The days seem to fly by. DH had a birthday this week and we splurged. We went to a restaurant since it was Prime Rib Night. He enjoyed it. I baked him a chocolate cake and also baked cakes for strawberry shortcake so we have having a treat, one one night, one the next. I bought him a small drone. It's not the best, but he will enjoy playing with it. His son is police officer and I guess the city police force is looking into drones to be able to dispatch to different scenes. He said that a good drone for that costs in the neighborhood of $7000. I teased DH that I loved him, but he wasn't getting a $7000 drone. Ha!
Earlier this year I planted some seeds -- tomatoes, bell peppers, and some herbs. I have a very nice looking rosemary plant that I want to plant outside soon, but it has been so damp, cool, and wet, I don't think it will like it yet. I planted the two bell pepper plants I grew and one of the tomato plants until it started raining. I bought another strawberry plant today to plant; I had planted a blueberry bush a couple of years ago and I read it takes two years for them to even get established and then it may not really produce much for a few years more. Well, this one only had a small leaf on it last year although I was diligent on watering and fertilizing and weeding around it. This year, nothing. So, I pulled it up and replaced it with a strawberry plant. I now have 4 strawberry plants near the pole barn. My Oregano and Thyme came back from two years ago so that's good.
We have two small raised beds and a few weeks ago I planted onion sets in them and today I harvested quite a few in one of the beds before I worked the soil and planted two tomato plants into one. I checked our vegetable garden yesterday and I think we will have a few radishes in a day or so, so that will be good. It's kind of exciting to see stuff growing from seed and sets. I'm hoping to realize enough vegetables to eat and preserve and hopefully donate some to the local food pantry.
This is a spendy time of the year since we tend to buy plants and mulch and dirt. I bought some hostas to go along the side of the house in the front; it is on a hill and tends to erode a little bit, so I'm hoping having some plants in there will keep that from happening. Last month I bought some flowering bulbs from Aldi to plant along the back of the house for the same reason and I'm thrilled to see some of the plants are coming up. The front flower garden that DH's late wife started has some of the perennials coming up; I've added some the past couple of years too. I've spent a lot of time digging up weeds. There's this invasive vine that I spent a lot of time pulling up and digging up. I read online that it appears to be impossible to get rid of. I don't want to use chemicals for a variety of reasons anyway. But I'm pleased with how the flowers are really coming up. Last fall I dug up a peony because it didn't do much where it was; it was being overshadowed by another plant and then I was afraid I had killed it. It is coming up in it's new home and seems happy to actually get some sun.
About a year ago my church offered some potted plants to anyone who wanted to take them. There was this very wild looking Philodendron that was pot bound and had lots and lots of stems. I immediately cut some starts and put them in water to root, and then planted those in two different pots. Once I got those started, I then took the original plant outside and dug it out of the pot. I took a bunch more starts and have shared with one daughter in law and a friend. The friend did a trade with me and gave me a start to a spider plant and a jade plant. I repotted the original plant in a bigger pot and it seems to be happy and healthy. And I cut off some more starts and have them ready for another daughter in law. DH asked me why I was doing that and I said have you priced plants? He said he hadn't, so the next time we were somewhere selling plants, he was surprised at how expensive house plants are. He said he realized now why I was overjoyed in trading plants with my friend and why giving the girls starts was really saving them money.
I went to a class on tea blending a couple of weeks ago and the herbalist taught us different plants. I was discouraged because I had planted lavender seeds inside and didn't get any plants. She said they need a warm environment and she has hers starting on a warming pad besides the light. I checked when I got home since I had put them on the sunporch and we had had some sun, and I have a few small plants coming up! I'm more than delighted. I wanted lavender not only for the pollinator garden I'm trying to grow, but also I want to dry some for tea and and possibly jelly.
Hopefully this weekend I can plant the rest of the tomato plants I have started and the cucumber plants we bought. Maybe next year I'll try to grow my own cucumber plants from seed. Here's to a successful gardening year...how about with you?