Build it, And They Will Come...

4 varieties of basil, some Italian oregano & sage..

4 weeks ago..

Roma's, growing, flowering, dill & Italian oregano, flat leaf parsley..

4 weeks ago..

Purple, Thai, sweet and Greek basil...staked for security..

Amazing growth!!!

4 weeks ago..

Whoops, wrong quote. The 'Field of Dreams' quote just feels fitting. More like plant it in a sunny spot, water, fertilize every 2 weeks, hand out some serious TLC, and they will grow! It has been close to 1 month since we put this years' garden together. The first week is very telling. Some of the basil immediately keeled over. Then, there were some spots which needed filling in. So, now I have Italian oregano, dill (you can never have too much fresh dill), and thyme. The tomato plants are flowering, some fuller than others. But the initial concerns are now over (short of the hail we had last week...there will be more before the Summer is over...I would wager money on that!). Some of the bamboo stakes are in place, and I will continue to rotate and add them as the need presents itself. The basil is already making its way into our food. It cannot be overstated how fresh herbs and veggies straight from the garden to the plate is so potent in aroma and flavor. So, here are the comparison pics, from day one, to almost 30 days later!!

And Grow She Will...

Golden Striped tomatoes..new one for me...

Greek oregano

Greek oregano...yields ALOT!!

Small leaf basil...very aromatic!!!!

 Thai basil

The ever delicate purple basil

Small, Greek, purple basil

This year, all basil....lots of pesto on the way!

Greek oregano, Greek basil, dill, cilantro, plum tomatoes

The garden. The garden is growing. The tomatoes are budding their delicate yellow flowers and the small green, yet to ripen plums and stripes are appearing. The basil, of all kinds, is flowering and I am being diligent about cutting back, a little at a time. The Greek oregano, grows low and spreads out, so I have left room for the oregano to do just that. The dill and cilantro are delicate, but hearty in their own rite and have a short life in the garden. They are being used on salmon and in salads. The sweet peppers are just starting to flower, a much later bloom, however, than the tomatoes. The bumblebees are returning, so there is a very low 'hum', and the spiders are building their webs from leaf to leaf, from stalk to stalk....good thing I am not afraid. It is the first week of July and thankfully, as impatient as I am, the garden is growing...more to come!

Jeremiah 29:5

'Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.'

There'sThere's More Than One Way to Skin a...to Grow a Garden!!!

So, here we are in Colorado Springs, 6000 feet in the air. It is beautiful...however, the back of our house is all stonework. The research began almost immediately...how on earth was I going to grow anything, let alone an entire garden. Well, enter the web site, Pinterest. It is here where I saw hundreds of images of gardens in every way, shape or form which you could possibly imagine. It is here where I realized that if you want to grow a plant or a flower, that just about any kind of container will work....from a wooden wine box to a plastic liter bottle...anything. It is here where I saw raised garden beds. Basically, a raised garden bed is a large bottomless box which is hammered into the ground and filled w/ soil. It separates your herbs from your veggies or flowers, or whatever your plan may be. It is very neat looking. So, my thought was, if I get a raised garden bed, I will have to put a bottom or floor on it and actually raise it. A good thought. Lo and behold, there I was @ Lowe's one day, and they were selling raised garden bed 'kits'....cedar...affordable....and it had a trellis! I looked @ Home Depot and this one was much nicer. I bought 2. Putting it together was easy, but I needed help w/ the floor. We went back to Lowe's and bought double thick flooring, literally. The garden bed is 4'x4', so thankfully, cutting a large sheet of the flooring in 1/2 was a perfect fit...again, thank you Lowe's. I called in help to actually put the floor on...enter Michael Steiner. If I could have done it myself I would have, but, he's got the power tools. Construction 1-0-1. The floor was on and the drainage holes were drilled. (Someone will be the recipient of some fresh herbs before summers end!)Finally, we were @ Home Depot just last week and I bought 2 wood pallets to  'raise' the garden beds. It was a perfect match. After 50lbs. of compost, 8 bags of 2 cubits of MiracleGro, I was ready to start planting...which I did, yesterday!!! I'm just getting warmed up, but I did buy Honeysuckle for the trellis, Greek oregano and Greek basil. It looks beautiful and I have room for 2 or 3 more raised garden beds. This is a mighty good start. The bottom line is I am thrilled and hopefully, everything will actually grow!!! The learning curve continues...more to come!!

Check out These Babies....

Here is my first photo of the cherry tomatoes. First photo, yes, but we have been eating them for a couple of weeks now. However, with this July being recorded as the rainiest in 100 years, we have been hit with a fungus called 'blight'. It sounds very ominous, because it is. ' A strain of the fungus that caused the Irish potato famine of the 1840's is on the loose in Rhode Island and is damaging potato and tomato crops,' as reported in the Providence Journal. Unfortunately, my tomatoes have been hit with 'the blight', and daily, I have been cutting back more and more of the molded leaves. It feels like a losing battle, even though the tomatoes are still growing and flowering. It is the leaves which carry the mold. The basil, oregano and parsley are fine. I am sitting here looking at some threatening clouds rolling in. Ahhhh, the learning curve of a City girl in the suburbs and her victory garden. I'll keep you posted, as they say!!!

Even After a Month of RAIN....

Amazing that anything has grown with ALL the rain we've had, but the basil, flat leaf parsley and the oregano are all flourishing and the tomatoes are popping. I bought 30, 6 foot tall bamboo sticks (very inexpensive, a 10 pack for $2!!!!) so the tomatoes can kiss the sun....more to come!