garden

my heart is so full to write about my garden. back in march i started a small garden of 5 pots to sit on the porch at my apartment. i planted about 12 ranunculus bulbs, achillea, forget me nots, and something else that i cannot recall. the achillea and 'something else' both died, because i left them outside to get some sun for a few hours and while i was gone, it started to snow. the ranunculus also died because the pot would just hold water without my knowledge. but the forget me nots i still have and they bloomed and everything. their color is so gorgeous. but because of those few pots, a new hobby was born. i was never really good at much before. i had nothing that i could really 'call my own,' so to say. but, i have really fallen in love with gardening. it changes the summer for me. instead of dreading next summer, i am looking forward to planting all kinds of flowers and vegetables.

the garden my husband and i have now consists of cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, basil, corn, peppers (red, yellow, jalapeno - all grown from seeds that i dried from the actual peppers themselves), peas, carrots, onions, spinach, and romaine lettuce. it's a good variety i like to think. i had started the zucchini, cucumber, tomato, peppers, and basil all in pots on my porch, and their growth was a little stunted, because they couldn't be transplanted into the ground until we got out house in june. the poor veggies also had to deal with the torrential downpour of drenchburg - every other day. and finally, they were considered dinner a few times for the deer that live out back. yet, after all of these misfortunes, everything is starting to produce fruit. there are itty bitty tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. and oh the basil. so. much. basil. sadly, the peppers are still struggling, but when they do overcome whatever it is they are struggling with, there are going to be about ten thousand peppers, because i went a little overboard with planting the seeds. 

i truly love gardening though. it feels so good to know that all the hours spent with the plants wasn't for nothing.

next year, i want strawberries and watermelon. and daisies and ranunculus. 

the last photo was chicken parm (made by joshua) with basil from the garden. :)