Time for Spring Planting!

Catnip!

Chocolate Mint!

With temperatures reaching near (and over) 80 degrees the last few days, I decided it was high time I started my 2012 gardening "experiment"!  To get me started this year, I wandered down to where I had hidden away some of last year's herbs in an attempt to "over winter" them.  Much to my surprise (and delight) some of them survived!  Specifically, my Catnip!  I love having this for our cats, but am never thrilled to spend the $3 on a new plant every spring (on sale, I have no idea what they cost when the herbs aren't on sale 2 for $6).  Then, I got even more excited when I noticed that both my Chocolate Mint and Apple Mints made it through the winter and have sprouted sweet smelling mints too!

Apple Mint!

In addition to these herbs from last year, I also still have the Stevia plant growing in my kitchen window, it is doing really well there and is ready to be trimmed back again!  I really need to find a good recipe for extracting the "sweetener" from it.

Pineapple Sage!

For the "new additions" this spring, I have kept it pretty simple so far.  I bought another Pineapple Sage plant (when you brush against the leaves it smells like fresh pineapple, yum!) because we used the heck out of the one we had last year, but it doesn't appear to have survived the winter.  I used the Pineapple Sage when we made the Fiery Skewered Shrimp (a grill-time favorite in this house, even when the kiddos are here), of course..I skip the Cilantro in favor of the Sage and modify the recipe even more...the ingredient list is about the only thing I stick to (I don't even skewer them)!  I think once this sage is cut though that it smells more like a Granny Smith Apple than a pineapple though...still way yummy.

Tomatoes!

And, because I'm a glutton for punishment (or maybe just disappointment?), nephew #3 helped to pick out four new tomato plants to try and grow (again) this year!  Last year's foray into cherry tomatoes went "oh so well" with my whopping 5 tomatoes from one plant and nothing from the other two...preceded by the "heirloom experiment" that yielded a few dozen very small tomatoes (that were yummy but not worth the effort really).  So, this year, we have a variety of sizes and colors and I'm hoping for the best!  We've got "Black Prince" Heirloom tomatoes (dark, dark purple), Jubilees (Orange?), Lemon Boys (Pale Yellow!), and "Patio" tomatoes (I'm guessing these are a cherry tomato...bright red here).

I'm going to go wander around Wal-Mart today and see if I can find any sort of "worthy" container for the tomatoes...I know they need bigger planters than I have here!