Gardening...Outside!

Okay, so nothing is outside yet!  But it will be!  I really, really want stuff to grow this year!  I'd love to have enough to share with all of my neighbours and send some to work to share with my boyfrend!  But, I'll be happy if I get enough for the two of us to eat too!

I have the flowers already started (8-10 weeks before last frost) and everything has sprouted, yeah!

I have many different plants plannd for this year...as for flowers, I have Alyssum (a pretty little whitew flower, actes like grouns cover), Baby's Breath (I joined the National Home Gardening Club, I rip off, but the "freebies" they send are nice enough...this was one of those freebies), Cosmos (another "freebie", they have sent this one to me 3 times now!  I sent the second seed packet to my 5 year old nephew, who after helping me with the Avocado tree, wants to grow something of his own this year.  And still have another packet I don't know what I'll do with yet!), Calendula (pretty yellow flowers that are edible, though I need to do a bit more research on what part is actually edible here), Hollyhocks (red/white/pink variety of Double Hollyhocks, these are gorgeous, we had some in a rental in Central Oregon!), Marigolds (another edible flower, yellows and oranges, like the Calendula), Morning Glory (Not chicken-safe, but so pretty!  I hope to get these in the front yard, but we'll see...), Sunflowers (Yep, edible!  And totally chicken-safe!  I plan to dry the heads for winter-time treats for both the human and chicken inhabitants of the house!), and Sweet Peas (Another one I'll have to keep the chickens away from as it is toxic to them!  But, they are pretty and smell good too).

I have also started my herbs already, and everything save the Parsely has sprouted!  I was getting starting cells at WinCo and came across this little herb kit!  So I bought it, lol.  I already had Chives, Dill, and Parsley seed packets at home, so I now have spare seeds there too!  These will go in containers hung around my back deck as soon as the weather is warm enough to put them out...for now, they will sit on a table in my living room soaking up the sun from the giant window there.

Planting in a few weeks includes; Rutabaga (the low-carb version of Potatoes in this house, but they are spendy!), Squashes - a Patty Pan mix (green, yellow, and white Patty Pans) as well as a Yellow Crookneck variety (we love sauteed squash done on the BBQ, or I do anyway), Radishes (both Cherry Belle, a round red variety & Chinese White, a long white variety), Eggplant (Black Beauty's for the chickens to munch on), Peas (I believe I got a bush variety of these...they're called "Little Marvel"), Beans (Golden Wax & Green Bush beans), a package of Mesclun (mixedlettuce, even after I swore after last year that I would never do lettuce again), Cabbage (Copenhagen Market, it's an early producing variety...we have a fairly short growing season here), and last, but not least...Cucumbers (Boston Picklers, to go with the Dill and I'm going to learn how to make pickles this fall!)  Okay, that was a run on sentence if I ever saw one!  :)  Next year I may try adding a few fruits to my repotoire...I'm still trying to find a spot in the yard where I can plant some Raspberries or Blackberries, but that's not easy to do where it won't invade the neighbor's yards!  I'd also like to add a couple of fruit trees, but I don't know where I would put them!