turns out I love to garden

Before I ever tried, I thought gardening was difficult and a lot of work. I figured there would be a slim chance the seeds would even take, and if I was lucky enough that they did, then I'd probably mess up the watering. Or even if the watering worked out, then I'd probably not tend them properly and they would get overrun by weeds, fried by the sun, or something along those lines. Luckily and thankfully, that hasn't been the case for me. I've found that gardening is easy and fun! Maybe it's just the low expectations for results and only having 3-4 things planted at a time, but still! 

Last year, I took over a little planter space in our condo's courtyard. A neighbor started it the previous year, but moved, so I thought it would be fun to keep it going. It was a salsa theme, and we had great success with jalapenos, cilantro, and chives. Even a couple bell peppers came out towards the end of the season. The only tragedy was the kale which was overrun by caterpillars. (Perhaps they knew that these didn't fit the theme.)  

Fast forward to this year and accomplishing goal #55- start a new garden. I wanted to continue the hobby, so I made sure to add it to the list. There was a twist this time around though, as the courtyard space became a community garden. My enthusiasm and flourishing "crops" garnered admiration from the neighbors and they wanted in too. This was awesome because I didn't have to be the only one to remember to water, but also kind of lame in that my least favorite neighbor didn't contribute but still helped himself in excess to the bounty. (As in, not only did he take the biggest, ripest pickings, but I'm pretty sure he uprooted an entire freaking basil plant. The only one. Seriously, who does that!?)

Clearly, I could go on and on about gardening (I'm pretty sure this is my longest post yet), but let's move on to some pictures and a little summary of season: I planted the seeds back in April...

The cilantro was the first to come in. This is my favorite food to grow. I put it in everything!

The chives were a bit slower to start, but they stayed strong and steady all season. I'm sure I took pictures of these at some point, but I don't have access to them right now. Turkey chewed up my external hard drive cord this week.  :(

My last space was for the basil. These seeds didn't take at first outside, so I ended up starting some inside in my handy dandy little aero garden. When one sprout started to mature, I transported it outside. It took well to its new environment, and grew into a healthy bush. One day I wanted to make some bruschetta so I went to pluck some leaves....grrrrrrrrrrrr.

The coolest thing this year was that a pepper plant came up but I hadn't planted any new pepper seeds! I almost plucked it because I thought it might be a weed, but then I realized that the leaves looked familiar. I moved it from underneath my neighbor's squash plant to give it more room and it ended up thriving!

mmmm, Sunday's chicken salad

and omelets!

I love plants!!