Lavender, the incredibly bountiful mint, echinacea, and bee balm (in the back left corner, which I had to pinch almost all of the leaves off of because of mold).
Basil, nearly decimated coriander (cilantro), and chives. I replanted the coriander hoping to rejuvenate it. If this doesn't work, I'm going to replace it with a new plant. The chives were divine in a smoked salmon sandwich at lunch today, tucked in with lettuce from the farm. Mmmm.
The mighty tomatoes, a gift from Danielle. I am stunned at how heartily these are growing.
Kinder's sunflowers. So far, so good. I can't wait to see these bloom.
The amazing beans. I'll be staking these soon. One of the sprouts/buds was gone this morning, the stem now sheared off at the top. I imagine a creature went for it.
For a gardening novice, self-identified "black" thumb, and fan of the natural world, I am humbled, awed, and made really happy by the goings on in our little corner of Earth.
4 comments:
You are in mighty Jersey Tomato country! Corn and tomatoes are the Jersey staple summer diet. Salt is the staple Jersey seasoning. Your getting all fancy with your chives and basil and the like, but for a Jersey girl like me, salt is all we ever needed...
Out on the west, we are covered with green beans, too much mint (no one warned us!), budding cucumbers and the beginning of the Early girls and Roma's. We also have beets and edamame planted. The beets look promising, but the edamame is a little feable. Florally, we are doing great, but that is too much to go into. New pink roses are our latest success.
Your garden looks lovely! You might want to move that mint, however. Mint is relentless and will crowd out all your lovely lavender and echinacea. It sends out rhizomes and starts popping up all over the place. It may be time to separate some of those plants. I had great success on my north-facing fire escape with tomato and basil plants each in their own individual 16" - 18" pots. And I have lots of pots if you'd like to take some!
*h
So interesting about the mint...yes, Holly, I'd love to take some pots. I love the tea I've been able to make with the mint and am excited, so far, at its abundance.
Growing a garden is going to be a great exercise. It may seem completely antithetical to hear someone raising children saying this, but change and unpredictability are challenging for me.
Our garden last year tanked because I didn't have the support I have this year. Between Felicia's class, and tips from friends and "friendly shrinks"
;-p I feel like the inevitable premature browning of the lovely promise won't happen this year.
Another challenge for me is self-discipline/laziness. And having (and wanting) this garden has been forcing me to tend to it, which means daily attentiveness. The utility of the herbs as tangible nourishment boosts the natural reward factor.
Learning a new skill, possibly a new talent, and joining the pantheon of gardening friends is the gravy. (I know I sound so romantic and idealizing, but this is truly magical stuff!)
The new pink roses sound lovely. Send a pic of the flowers!
That's too bad about the edamame. What do you think will make it happier?
There's a tree in our backyard, it's a Japanese maple looking like thing, but with leaves that are a chocolatey brown color year round. It always reminds me of you because your tree with the chocolatey brown leaves was the first tree of that color that truly entered my consciousness.
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