The weather is humid, the sky heavy. The city’s edges looked like they were drawn against a chalkboard today as I drove home. While this might not be great weather for people, it seems to be doing well by my little garden.

Plants all set, waiting to grow

This is the third year of the little boxed space that I traded a hand knit skull and crossbones scarf for. The first year I was ambitious- cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, various other plants. Last year I axed the tomatoes, but kept the cucumber. This year the shift to all peppers was completed. I never ate the tomatoes and the cucumber never bore much fruit anyway, and it was a bully- its large leaves shading and hindering the growth of other plants. The peppers have always survived the best, and been the most useful for cooking. We have so many kinds this time! Cherry red hots (quite robust and very popular last year), jalapenos, sweet gypsy, two other kinds (one spicy, one sweet-ish) I can’t recall right now. More herbs, too, but in separate pots next to the garden. Spicy globe basil, cinnamon basil, thyme. Mint, though its been transplanted from the garden into a pot. I’m going to try hard to get the basil to survive. I don’t have a very good track record with it, unfortunately. And my favorite- the marigolds. Someone told me that marigolds help keep bad bugs away, and I’ve been planting them ever since. Bright puffy African marigolds have joined the herd this year. I love them. They’re so full of joy! Last but not least, my little strawberry plant, which has powered through all three years. Sadly, I never get to eat the berries. The bugs always get to them first, and I can’t bring myself to spray them with any kind of pest control.

I can’t wait for the plants to grow up. I can’t wait for our first BBQ with full foliage. Tucked in the back corner of the garden is a little solar light- you can sort of see it in the photo. It glows so nicely! I also got a strand of colored lights, but they’re not up yet, I’m going to wait till our first event to string them outside, so they don’t sit out in the rain unnecessarily.

So it’s been a while, but looks like this little blog is going to be graced with more green for the upcoming months. I can’t wait till we can start cooking with peppers from my garden. The CSA that we signed up for starts in a week or two, also, so we’re sure to be delightfully swamped with fresh vegetables. This muggy weather might be just awful, and sticky summer around the corner, but the sun and warmth means things can grow again, and for that I am glad.

strawberry blossom