Mary, Mary...

Remember that nursery rhyme? Mary, Mary, quite contrary - how does your garden grow? Well, my name's not Mary and up until now my garden has been quite contrary. I tried and tried to grow stuff down in Wakulla, but with mostly sand for my soil, any fertilizing washed away quickly and added soil leeched away. It was not a success. I didn't even try veggies at the next house (though my other landscaping is still going great guns three years later!).

There really isn't anywhere here to put in a garden on the ground. So last year I tried doing container gardening. Not good. Bugs found my plants and ate them before I even knew they were there, and what was left drowned after an amazing downpour. I admitted defeat, but I'm back this year!

For Christmas, Dad gave me some window baskets. Today, I planted them with herbs.

Rosemary, basil, oregano and cilantro. If they survive, I may get some more and add to the crop.

My family must recognize my yearning inner farmer, because for my birthday, Darling Man gave me this tomato contraption called an Upsy-Downsy. Same sort of idea as the Topsy-Turvy thing with the upside down tomatos. Those seeds didn't sprout though, so I bought a tomato plant and threaded it through, and put squash in the top.

No tomatoes yet. I think I need to move it to a sunnier spot.

The other tomato plant I got is growing great guns. It's tall but kind of leggy - again, need more sun. I moved it to a different spot today, so hopefully that will help. Even with the too-little sun, there is hope! I found this tiny tomato on it today.

I've got lots of squash plants. We love yellow squash, so I'm really hoping these will take off!

I've also planted some cucumber. I put the tomato cage in there because last year, before it drowned, my cucumber was trying to take over the deck. Perhaps this will give it somewhere to go.

I've never tried to grow eggplant before, but we've gotten enough from my parents' garden that I know we like it - even the boy will eat it. So I've got a couple of plants in this big pot.

And this is where I've moved my garden to. The other deck just didn't get enough sun to grow things well. This one gets a lot more sun, but I need to trim that hedge back quite a bit for maximum exposure.

I really hope this goes well this year. Besides saving on the grocery bill later this summer, we really like the idea of growing some of our own food and knowing that it hasn't been covered in pesticides. One day, I'd like to put a little green house out there so I can grow stuff all year long.