We had a garage sale which took up several days. It was very successful. Got rid of the vast majority of things that just had to go. A couple of my neighbors brought stuff as well. It was a HUGE and very eclectic sale. Sorry no pictures of the actual set up. Wish I had but it was so busy there simply wasn’t time!

Since I’ve had no time for any art lately I thought I’d at least give a garden update. Everything is growing so nicely this year. ACK…quick…knock on wood. Can’t jinx myself.

The garden box is so awesome. It holds the moisture so much better than the pots I’ve used in the past.

My herbs and lettuce are also coming along quite nicely. We’ve had one salad from the homegrown lettuce and definitely need to make another to thin it out a bit.

The sun finally came back out and it warm and dry enough to plant my new garden box!

I have 5 tomato plants this year:

• 3 yellow pear shaped (from saved seeds)
• 1 heirloom apparently striped traded with a friend for a little yellow plant
• 1 purchased Big Boy plant

We planted 3 kinds of peppers, chives, french thyme, basil and green onions. Although I don’t have much hope for the onions.

Marigolds are planted along the front edge of the garden to try to detour the bunnies and deer from snacking.

As in previous years, I  have more herbs in containers on the deck as well as this year’s experiment, bib lettuce.

The seeds I started a while back are coming along quite nicely. Not everything sprouted, just as I suspected. That’s fine. The plants that I really wanted did. I’ll have to buy a couple small red tomato plants and a couple peppers. Or possibly trade someone for other plants. We’ll see…

I’ve been wishing for a planter box along the deck. My husband finished it up this past week. We are hopeful that it will produce more on the plants than my old container garden. The cedar lumber and weed block that lines the box cost us nothing, which is awesome! We did have to purchase dirt, of course.

I’ve been setting my seedlings outside for a few hours a day to get them used to being out in the elements. I’ve never tried that before but heard that it’s a good idea.

I’m going to be really interested to see what colors the petunia seeds produce. I’ve heard that collected seeds from hybrids don’t always produce the color of the parent plant.

So far we’ve planted:

• basil
• parsley
• dill
• yellow pear shaped tomatoes
• pumpkins
• petunias
• delphinium
• blazing stars
• marigolds

I plan on starting some more seeds but ran out of little recycled containers and my helper ran out of patience. :)

All of these seeds are ones I’ve collected from last years plants. It should be interesting to see what actually germinates.

Once again, I ate the first of them before even thinking of taking a photo.

I love my little container garden. It’s so awesome to just step outside to collect fresh herbs for my recipes.

Next year I hope to have a small garden next to our shed. Then I can try growing new veggies.