Our Cozy Home: At Long Last

I purchased all of my plants for this summer 2 weeks ago. I planted all of the flowers immediately, but have not had the time to get the tomatoes/herbs in the ground. Saturday dawned cloudy and cool and so I was inspired to get outside and get the job done. Fortunately for me Zachy doodle had prepared my little 6x6 foot space last week. Thanks Zach! The soil was soft, dark and loose...perfect. While I was planting I was thinking that you could call my little plot a "salsa garden" or a "brushcetta garden" cause it's got the goods for both and then some.
Years ago someone gave me a big basket of potted herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) and I have been hooked on planting them every year since. In addition, I put in cilantro and basil, a few tomato plants and a jalapeno pepper plant. My little patch fills up quick so I need to be pretty careful with my choices. I also popped in a few chive plants a few years back and they come back every year. I stuck the thyme in with the flowers a couple of years ago cause it is a flowering perennial herb and the delicate white flowers look so pretty in my flower bed.
It felt great to get outside and get dirty. It look forever to get the dirt out from my fingernails and scrubbed off of my knees (no gloves or knee pads for me) .

I can never have enough parsley, so I put in 24 plants...12 curly and 12 flat leaf. I chop it in to almost anything that I make. It just brightens things up. It stays green pretty much until the first snow. I have been outside on Thanksgiving cutting parsley and rosemary for the stuffing and turkey. I cut back the chives while I was out there but they will come back in a week or two with fresh new stalks. They are a great replacement if you need a mild onion flavor in a dish. I also use them if I need some scallions and don't have any and of course yummy on a baked potato. The basil (in the forefront) looks pretty bad. It has already been nibbled at by some pesky animal and all the rain that we have had has turned it a bit yellow. I sprinkled some natural deer and rabbit repellent around the edges after I was done planting to keep them away.

Our flower garden. This happens every year on it's own. We just clean out the dead stuff from the previous year, mulch and presto...by June it looks like this. You can't see it in the picture, but up by the wall there is a big lavender plant. It starts blooming right around now and in full, hot sun it smells wonderful. If I could only plant one thing it would be lavender. When I walk out in the morning I smoosh a few flowers between my fingers and I can smell it all morning long. It is a natural stress reducer...really.