happy earth day!

In honor of this fine holiday I’m going to give you a tour of everything we’re cultivating here at our home.

It was a lovely spring day here and today loudly shouted “April showers bring May flowers”. The rain was light yet lovely and it also helped me check a chore off my list – watering all the plants!

You will definitely notice when visiting our house that Alan loves potted plants, especially the tropical ones. We’ve got bamboo plants everywhere!

As I said before, I love using fresh herbs when cooking and one way to guarantee freshness is to grow them yourself! I started my potted herb garden in early March, but you can really start them at any time of year, as long as you bring them indoors when it’s chilly. All you need to start are a few terra-cotta pots and some good potting soil. If using a larger pot you can have two plants share the same pot as long as they both enjoy the same amount of water; basil and parsley are water-lovers, when on the other hand, rosemary, sage, and oregano all prefer a bit less H2O.

This spring I’ve chosen to grow some cilantro, basil, parsley, and rosemary. They’re all very low maintenance and with just a little attention, water, and plenty of sunlight you can grow some beautiful herbs.

In the backyard, Alan and I are starting our annual Spring/Summer projects. We’re breathing new life into our 10+ year old outdoor furniture by painting on a fresh coat of wood stain. We’ll also be treating and staining the porch and laying down some paving bricks in front of our shed to prevent some unsightly flooding.

Out back we’ve got two raised box gardens where we're growing some of the ingredients that I’m constantly using in the kitchen. Here are a few of the plants we have sewn so far:

Alan and I love finding a little spice in our foods so we’ve got some mild, yet sweet banana and red peppers as well as some jalapenos planted.

Since we both love salads and sandwiches we decided to seed some spinach and lettuce along with our young mesclun plants.

Tomatoes. Gotta have em. And we’ve got plenty. We made sure to plant some marigolds next to our tomatoes to keep away the pests. Also, one great way to keep them growing well is to prune the bottom of the plants so they grow big and healthy.

Onions and garlic are a necessity for me, so we’ve got some of those sprouting as well.

We've also got some carrots and sunflowers down in the soil waiting to sprout. The blueberry and strawberry bushes are taking their sweet little time. We also plan on trying out some potatoes and corn soon, but we need to do some tilling first.

I’ll make sure to keep you posted on how our plants are doing and we wish you happy gardening and the best of luck with your own cultivations!