It's that time again! Gardening time! I'm going to mix it up a little this year: no cucumbers and no green beans. This year we will, hopefully, be enjoying lettuce, brussels sprouts (well - I'll be enjoying them... Pern still calls them "those nasty little green balls you made me eat that one time"), broccoli, tomatoes, strawberries, and basil.
Brussels sprouts in the back, lettuce in the front. I've grown lettuce before, I'm not worried about that... but brussels sprouts? Never. Don't even know what the plant will look like when it matures. Exciting stuff!
Tomato plant. I'm going with a Beefsteak variety this year. And I learned something new recently: when planting tomatoes, bury 2/3 of the plant. This allows the plant to establish a better root system, which makes it stronger. Wish I'd known about that last year! I had tons of tomatoes, but was constantly battling to keep the huge plant upright and lost a large part of it to a heavy storm. Hopefully, this tomato plant will fare better.
One of two broccoli plants. I tried broccoli before, but started those from seed and planted them too close together and too close to the green beans and carrots... they didn't have enough room to grow. So, broccoli: take two!
When I started my garden, three years ago, this was a grassy patch that I covered with newspaper, weed blocking tarp, and mulch and left to its own devices. I normally throw a couple of pots down here with some colorful annuals, but I'm going to mix it up this year. I transplanted a salvia plant that had been doing well in a large container, coming back every year, but needed a bit more room to grow. It gets pretty big once it gets going. I'm going to add another perennial or two and a couple of stepping stones and make it permanently pretty. :)
Which brings me to the "under the deck" area. Ugh. What can I say? Pebbles, pebbles, and more pebbles. It's actually kind of a funny story. When we bought the house, the HOA did their property inspection prior to the sale of the house and gave the previous owners a slap on the wrist for not submitting an application for the "rock garden" that they had put in under the deck. Umm... it's not exactly zen down there. Said "rock garden" serves a pretty good purpose - it keeps the ground from turning into a total mud puddle when it rains. However, according to our HOA documents an area of rocks measuring more than (I think) 2 x 2 feet is considered a rock garden and needs to be approved. But, whatever, the sellers submitted their application, we bought the house - rock garden and all - and now this eyesore is mine to deal with. I've been putting it off for a couple of years simply because I didn't know what to do with it. I still don't. But it can't keep looking super craptastic.
See what I mean by super craptastic? Yuck. Weeds, old planters, bags of soil, and tons of pea gravel. And don't forget about the satellite dish. Every home should have one. Disconnected. And under the deck. Sigh. I've got my work cut out for me. The basic plan is to pull the weeds, move the gravel, lay down some fresh weed blocker tarp, and put the gravel back. Then I'm going to get rid of the junk that's hiding out down there and get some stepping stones to pretty-up the space at the bottom of the stairs. That's plan A. Plan B involves removing all the gravel and turning the rock garden into a fern garden. Which plan comes to fruition will depend on my budget, my patience, and my back. Did I mention that I can't fully stand up under the deck? Ouch...
Up on the deck I've got strawberries and basil. I've never planted strawberries before. I didn't want them to take over the garden, so I'm keeping them container bound.
And look! My purchase came with a berry that I didn't have to work for! Bonus!
These sad, pathetic pots will be part of the beautification part II plan, which will commence, weather permitting, next weekend. Stay tuned to find out what happens under the deck... captivating stuff, I know. :)
