Ready, Set, Garden

Until this weekend I’d only been puttering in the garden. I put up some seeds in starter trays and pots in early March with only little success. I put in some zinnia, alyssum and cosmo seeds around the trees in the front yard which haven’t done much after sprouting. A few new Nasturtium seed varieties I planted out front are doing well. I’m trying two mounding varieties from Renee’s Garden – Creamsicle and Vanilla Berry. The colors will be much softer than the Dwarf Jewel Mix that is out there already.

But the most exciting news is the completion of two raised beds in the backyard. We had been talking about doing these for the last couple of years now and were inspired by a how-to article in the newspaper. Although we enjoyed our plot at the Community Garden last year it was a six-mile roundtrip with poor bicycle access along the route. With gas hovering at more than three dollars a gallon it just didn’t seem practical or convenient.

Yesterday I put in several vegetable and herb starts purchased from Capital Nursery. Including some large pots we’ve got four varieties of zucchini, two cucumber varieties, six chile peppers, one sweet pepper, six tomato varieties, some cilantro, two different kinds of basil, watermelon and cantaloupe. For color and to attract pollinators, I put in some zinnias and marigolds.