a 25-day old garden

The garden has been in the ground for about a month. We finally got the last plants in the ground last week and we fertilized for the first time five days ago. The plants shot up after we hit them with the fertilizer. All of the sudden the peppers have deep, deep green leaves and the tomatoes have their first little fruits! They're really cute. 

The little tomatoes

Super green leaves

We noticed aphids and white flies on most of the tomatoes and the peppers, so we bought a bunch (3,000) of ladybugs. The ladies are supposed to eat the aphids and flies, but it was just really cool to watch them crawl out of their containers. I don't think there were really 3,000 ladies, but that's that the little container said. 

When I think about buying ladybugs online it just seems silly. They are probably inbred or genetically modified or something. Gosh, what a really easy way to make ladybugs less beautiful than they naturally are. 

I don't want to show the rest of the garden. Yes, it's nice, but some of the herbs are just sad. The cilantro is puny, but the marjoram looks great. Most of the basil is beautiful, but about six plants are no longer...looking fine. Same with the lemon verbena, which not only looks leggy but also looks kind of -- how should I put this? -- like it will whither up and die if it stays in the damp and shady corner it's in. 

Oh my gosh, this poor plant must hate the world 

But I leave it there because I think that I have to document it for next year. The plant and the weeds that are growing around it. They say that gardeners should document everything, but for some reason I take that as 'make a choice, stick with it, try not to kill anything, do something different next year,' which sucks, especially if I know something is going to die. Maybe I should move it. I just feel bad with it shoved in a corner. 

Happy row of 16 basil plants

We decided to plant some basil. Kind of a lot of basil. Like 16 basil plants. In the row. We have more in the front. And more with the sunflowers in the back. Oh, basil. Pesto will come out of our ears! At lease it is supposed to be good frozen.

In the middle of the garden we planted some flowers. They were put in the ground a week ago, so they still look a little small compared to the rest of the plants. The flowers should help attract pollinators so we get more fruit out of our little garden.

Calendula

Zinnia

This little zinnia will be good, too. Not only will it be good to get all those Greensboro city bees, but they will also be some nice cutting flowers! 

Step one to eating green: grow it yourself. some of these seeds are heirloom, which means that the seeds have been around for, well, a long time. They were commonly grown during the time before -- wait for it -- large scale agriculture. These plants weren't made for mass production and may produce more efficiently with one-on-one care. 

Some of the plants (mostly the herbs) come from transplants from local farmers. The curb market had a great herb sale when my dad was visiting from California and we stocked up! You name it and most likely we've got it. 

I'm always on the lookout for some more, though. Keep your eyes peeled.