I headed over to Home Depot for some cheap seeds--cucumber, zucchini, and swiss chard. Last summer the cucumber harvest provided us with endless cucumber salads, but the zucchini plants were a flop--I'll give it a go again. The Swiss chard package said it can be planted as late as May in Oklahoma, so we'll see.
Then I headed over to a local specialty gardening store which happens to sell a bunch of vegetable plants at very inexpensive prices. For about $2, you get four plants. I picked up tomato, yellow summer squash, and eggplant plants. Plus some yellow and pink flowers--didn't look at the name--but these are the one's we planted last summer which exploded in color and lasted until October.
Later at home I pulled out my Joy of Gardening book--which seems to be popular among trads btw, considering it's for sale by the Angelus Press--and set the plants and seeds on the front porch. Some weeds needed weeding, and my hoe came in handy chopping up the soil.
What makes my garden this year unique is that it's all in our front flower beds. Would take too much labor to dig up all the grass from the garden patch I prepared last summer all by hand. When you're pocketbook and yard size is limited, you make do with what you've got.
Dreaming of Tomatoes
In the front row I planted a big yellow flower...next to it a small summer squash plant...then a pink flower, repeating that combo a few times down the line. In the side bed, I spread out some swiss chard seeds towards the front, and in back cucumber seeds, planning for them to grow long vines across the sidewalk and spread out across the yard. In the very back is a large square bed, where now resides four tomato plants, four eggplants, and some sewn zucchini seeds.
On the porch I planted more of the yellow and pink flowers in a large pot, and in some small pots, and in a middle-sized pot I planted tome red, tropical-looking flowers my wife likes since she is from a tropical country.
If the success of this garden/flower planting is anything like last summer, it will make for a beautified front yard to give pleasure to passersby for months to come, and supply some fresh, organic, homegrown produce for the kitchen!
Every man needs a hobby. This summer at least, gardening will be mine!