2012 Garden

I do not claim to have a green thumb whatsoever.  I do enjoy planting and watching things grow.  It is so exciting to see the perennials that you planted last year start to emerge in the spring or see your tomato plants begin to bloom. In the past I pretty much just planted the plants and watered them, I didn't fertilize or anything, but I am determined to have a healthy and yummy crop of veggies this year.

You might remember one of my first posts about Brendan building me a small raised bed, well he built me another one, but double the width.  If you are interested in building your own raised garden bed here is the link to my post. Fall Garden Prep/Raised Cedar Garden Bed. Spring in Nebraska happened very early in March, so I took a chance and planted my spring veggies around the end of March.  We planted a mixture of lettuces, baby spinach, and sugar snap peas (Brendan's favorite).  I planted them all from seed, which I've never done before.  I couldn't believe how easy it was! I didn't buy lettuce for an entire month!  Our peas are just now starting to bloom and I picked one serving of peas just this morning!

Sugar Snap Peas

Spring Veggie Garden, the peas have taken over!

Baby Spinach

In our larger garden bed we have planted our summer veggies: Big Boy Tomatoes, Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, Jalepenos, Orange Bell Pepper, Green Bell Pepper, and Zucchini. I purchased all of the plants from a lady at church who starts them from seed and then sells them to support the girl's ministry at our church.  Just in case you were wondering, our dirt is a mixture of some organic soil we moved from Oklahoma, yes we moved dirt, and free compost we can get from the city of Lincoln. If you don't know us that well, the Williams are FRUGAL!!!  My Zucchini plant has quadrupled in size already and my tomato and pepper plants have blooms already!

Summer Veggie Garden

Zucchini

Isn't that little guy cute!

 Oh, I also planted strawberries and then found out that it takes like 3 years to get an actual crop.  Oh well, here's hoping we are still at this house in 3 years!

Strawberries

 I've also attempted to spruce up our curb appeal in the front flower beds.  Last fall I found a great deal at Lowes on 1 qt. Hostas for $0.77! So I bought a few and planted them in the front.  They all came back and are healthy. A friend also gave me some Hosta's from her flower bed and they came back as well. The only thing I added this year is some annuals, Impatients and Asylum. I also have Lily of the Valley in the skinny flower bed, its kind of taken over, but there is no way I'm attempting to dig those suckers up.

Beautiful Tiger Lily in my backyard

Front large flower bed

Front small flower bed