Garden 2012

27Jan12

I come from gardening people. It has always broken my heart that for 18 years I had to rent. As soon as my houseplants became  "nice," I'd have to give them away. So here, (at the ripe ol age of 40) I'm starting on my adventure.

This is my second year of gardening here at Shady Lane. I inherited a rocky patch of clay as a garden.  I have no idea why good dirt wasn't put on this spot...it's an ideal place for an herb garden. That first year was disastrous.  I didn't know about upgrading the soil and didn't have the $$ to scrape all that yuck away and fill it with good topsoil. So I planted and prayed. LOL! We also were babysitting dogs so it had a lot of foot traffic through there. (I called it the Dogzilla attack of 2011)  Even with all of these setbacks, I still managed to get a bunch of basil and loads of cayenne peppers.

Winter survivors: 2 Oregano, Rosemary, 2 Lavender, Sage, and 4 Dianthus, Chives, and a Purple Petunia.

Planted: (pictured above) Started on 27Feb11
4 Basil
4 cayenne
4 Serrano
4 yellow Zinnias
4 purple Zinnias
4 Jellybean Tomatoes
4 Moon flowers
8 yellow/red marigolds from last year's seeds.

This year we added last year's compost and grass clippings to our garden...and some ash from our firepit. Also, after Brian chipped the crepe myrtle canes, we added that on top as mulch. I can't remember what date I got everything in the ground.

I will totally add the crepe myrtle chips next year...they made a fantastic/free weed barrier...plus they swell up with water and keep the ground from scorching.

I think that brings you up to speed on what I tried this year. I'll give you a picture and update in the next post.

Love, Ang