Welcome to My Garden

I would hate to bore you all with nothing but posts about my bookmarks, so decided I might expand to different topics. I love to garden, though with a full-time day job, 2 school-aged kids, etc., I don't have nearly as much time as I would like to devote to it! I get the kids to help with weeding and maintenance sometimes, but honestly, sometimes it's not worth the grumbling! They love this time of year though, because it's time to plant, and of course that's fun to do so they don't mind. This is a LOT later than I would like to be planting, but here in Oregon, the weather has not cooperated this month. We've had 1.5 inches more than average so far for May- not fair!

This is my main garden bed:


The rosemary, chives, and thyme winter over, and I just recently put in the cilantro. The garlic went in last October- this is my third year growing it, and I lovelovelove having homegrown garlic! I buy big bulbs of it at the farmer's market at the end of every summer and save them til October to put them in. Sometime in January or early February, the little green shoots start to pop up, and by mid-spring they look like this. When the stalks start to turn brown and fall down, usually in August, it's time to harvest. Then, weather-permitting, they cure outside in the sun for a couple of weeks, then go to their storage spot in the garage. Last year, I ran out of garlic by January, so this year I planted twice as much, so I'm hoping for a good harvest this summer!

I also have little 4-inch tomato plants in there- got them at the nursery a couple of weeks ago, which I hope is not too late to get some good ones in the summer. This year I have Early Girl, Willamette, and Brandywine heirlooms, which I tried last year and they are absolutely *divine*!

I have two other beds as well:




which as you can see are sadly empty at this point, save for the weeds. Darned weather! These will eventually (hopefully) contain green beans, zucchini, and whatever else my daughter and I decide to plant. We have a box of seed packets out in the garage that we hope to go through this weekend and decide what to plant.

I'm not much into garden decor, but I have two special ornaments in my garden.

This is "Kevin". My son named him. Why Kevin? Who knows...if anyone has insight to almost-14-year-old boys, be sure to clue me in!

And this is the other one. Sorry, this one is as yet unnamed!


These are both very special to our family because they were made by my husband's aunt, who passed away in March. She was a fused glass artist, and her work was absolutely stunning. Her daughters were so generous to offer the members of the extended family pieces of their mother's work to remember her by, and I know I will always think of Linda when I am out in my garden.

I also often put in annuals in borders and in the front of the house, but haven't gotten around to that yet. This year, I'd like to try some flowers that are small enough that I can try pressing them to use for my bookmarks. If it's nice for the holiday weekend, I will hit the nursery and see what I can find.

Thanks for checking out my garden! Don't forget to enter the contest to win a free bookmark - the deadline to enter is this Friday, the 28th! Details in the post below this one. Til next time- happy gardening!