gardening

Look what I'm growing!  Cherry tomatoes!

I don't have a green thumb.  That's not something I inherited from my mom, who loved gardening and could grow anything.  I've never been able to keep anything alive, except for hostas; hostas live outside and require no maintenance. When I got my first house, I tried to have house plants, but the cats ruined that.  They either chewed the leaves or they knocked the pots out of the window sills, because that's their territory, not the plant's.  And cats are assholes. I don't bother with house plants anymore.

Now that I have this house and a much bigger yard, I'm making more of an effort to learn how to garden.  Although, I admit, it's not something that's exciting or relaxing for me.  It's more of a way to say, "Hey, I grew that all by myself!"  Or more accurately, "Hey, I didn't kill all the pre-existing plants and look, they're growing again this year!"

This is our second Spring in the house and I've decided to grow cherry tomatoes from seeds.  I bought one tomato plant last year, which I kept alive and actually got a couple tomatoes off of.  But I didn't get much, so I decided I'd try seeds this year and then transplant them into the garden (yet to be dug) or into containers (I have no idea how they will do in containers, or if it's even advisable to do that). I also started daisies and purple coneflowers (they look like purple daisies).  I wanted something perennial that would look natural; our house was built it 1735 and I want it to look like the flowers have been there all along.

Even though I'm using a seed starter kit that's pretty much fool-proof, I'm still absolutely amazed that the seeds sprouted and are growing.  I started this kit on March 10 and look how big they are! (Sorry for the awful picture quality.)

Now I just need to decide where to put them.  Dig a new garden or use containers?  I have a large side yard, but it faces the street and it pretty much my front yard, too, so I'm not sure if it would look weird to have a garden there.  I'm thinking I'll plant it somewhere near the barn, since it's behind the house.  I've never started a garden from scratch, so this should be interesting...