How My Garden Grows.

(pics to come)

Dave and Hallie planted my garden for me last night. I purchased the plants that I wanted and simply pointed where I wanted them planted.

I really liked that arrangement. I wonder if I could get away with that next year too. Probably not.

This year I kept things super simple, but added a couple of surprises.

Strawberries, of course - already have some precious green (and big ones too!) berries ready to ripen. They are plants from last year that we pinched off to give them more time to grow. I think it's going to pay off, because they look fabulous. Our biology teacher at LLCC also gave me a few Dunlap strawberries to plant, but those won't produce much until next year.

Green Beans - new this year! I bought a bush variety - Kentucky Blue. I think Hallie will have fun picking them for me. We're going to stagger plant them a bit and plant some more in a few weeks. Then we'll have a longer harvest season.

Tomatoes - lots of them. Roma for saucing, celebrity and better boy for eating, and sweet million, lemon cherry and cherry tomatoes to eat fresh off the vine.

Basil - I love basil so much. And it's so easy. And it just keeps growing and growing, as long as you keep cutting and cutting.

Peppers - red, green and orange. Hallie loves her some peppers.

Cukes & Zukes - cucumbers and zucchini, just two of each. They were gigantic last year and we had gobs to share.

And finally, the most exciting new plant of all - Kohlrabi. Oh, just google it. It's for Barb. And Hallie. The only two people I know that will eat it. You're supposed to plant it earlier in the spring, but I hope it will still grow okay. We'll find out!

I did companion planting again this year. It worked really well last year. I had zero pest problems and no rot or blight or anything like that. Plus, it makes me happy to know that I'm planting veggie friends together and keeping enemies apart.

For example, did you know that tomatoes and kohlrabi do not get along? And that tomatoes and basils are best friends?

Now, it needs to hurry up and rain. I haven't watered the plants and they need a good watering. It's supposed to rain this afternoon, so I think i'm good.