingly desperate emails if “Please save me and help yourself to the squash in the fridge.”

This was the plant before I cut it.

This was how many squash were growing at the beginning of this week. I have since brought 4 into work and have plans for the others as squash pickles. This is one side of the plant, by the way. The second side had just as many. *nervous chuckles* Yeah, it’s totally under control.

I had so many that we jokingly asked both house repair estimate guys if we could pay in squash. 😆 They both laughed a little nervously and started backing away fingering their car keys. I swear I may have heard both car locks beep to make sure we couldn’t sneak any squash in their vehicles.

My neighbor gave me a second enormous pile of cucumbers, which have made the office manager at work very happy. The first time she gave me some, she snuck a zuke in the bottom of the bag. It’s the enormous one at the top.

The two big zukes have been shredded and put in 2 cup portions in the freezer. I ended up with about 8 cups of shreds all together. Two cups of them went into a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread, which is delicious!

Most of the other things in the garden are doing well. My zucchini plants are having a bit of a rough go, but are still producing. My jalapeño peppers have given me several. I need to make some fresh salsa soon.

My small tomatoes have been growing really well. My bigger tomatoes have been slower growing as well, but I have heard from other people that it hasn’t been a good year for them either.

I have a bell pepper growing and a couple of cucumbers.

My herbs are recovering from it being super hot again, but they were doing really well. I made basil pesto from garden herbs to take up north with us and it was fabulous.

I had a handful of peas and beans, but the squash is doing its best to strangle them.

Piggy likes to browse the herbs for a fresh salad when she thinks we’re not looking. You’d think this would help her doggy breath, but you’d be wrong. 🙄

My nasturtiums are growing all over the place and I love it! I’m going to harvest and dry the blooms for fancy butter for our LOTR party this year and to make fancy floral sugar.

So overall, it’s a good garden year and I’m revising plans for next year already. Soon I’m hoping to start canning things, although I’ll have to find a good source for tomatoes. Wish me luck on that! I’ll send good garden vibes your way!

Gardening

How Does Your Garden Grow?

LSiehLeave a comment

A little too well currently! My yellow squash plant is taking over, as one would expect from a squash. I know my Dad will agree with me on that one. Squash is his sworn enemy, after all. 😉 Here’s the squash in question.

The squirrels have already started plotting their garden attacks. Mysteriously, there are baby squash bits in my garden. Piggy has been investigating the herb garden and has rediscovered the green apples in the lawn. She likes the crunch because she will pick one up and eat it while running gleefully away from us when we try to get them back.

It’s hard to see the other plants in my squash bed, but I do have a bunch of cucumbers, peas, beans, and peppers. Also carrots down the middle so they’re out of the way. I’m going to go tie up the squash plants and prune the leaves a little when it finally stops raining.

The berry and squash bed is also doing well. I have some smaller plants in there.

The berries are looking a little rough, but I’m hoping that they’ll come back better next year. My poor blueberry bush is just a bunch of twigs, so I’ll have to keep buying them at the store, I guess. 🙁

The tomatoes look nice and have a lot of flowers starting, so I think that’s a good sign.

The herb garden is growing wonderfully well. I think I’m going to have to harvest and dry a bunch of the bee balm and the hyssop for tea. The Thai basil is destined for an Asian inspired pesto to go over rice noodles tomorrow for lunch.

My little salad buckets are doing really well too. I’ve had a couple of salads all from the garden, including the nasturtium leaves! I need to eat more salads this week to keep up with the arugula and lettuce growth.

We have a little garden friend too. Piggy gives it a heart attack about once a week by chasing it, but it seems to like our yard.

We are fighting poison ivy and think possibly the Husband may be immune. I am most definitely not, as evidenced by my recent doctor trip and itchiness. Ugh. Over all though, it seems to be going pretty well. I’m impatiently waiting for when I have other things besides lettuce and arugula to eat.

Hope you enjoyed the garden tour! I’m sure everything will be a lot different after all the rain predicted this week. I’m not looking forward to the weeding! I’d better go rest up now for it. 🙂

Garden Musings
Gardening

Garden Musings

LSieh4 Comments

Hello friends! I hope you’re getting excited to garden with me! It is that time of year, after all. Since we finally stopped having frost warnings every night, I was able to get some of the plants put in. However, I was only able to get 9 tomato plants and will need to go get some more. I was waiting to see if any of the seedlings came up, but it doesn’t look good.

I know I’ve talked a little bit about what gardening means for me, but I thought I’d talk a little more about it today. Feel free to scroll for pictures, if you don’t want the family history!

First off, look at this gorgeous iris!

Iris remind me of my Grandpa Ed. He was a great gardener and I think the iris at my parents’ house are descendants of his iris. I was too young to do much actual gardening with him, but I do remember playing outside in the back yard under various shady trees and admiring the garden. That’s also why I started growing rhubarb. I do remember making hats with the rhubarb leaves, with Grandpa’s permission, of course!

Currently my rhubarb has gone to seed, but I’m wondering if I cut it off if it will grow more. You can see it in the upper left part of this picture. It’s next to the strawberries which came back with a vengeance this year. Now I have to see if I can beat the pesky squirrels to them.

Both grandpas were actually involved in gardening or agriculture in some way. My other grandpa was a missionary and managed an experimental agriculture plantation in New Guinea and the Philippines. Apparently he enjoyed running around shirtless and wild looking. So wild looking and hairy in fact, that the native people asked him to put a shirt on frequently! They had raspberries growing in their UP backyard, some of which were transplanted to my parents’ backyard as well.

Mom is a spectacular gardener and Dad helps too, so I grew up getting to pick out special flowers and having my own corner of the vegetable garden to tend to. I think the garden grew a little bit bigger every year and now that all the kids are out of the house, it pretty much takes over the backyard there.

Our garden space is not quite as big, nor as nice looking sometimes, but I love it anyway. (Did I tell you that when the house next door was for sale, they very carefully only took pictures from the angle that did not include the cinder block beds filled with tomato tangles? 🙂 )

I shared our set up after making the third bed, but here it is with more plants added. Tomatoes! So far I have 8 tomato varieties: Sun Sugar (cherry,) Siam, Large Red Cherry, Grape, Cherokee Purple, Yellow Pear, a Yellow Globe (I think?,) and a mystery tomato that had a tag, but turned out to be just a price, not the name. I think it might be a drought resistant variety. I couldn’t find Mr. Stripey and forgot to seed save last year. If I find him again this year, I’ll do that. There are some seeds and seedlings planted as well, but I don’t know that they will come up. Carrots down the middle too!

Peppers, beans, and peas. If the beans and peas come up. Also carrots down the middle for later. I think possibly squash as well. I have to check tags again. So far I have some Carnival Pepper seedlings planted in between the plants. A lot of the pepper seedlings survived! Then I have cuc seeds planted along the side, but may replace them with plants if they don’t germinate. I have an orange bell pepper, a jalepeno, and a hot banana pepper planted. There’s a straightneck squash and an acorn squash as well. There may be shisito peppers as well, but they were from seed, so I’m not sure if I actually planted them or just imagined it.

Berry bushes! Onions that I have no idea when to pull, and squash. Something ate my original raspberry plant. I’m hoping it comes back. I also got a thornless blackberry plant. Possibly a dead blueberry plant. Not sure what to do with that one. Zucchini in the back corner.

The marigolds from the farm store were so pretty! I was going to get more at Home Depot, but they looked so bedraggled and terrible. They may be helping with insects eating the other plants, but the squirrels keep munching on them for a snack. Piggy will also not chase squirrels. We keep getting defective squirrel chasers. Cats, they would both chase, squirrels have a free pass. Piggy probably politely shares the tomatoes with them. *shakes head sadly*

Here’s the rest of the herbs to finish it off. The empty looking blue pot has lemon balm that came back. The terracotta pot has parsley. There’s blue cone flower in the black pot on the right, tarragon and rosemary in the grey pot, bee balm in the other blue pot, and “pet grass” in the tiny pot. Perhaps I can persuade Piggy to leave the other stuff alone.

3 types of basil so I don’t have boring Caprese salad (The Horror!) This year I have regular sweet basil, purple basil, and Presto Pesto (I think?) basil. That basil has a white outline and is thicker than the other basils. It’s not as strong tasting either, but that could be because it’s younger. In the grey container I have sage that came back, even after being outside all winter and German Thyme.

I have a plan to get more hot peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes, of course! I want to turn the strawberry planter into a tea planter instead. It didn’t work well with the strawberries. If I can’t find enough smallish herb varieties, I’ll put tiny fairy plants in it on the porch with some fairy garden things.

I’m excited to get started with the garden and hope that it will go better than last year. We have a watering system in all three beds, so that should make it relatively easy. I also have two buckets with some bok choy and rainbow chard in a big bucket, and a salad bucket with lettuce, spinach, and arugula! They just look like empty dirt buckets currently, so no pictures.

What are your gardening plans this year? Do you have any new and exciting things growing? Tell me all about it!