In the Garden Today

It's no secret that I love gardening and think the world should take it up as its next great move toward sustainabilty. I recognize that not everyone has the means to do it, though, and I'm OK with that. This is why I share my garden so often on my blog.

I check my garden daily, usually twice, to water, weed and just look at it. I'm never less than amazed at how things grow and get a real thrill from growing things from seed. Plants are good, especially in colder climates where it may be harder to start from seed, but I like watching the first seed leaves pop out and enjoy witnessing the whole plant mature from the first pod to the last fruit on our plates. That goes for flowers, too - food for the bees. It makes our harvest a little later than others, but I think it's worth it.

Here's what I photographed this morning:

Cantaloupe flower.

Zucchini flower.

Grow Your Own - II

I've already brought this subject up, but each year I feel like it needs to be reprised, and now more than ever it's important to grow your own food. The less we depend on food grown elsewhere and trucked or flown in, the better for us all.

I have a mere 48 square feet for vegetable gardening and I make the most out of it. The sense of accomplishment when harvesting something I've grown myself is awesome.

These are week-old green bean plants.



I love the little "dance" that chives do before continuing on their upward path.

Plants amaze me. I love watching them grow from seed. I grow nearly everything in my vegetable garden from seed and the flowers are a combination of plants, perennials and seeds. This year we're growing nasturtiums from seed and they are very different. Most seeds turn into the very first leaves of the plant. Nasturtiums grow roots from one point, and the plant itself comes from another point. The seed is simply the seed and never turns into leaves. It's very neat to see and if you get a chance to sprout a nasturtium you'll see what I mean.

So far we have about 80 plants ready to go into the ground as soon as the danger of frost has passed, which is May 15th here in PA. I'm excited to get out there and get my hands in the dirt; to make my morning rounds of the garden and see how the plants have grown overnight; to harvest the fruits of each. We have zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, basil, mint, chives, parsley, lavender and flowers, flowers, flowers!

How's your own garden coming along?