Dirt

This year I have been determined to have a garden. My ideas and enthusiasm always start off big so I had to keep reminding myself that I am a beginning gardener, with no real dirt of my own, and not very much money. So my goal was to have some tomatoes and basil. Of course I still went overboard when I saw the cute pots and seeds in the "dollar spot" at Target. Tomatoes and basil are good, but more is better, right?

 Little John had a blast making the dirt pellets expand with water as we planted the seeds. Cilantro, parsley, marigold, daisy, zinnia, and of coarse tomato and basil. We did this in March and I'm wondering if that was to early. Especially since our Spring has been very cold, and wet, and not like spring at all.

 So they sat in the window and when the tomatoes finally peeped up...we had a very cold night and they froze. Thankfully two little ones made it through. As things progressed we transplanted.

Flowers in milk jugs...

and herbs in soda bottles, turned into self watering pots. They worked great!

A little later Grandma Woolf heard of some free dirt that we could pick up, so I excitedly made a couple of raised garden beds out of old fencing and cinder blocks. I figure the wood was old enough that whatever it was treated with is long gone. It took awhile for the weather to settle down enough for planting, but it did, and now it's like Summer! Here is where I hope our tomatoes and herbs will grow big and strong and yummy.

And here are the little tomatoes that we started from seed...

Can you see them? Not the marigolds on the left, but those two little things by the cinder blocks. If we get tomatoes from them I think I'll sing and dance!

I remind myself often that if I can have just one grilled tomato, basil sandwich from our own garden, it will be a success.