The Spring Garden

My spring garden this year consisted of lettuce, okra, red and blue kale and basil in the raised beds.

Basil

Kepler with the sprouting Kale and Okra

Lettuce

I decided to go with containers for some plants this year.  They are easy to maintain and you can move them around if they need more or less sun.  It is also handy if you have bad weather, say an approaching hail store, to move the plants to safety.  I would not be a happy camper if all of my hard work ended up being destroyed by hail or high winds!

Black Tomatoes

Costoluto Genovese

Nice ripe Serrano Pepper

Chinese Eggplant

Banana Peppers

Habanero Peppers

Okra in Bloom

 My potted plants included seven varieties of heirloom tomatoes, heirloom Chinese eggplant, and four varieties of hot peppers.  I also had a few herbs (chives and chocolate mint) in smaller pots.  I plan on planting more herbs in containers soon.

I planted more flowers in the beds as well.  I went with flowers that do well in the shade as my two flowerbeds are under trees and receive very little sun.  Zinnias, columbines and a mix with chrysanthemums, Echinacea and twelve other shade-loving flowers grew quite nicely.  I like to make sure there are plenty of flowers to attract insects for pollination.  I know this was part of the problem when I first started the garden.  I will now make sure I always have something blooming near my veggies.  It is also nice to have a few cut flowers inside the house in a vase.

In addition to the flowers, I added a hummingbird feeder on a shepherds hook that belonged to my Grandma in the middle of one of the flowerbeds.  I love to watch them dart around the yard sipping nectar. I always think of Grandma when I see them.  She loved hummingbirds.

Everything grew like crazy!  We have actually had some rain this Spring unlike last year, although we were in Stage two water restrictions for most of the season.

I saved up my pennies last year and was able to purchase a 65 gallon rain barrel.  It was well worth the money. Plants prefer rainwater to city water and it is free.  I only wish I had about six more barrels!