My Green Ambitions

It's Springtime at last! The weather is warming up and things are in bloom! In fact, I got some lovely photos of the peach blossoms on my mother's tree, but those will have to wait for another post. The main signs of Spring in our yard are the sunflowers, which have finally bloomed. I love to look out my kitchen window to see these bright spots of yellow slowly emerging.I asked my daughter to stand in front of the sunflowers to show how tall they've gotten. She decided to to the "bunny ears" thing to herself. That kid cracks me up.

I'm also pleased to report that the little marigold that sprouted from last year's seeds is also blooming. It has one small yellow flower at the top with the petals slowly unfolding, which makes it look a bit scraggly for right now. But I'm sure it will continue to grow and will impress us all within a couple months. Note how there are a bunch of assorted rocks and stones in the pot. Those are additions made by my oldest son. He's convinced the extra rocks will help the marigold grow. I figured it can't really hurt, so why not?

It's time to start planting things, and I really haven't come up with a definitive plan on where to put everything. I still have weeds (not that you're ever truly rid of them), and I still need to get some decent compost to help improve my soil. Hopefully that will be coming sometime this week since our dear friends The Smiths have generously offered to share a trailerful of compost they got from the local green waste site. (That sounds so much nicer than "landfill," doesn't it?) The compost is so dark and rich - like crumbled chocolate cake. I never thought I'd ever be so excited about a truckload of dirt. Anyway, with those plans underway I guess it's time to start plotting the garden. Here are the general ideas I have. First, there's this little patch of grass near our garbage cans:It gets full sun almost all day, so I'm thinking about making it our watermelon patch. After I pull out all that grass, of course. Figured this is a good area for watermelon since there's plenty of room for the plants to spread out. I also tossed around the idea of using this area of my three sisters garden. One or the other. Guess I should decide pretty quickly. Seeds need to go in the ground pronto! Then we have this area along the eastern fence line. You can see my tumbling composter in the background:This area has partial shade because of our two orange trees, and it's not the most accessible place for vegetables, either. I've planted some sunflowers along the fence, and I also plan to put some nasturtium here. In that enclosed stone thing in the foreground of the photo, I thought to plant some carrots. that spot gets more sun since it's not under the trees. Here's a photo of the rest of the fence line:This is where I grew my tomatoes last year, and had decent success. I think that the soil pH wasn't great because I got lots of lovely green plant, and not that many actual tomatoes. But I didn't feed/fertilize at all last year. So hopefully this year will be better. This area gets plenty of sun during the day, too.

Along the back (north) side of the fence, where the sunflowers are currently growing, I plan to put in cucumbers. I have a few plants started already, but want to direct sow more. I hear cucumbers that are directly sown often do better than ones that are transplanted seedlings. We shall see.I need to build some supports for the plants so I can maximize the space. I'm hoping the cucumbers and sunflowers will like each other. I think they're good companion plants. I need to check my reference materials on this.

Finally, in the far northwest corner is this little arbor thing. Eventually this will be the home of some grape plants. Figured I'd plant green grapes on one side and red grapes on the other. I don't plan to actually put the plants in the ground until later in the year, after the heat of the summer is dying down. At the base of the fence toward the right of the photo you can see this little volunteer tomato plant. Here's a closer shot:It's humorous to me that I had several tomato seedlings that have already withered in the sun, despite my gentle care, and here is a plant I have never watered, never cared for, that is thriving completely on its own among the weeds. Nature has a way of reminding you who is REALLY in charge.

Happy Spring, everyone!