Now for something completely different

Well, not really.  I've blogged about our garden before, so this could end up sounding very similar to past posts, but I'm not in the mood to go back through them to check.

Also, the photos I am going to post aren't really from my garden.  It has begun to rain outside, so I'm relying on trusty ol' google image search to spruce up this post instead of going out and taking my own pictures.   (**Disclaimer: If you stumble across this blog and notice that I have used one of your photos and would like to be properly credited for it, please let me know in the comments section!**)

I might have mentioned this before, but L and I are pretty sure that the previous owners of our house invested a lot of time and money into their gardens.  This is a great thing for the L family because neither of us is very good at gardening, nor do we have the time and money to create such an elaborate element to enhance our house.  We moved in to the house mid-December and really had no idea what was going to pop up once spring hit, and now that we're in July, I can't believe that new flowers and plants are budding all.the.time.  I swear, every week, I walk through the garden and find something new.  On many occasions, L and I have referred to the garden as a fireworks show: Just when you think it's over, another one explodes.  When our tulips and lily of the valley faded away, we were sad to see them go, but we had no idea how much thought and energy went into this garden, and if it keeps up the way it has been going, we'll have blooms all summer long.

 This is a pretty good representative of our garden.  Totally.

The latest discovery at Casa L is the hollyhocks.  When it first started sprouting up, we thought that it was probably some sort of weed, but since L and I don't know what anything really is, we figured that we'd leave it alone.  Fast forward a couple weeks, and now the plant is as tall as I am, and I can see that we're going to have light pink and dark purple blooms!

I like that hollyhock kind of looks like peonies!  I was sad when our peonies died off, so I'm excited to have another feathery looking flower in our yard.

L's mom says that once our hollyhock has fully bloomed, she'll teach me how to make a hollyhock doll which would turn out somewhat like this:

Cute, eh?

Along with the hollyhock, our hydrangea plant is forming the prettiest white puffs of flowers (though the size of our hydrangea makes it difficult for one to get through the gate on that side of the house.  I like to call it our jungle.).  Soon enough they'll all look like the image below!

Gotta love the puffs!

The last update to our garden is what I actually planted.  I had never planted vegetables before, so I decided to give it a go with the intention to not actually follow the directions on the package, plant the seeds in the dirt, and water them (and if they died, I'd try again the next year and perhaps even follow the directions).  I am all about the topsy turvy tomato planter this year, and decided that it would be a good way for me to attempt to plant tomatoes with our limited space (and for some reason, tomatoes in a pot intimidate me).  There was already a hook set up, so I put in the seedlings (upside down, of course!), threw in some dirt, and watered them.  Apparently my approach is working so far because we now actually have some baby tomatoes starting to grow!  I've even gone so far as to give them some vegetable plant food, so hopefully that means we'll have a bushel of tomatoes in a month or so.  I'm thinking that next year, I'm going to pick up a couple more upside down planters and use them for bell peppers and squash/cucumbers.

What mine will hopefully look like once our tomatoes get bigger.

The other items I planted (this time actually in the ground) were green beans and cucumbers.  I am well aware of the fact that I have definitely planted them too close together, but I feel bad thinning them out, so we'll see how they continue to grow.  M inspired me with her Tee-pee trellis for her beans, so I picked up one of my own, and though the beans aren't old enough to be crawling up it yet, I have a feeling that it will have been a good investment.  L loves green beans (his mom grows them every year, so I'm excited to be able to walk out my side door and pick them out of the garden and use them for meals (or just as a snack)

Beans, beans, the magical fruit!  The more you eat, the more you toot!

 

The cucumbers also seem to be coming right along, so I'm hoping that we'll have a few of those as well to eat soon!  If we have an abundance of cucumbers, I want to try my hand at pickling a few of them, so if you have any good pickling tips or recipes, let me know!

Could really go for one of these right now with a little Italian dressing...mmmmm!

And who says you can't live in the cities and have your own little vegetable garden?