Mother Earth

I know I haven't blogged in a very long time. I apologize to those of you who I know sit by your computers each night constantly checking to see if I have written anything, only to be deeply disappointed. I am truly sorry and will try to blog more often so that you can hang off every word that I type.

While you all are obsessively checking my blog, I have been obsessively checking up on my garden. That's right - garden. "But, Jenny," you say, "you have no yard. How can you have a garden?" Well, I have a GHETTO garden. We had a Relief Society activity in March where we planted seeds in any type of container you could find in the recycling or trash bin. These have been sitting on my balcony growing, and now I am transplanting them into large Rubbermaid storage bins with holes drilled into the bottom for drainage. (Yes, I went to Lowe's and bought myself a power drill - I have been causing mischief ever since.) I am also going to purchase two of those Topsy -Turvey planters for my tomatoes and hang them on my balcony.

I am seriously so amazed at how fast these things grow! My poor roommates are forced to go out on to the balcony with me at least once a day to ooh and ahh over my plants. I myself am out there every few hours looking to see how much they have grown and if they need any water or more sunlight or anything. I think as they get bigger, I will stop worrying about them so much. It's kinda like kids - when they are babies you have to be caring for them constantly, then they go to school and you don't see them all day, then they are teenagers and you see them even less, and then they go off to college and do their own thing and you just get phone calls and a visit at Christmas. As far as my garden is concerned, most of the seeds are in toddler stage, my zucchini and cucumbers are starting elementary school, and my summer squash is about to enter junior high - seriously, it is really awkward looking and has zits.

The seeds that have sprouted but that I didn't plant in my bins have been planted in the flower bed in front of our house, which doesn't get very much sunlight, but I figured that it would be better to try to plant them than to just throw the seedlings away. If they grow and I have extra produce, I can just give it away to people.

So here are some pictures and I will post more as the summer goes along, because I am sure you will all want to keep a close eye on the progress of my garden!

This is a green bean sprout after 1 week, planted in a paper cup.
Sorry the picture is so blurry, they don't hold still for very long.

These are tomatoes, planted in a juice container with the top cut off.

These are a variety of flowers planted in an ice cream bucket. I actually don't remember which kind I planted, so we will have to wait until they bloom to find out.

This is my herb garden in the bottom of a strawberry container.
I have chives (which are looking pretty scraggly right now), basil, and oregano.

These have already gotten big enough to be transplanted. On the left is zucchini and on
the right is cucumber. The website I read said that zucchini tends to cross breed
with other plants, so maybe I will end up with a zucchumber!

These are my summer squash. They are my eldest,
and, I'm not gonna lie, my favorite "child".