You Can Learn a Lot of Things From the Flowers

I love daffodils. They have always been my favorite flower. They show up early and stick around for my birthday in April. So when I saw two sizes of daffodils on clearance in Kroger, I got some. After I enjoy them inside for a while, I'll plant them outside. I'm thinking about creating a circle around our crepe myrtle tree. About the time the daffodils are gone, the crepe myrtle will be exploding with bright pink blossoms. I've also considered putting some strawberry plant in the circle to add greenery, flowers, and eventually berries.

The recent sunny (though very windy) weather has given me the opportunity to start my outdoor garden. On Tuesday, I planted root veggies and crops with significant root systems in the deep containers. I planted two kinds of beets, three kinds of carrots, radishes, turnips, fennel, jalapenos, and jelly bean tomatoes. And I was on top of things enough this year to label what I planted. This will be especially helpful when I'm comparing carrot varieties. I haven't added any plants to my bags from last year. I'll wait a few weeks to start those seeds or transfer plants. I want my herb harvests to be staggered.

Today I planted more in the sidewalk garden. I sowed snap peas a few weeks ago, which haven't come up yet. Now I've added lettuces, spinaches, green onions, globe basil, swiss chard, arugula, and some lavender and chamomile. I think I did a better job of spacing the seeds this time. I just realized I forgot to plant the purple basil. Oh well. I'll stick some out there sometime soon. I'd really like to extend the side walk and the sidewalk garden all the way to the driveway. Right now it just goes to the end of the house. Just think of all I could plant with a few more bags of soil!

One of the things I'm really excited about this year is the blueberry plant. It's small and sticking out of the black dirt. I planted it in an existing hole near our driveway. If you look at our house on Google Maps street view, it shows a tree near the driveway. That tree was removed quite a white before we moved here, and grass filled the hole. We didn't even realize we had a hole until Grandma and her broken foot found it two summers ago. The hole was deep enough to potentially cause injury, so now there's no longer a hole. There's a blueberry plant. Matt was afraid the plant might get stepped on if we didn't mark it somehow, so I put a shepherds crook near it (the black stick behind the hole), which will have some sort of potted plant hanging from it.

I have also transferred my seedlings to pots. By the end of the month, I should have a usable herb garden. Now I just have to figure out where in my kitchen I can set up a grow light to keep my herbs flourishing.