Progress

Every time I see my brother-in-law, I swear he has grown more.  He's now 16, and I've known him for over 6 years.  He's gone from a slender, short little boy to a towering 6ft+ young man [and handsome, too].  It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen quickly.  I feel the same way with my kids; my friends who don't see them often feel like ages have gone by, when really it's been only months. 
The same thing happens with my garden.  I began it near the end of April, and here we are looking towards Memorial Day weekend.  It's hard for me to notice the change.  After all, I go out practically every single day.  Days I don't go out I stalk my garden like some anti-social creeper peeking through the blinds.  I've noticed changes from a few days of steady rain, and remember what it looked like when everything was first planted.  I thought it might be fun to look at 'before' and 'progress' photos of the garden to see side by side exactly what has grown in a matter of weeks!! 
I'm excited..


The Side
I'm so sad I did not have pictures of what this looked like before there was even a bed there.  For the longest time I was convinced I could not build there because of concrete I saw in the ground.  I assumed it was all concrete underneath.  Long story short, it was just a slab, and I was able to create the bed.  It was all grass and more debris then should be in a residential yard.  Alas, the first picture I have is after planting the first plants to ever be growing in the bed.  I chose all perennials at first, as I wanted something that would last and last with little effort on my part.  

Now...it looks like this!!!

I know the perspective is different, and I apologize for that.  I'm learning that I need to designate spots to photograph from and then I can really do some awesome before/during photo shoots.  Anywho, about the plants...

The perennials planted have pretty much doubled in size.  The purple salvia is a constant flower in my house, as I go out daily and cut ones in full bloom.  It has a great smell, reminds me of marigolds and, in all honesty, weed.  Not weeds, weed.  It has a pretty spicy smell as well.  I really love the color and height it brings to the bed.  The spring bulbs, hyacinths and daises, have died down and made way for the summer bulbs, gladiolus.  Their foliage has been a nice accent in the bed, as well as their dramatic shape and height.  I can't wait to see what they look like [sneak peek at the end!].  

I'm sad that my oriental lily is almost done.  However, it's a wonderful bulb and I will see it next year.  The tickweed has easily doubled its flower production, helped along by my frequent cutting for the house and for the purpose of flowers.  The snapdragons have finally decided to start blooming, and are accenting the remainder of the bed nicely.  I knew some were white and I chose the yellow to go with the salvia.  I was surprised by a beautiful salmon/orange color one that opened up recently.  They are pictured above with the salvia and tickweed in a typical cutting for the house.  TOO CUTE!  Sorry, I get excited...

The remainder of the annuals are blooming nicely and, as intended, are adding a nice splash of color, texture, and shape to the design.  The side garden makes me smile at least once a day.       

Vegetable Bed

I've only shown one here because the other was not as impressive as this...and I know myself well and will most likely fall asleep before I could comment on both.  Yeah.

This bed was all started from seeds with the exception of the snapdragons.  I bought them to bring the bees and color to the garden.  I planted sunflowers, pumpkins, zinnias, marigolds, basil, nasturtiums, and bean plants.  Again, all from seeds.  There is something so amazing and exquisite about watching a mere seed grow into the plants they do.  The pumpkin plants have several leaves larger than my [small, midget] hand!  This is the first photo I have of the veggie bed.

 

You'll notice on the right, you can clearly see the snapdragons.  There are also the bean plants and the mystery bastard peeking out of the burlap cover.  Now check it out, weeks later.  

I again apologize about this perspective business.  I'm a little special.  But look!!!!  Oh where to begin!  Here is the beginning for reference.

The pumpkins have amazed me in the past few weeks, most noticeably after a few days [or weeks] of rain.  To think that a small seed could create collosal leaves like this is amazing.  In case you can't tell, the pumpkins [3] are in the rear and have sprawling leaves that soak up the sun...and prick you, too!  Well, they are kind of prickly...which is a nice natural defense since my seedlings were lunch for some buggers.  My next favorite are the nasturtiums, the edible flowers Olivia cannot talk enough about.  Their leaves are so different from anything in the garden that they immediately bring an interest point with their presence.  Can't wait to taste them!  

The bean plants, in the foreground with the triangular leaves, are growing well.  I've reduced the total number in half to allow for optimal growth of each kind.  I forget which are the white and which are the green.  Oh well.  The marigolds!!!  I forgot about them!  They have very distinctive leaves, and the past few weeks I've been getting he lovely pleasure of watching them increase in number and size.  I've planted marigolds all my life, but have never grown them from seeds.  Eeeeee!!  I also thought my basil was done for, until I saw the little seedlings with their roundly shaped leaves peeping out of the mulch.  Joy!

In terms of the non-edible items in this bed, the zinnias are gaining height; I cannot wait to see these [sneak peak at the bottom]!  They will be beautiful flowers amongst amazing vegetables.  Seriously folks, it's the little things that make my day.  Speaking about height, the sunflowers are getting tall!  I can't wait to see the flower.  The ones grown for their distinctive and glorious height were directly sowed a few weeks after the cutting variety.  They are beginning to get their true leaves.  The ones grown for cutting do not grow as tall, and are at least a foot high right now.  I snipped the tops of the snapdragons weeks ago so they can dedicate their energy and resources to making more flowers!  They've been growing slower than I thought, just like the marigolds I bought for the other bed.  However, that will be great because I will have flowers all summer.  Score!    






Sneak peaks...
Gladiolus

http://blog.bloomsbythebox.com/flower-facts/gladiolus/

Zinnias

http://www.life123.com/home-garden/flower-guides/flowering-annuals-guide/zinnias-summer-sizzle-from-south-of-the-border.shtml

One love,

Sara :)