We planted a bunch of seeds when my sister Roxanne visited around easter. But we set the containers on the ground, and our landlord mowed. A couple of weeks later we grew lots and lots of grass in our planters, and nothing else. The only thing that survived the first batch was our soy beans.
They sprouted so fast! we are still waiting for them to show some beans....we are really not sure when to expect them, because we honestly have no idea what we are doing. But we are hopeful!
We also tried to plant some sunflower seeds (Michael's pick). We have this little strip of dirt beside out house that does not get mowed, so we (being the beginners that we are) thought it would be cool to stagger giant sunflowers (up to 12 feet!) medium sunflowers (up to 6 feet) and dwarf sunflowers (up to 2 feet). I am not sure why we thought we could do this master piece, but we tried. The are not doing so well, but we saved some seeds and may start again indoors.
Then in the back of the house, when spring sprang, these crazy shoots started popping up! We did not plant them, so they must be bulbs from the previous renters. They are growing like crazy! We have been told they are 'ficus' by our more greener thumbed friends, so that is what we now call them. These Ficus are blooming beautiful yellow flowers. One plant has several flat huge leaves on the outside, and spiraling leaves in the inside. Out of the spiral comes the shoot with the buds. On shoot has about 10-15 buds that can sprout up to about 5 flowers. It is a very pretty plant. It attracts shiny green beetles, and wasps, which is not so fun. It is growing so fast it may take over soon!
When we moved in, the backyard was in bad condition from the previous owners. There was old wood, a tire, and a heap of trash. Beka quickly got tired of seeing it, so she put on her gloves and went to work! In the heap she found tons of old planting containers. Some were too broken to use, but the rest she cleaned (some she painted) and kept. All the plants she has now are in those and other planters that she has found and re-purposed. She also used the tire for decoration, and the old wood to mark off the ficus and to make a compost bin! She also used the HUGE old stump in the back to help with the redecorating of the back yard. In the tire is an old planter from a trash pile, and in it is her sweet basil that that she was given as just a spring from a pastor at her church. It is now their best growing basil! She has made many a pasta sauce, pesto, and bruschetta from this plant!
Also on the stump is one of Team Oakley's three cherry tomato plants. This is the smallest of the three, so they moved it to the stump to get more sun.
One of our favorite adventures in gardening has been our compost pile. Michael has taken over the responsibility of the compost, and for the better! He has researched worms, compost, and everything there is to getting some good soil out of some bad trash. It has also helped with our trash levels. We try to live as "green" as we can, and this has helped tremendously! We are almost ready to use some of our new soil for fertilizing our plants. We are so glad that we have started doing this. No matter where we go now, this will be a definite in our yard.
And behind that is a pit barbeque that we are holding on to for a friend, something that Michael has recently become versed in as well. Here is a fun TN lingo point - when we barbeque in SD, we call it 'barbecuing', out here, they call it 'grilling out', because barbeque is what you eat (pulled pork, barbecued ribs, ect.). If you are grillin, it means hot dogs, hambergers, and chicken. If you were to say "you want to come over for a barbeque?" they would wonder why you are not saying y'all, why you put 'a' in front of barbeque, and would expect a sit down meal of pulled pork sandwiches which was probably cooked in a crock pot. Weird huh?
We planted only what we love, and what we use regularly. So we have a lot of Basil, and a lot of cilantro. We planted cilantro seeds in a container, and they sprouted, but were not doing well as of late, so we transplanted them into individual containers to hope they grow. Our containers are high class recycled plastic cups that we drilled holes in the bottom of. Don't be jealous :)
On the top sill is our giant tomato plant, our medium tomato plant, and some flowers that were given to me by some great friends. This is the sunniest spot on the porch, so we often rotate plants to this area.
Medium cherry tomato plant (with my homemade wiring system, that was quickly proved a fail).
Our good friend Cassidy visited us a while ago, and for our hospitality, he gave Beka these flowers. They were beautiful and growing with the prettiest pink and purple flowers, then Beka got sick, and forgot to relay the watering duties to Michael. After just two days, this plant looked like it has seen its last days, but after lots of love and water, it seems like it is coming back. These shots are post water fail.
For Babysitting their favorite kids in TN (as if it were a chore!), their Momma, Chanda (one of Beka's dearest friends) made cookies for michael, and gave Beka some tea and this calla lilly. She transplanted it shortly after, and has been trying to get it to bloom since then. Truthfully we are kinda stuck on this one. It has not changed in months since we got it, but we are still hoping for the best!
This is our most successful cherry tomato plant out of the three. We had to transplant it into this old container so if could grow more. We are so excited for this one to sprout!
Out long container planters has been a hit and miss. Some of them are doing well (basil and cilantro!) but we tried parsley (which are kind of working, but has stopped growing a while ago), and oregano, which has not grown or sprouted at all :( Oh well, at least our favorite, sweet basil, is doing great!
Parsley
baby cilantro
Lastly, we planted Beka's favorite flower, sweet pea. However we did not know that it grew like a vine! We have been having to add longer and longer sticks in our "planter" (which is an old basket that the church threw out) to keep it up right! It has not had a good bloom yet, but we are hoping the crazy growth means one will be coming soon!
We will leave you on our special planter that is the favorite of our whole garden. Like we have said, we live reusing and repurposing so called trash to our garden, but when we first arrived here in TN, Michael, knowing Beka's want to plant, made her this mug. He had the woman who fired the mug drill a hole in the bottom. He painted "love grows from the..." and made the handle into the heart. Its super corny, but that is why we love it, and each other!
It has sure been an adventure trying to figure all of this out, but we are doing it together, and having fun in the process!
Thanks for sharing it with us!
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