The New England Rain Garden

Well, not really a "rain garden" (http://www.raingardens.org/Index.php) but all we've had here is rain.  If you're feeling like learning something interesting, check out that link on actual rain gardens.  I did a project on them last year at school, and they are very cool.  They are used in your yard to control storm runoff from the roof and paved areas to keep the water in the soil instead of flowing into storm sewers, which then gets into our water supply.  They also can be used to alleviate poor drainage in your yard.  Not by planting in the water-logged areas, but by diverting the water to a better draining area and putting a garden there to soak it all up!

Anyways....

Here's my garden so far this year.  I wasn't sure I was going to have much of a garden, due to the little dude loving my attention at ALL times... :)  Helen has come over a few times to hang out with him so I can work out in the yard, and Jay and I trade off on the weekends.  Sometimes I can sneak some gardening time in after a long walk, until he wakes up and finds the stroller isn't moving anymore!

Here's some Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce

And some Baby Romaine.  I grew Bibb also, but forgot to snap a pic...

My Beets (with a little leaf miner damage...no biggie)

Kale

My longest carrot yet...(they would be longer if I left them in the ground) :)

My beets and carrots...

So you can get a better idea of the size... (why is this blue?  I don't understand.)

That's a quarter, for size comparison.

My first ever bite of a home grown carrot!  Funny how different something tastes when it has never been refrigerated!

My tomatoes are in that garden somewhere, along with Jalapeno Peppers (for Jay), Basil, Flat Leaf Italian Parsley, and Artichokes (perennial...next year).  I also JUST planted my Pole Beans, which I've never tried before, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Butternut Squash.  They will hopefully be in the next post.  Now show me yours!!!!!!

Meg's Garden

I wish I had started this blog earlier when my plants were still babies, but I was too busy and now they are growing so fast! Here are all of my plants:

These are the containers I planted to go on either side of my garage. I planted petunias, daisies, coleus, and green potato vine. I wish I had a picture of what the giant one looked like right after I planted it and it rained for a week straight. The whole thing looked dead as a doornail, and now it is so full and growing every day!

This is my container of romaine lettuce. It used to have accidental brussel sprout plants but they got bugs and I got scared and ripped them all out! When I bought these about a month ago they were about two inches high.

This is my mystery tomato plant. I seem to have a lot of mystery plants this year! I thought I bought cherry tomatoes, but once they started growing they were quite large! The ones on the top are small, but there are two large ones hiding underneath.

These are my herb plants. I decided to plant rosemary, basil, and dill. Mostly because I cook with those three all the time! They smell so good!

These are peppers and cucumbers. Both pepper plants are mystery colors. I can't remember if they are red, green or yellow! I guess I like a surprise! The cucumber plants I bought last Monday, so they have some catching up to do!

This container has two dahlia plants and cosmos. The purple and pink cosmos were planted already grown, and the ones on the outside I planted from seed. They didn't take long at all to sprout!
Here is what the whole shebang looks like!