How Does Your Garden Grow? {May 1, 2012}

First things first. It is my mom's birthday today. Happy Birthday Mom! When she comes up to visit, I am going to take her on the Island Artists Tour all day and buy her something special. She is an incredibly talented artist and she appreciates my photos (because she is my mom) so I posted more than usual for her this week. Love ya Mom!

Wow. This last week blew right by me. It feels like the planets are aligning for me in so many ways. My garden is green, green and green and there is growth beyond just the weeds. My strawberry plants are booming thanks to our net/caging system we set up. The garlic looks like a group of sentinels around the garden's edge sending off alarms to curious noses as if to say, "There is nothing here for you." My onion starts are starting to look a little stronger. The herbs I planted inside have all germinated. The sunflowers the Lil Man and I planted last week have germinated. Our artichoke plant has it's first artichoke and you would think there was a new baby in the family. We are mighty proud. We have had three meals with asparagus. THREE! The peas are starting to send their tendrils out to search for the lattice work. Lettuce and spinach greens are almost ready to start plucking (I planted the seed really thick so I could thin by picking those tender baby leaves). My tulips are up and they haven't been chomped thanks to some deer repellent I put out...divine intervention or blood meal?

I have to be careful though. It would be easy to wallow in the offerings these spring plants are bringing forth, but there is more planting to be done. A lot more. Squash. A whole lotta squash. And gourds. Busy busy busy.

For those of you who didn't see my FB post, I had a bit of a hiccup in the herb department. The post went something like this: Note to self: make sure the pen you are using is indeed a Sharpie and not a dry erase marker when labeling your Mason jars full of seeds. Awesome, right? Well lovies, I have taken photos of all of them and I will post the pics later this week so YOU can help me tell them apart. I might have to give something away to the person who comes the closest to naming them correctly. There are a couple I can easily distinguish at this point. A couple. Did I mention that there are 8 jars with tiny little shoots in them? Ha ha ha ha.


Here is the photo montage from this week and please be sure to tell me how your garden is growing!

artichoke

garlic

leafy green lettuce

lemon balm, right?

oregano

young spinach plants

pea tendrils

young lettuce shoots

double white tulips - I really love these

Parrot tulips - these are one of my favorite flowers in my garden

Have a wonderful week and get some dirt under those nails of yours!
Click here if you would like to see previous weeks of "How Does Your Garden Grow?"