First post

In this blog (my first blog ever and I just turned 30 this year!) I plan to focus mostly on the fact that my boyfriend and I are in the process of buying a house together. We are starting at a level which consists of nothing to furnish a three bedroom house. It amazes me how people get from having nothing to having a warm, friendly home with relaxing stuff, so I'd like to discuss (with the whole world!!!) how we grow with our new purchase!

The first thing about the house that got me super excited was that the backyard has great potential. The yard must have been beautifully landscaped at one time. Now it's a little overgrown, but possibly manageable. Out back there is a fenced in garden area with four raised beds surrounded by stone pathways.

Raised beds super-overgrown!

I'm going to refrain from posting any more revealing pictures of the new house yet as there are issues with the well and septic that are holding up our closing (sad face). I REALLY hope that they do not sour the deal, but since that is a possiblity I will just have to let you all wait in agonizing anticipation for more house pictures ;)

Since gardening has been on the brain lately I've done lots of research and started a few gardening projects in containers while waiting to move into my home. That way when we get the house (fingers crossed!) I can move my lovely little plant friends with us.

Herb project: I got a ~2 gal container. Filled it with half potting soil and half peat moss. Mixed and moistened the soil and planted half with coriander and half with basil seeds on Monday 5/31/10. Purchased whatever seeds were laying around at Marc's. Then over the holiday weekend seed packets ended up outside, got rained on, so they were in pretty bad shape and I did not save them. Never again! I wish I knew what seeds they were because as of Thursday I had a lot of little basil seedlings! And I must have did a bad thing because my basil is growing in WAY too close (honestly I had not done much research before I did the planting...haha oops!). To remedy this I got a window planter that I plan to transport my basil seedlings into when the little guys are big enough. Also the 2 gal container does not have drainage holes! EEK! I know, I know..... I am so terrible, so soon when I remove the little seedling dudes I will make a conscience effort to have the boy drill holes in the bottom. He already did in my window planter :) Needless to say, aside from not knowing the brand of seeds, first project is a little shaky, but okay for a first time. You gotta start somewhere, right? Plus I am only on day 7 and I think the cilantro has a few more days to sprout.

Tomato project: I did a little more research before heading over the garden center to purchase stuff for tomato plants. I got two of Bonnie's Tomato Plants - original and patio. I put them both in 5 gal containers (with holes) with a mixture of compost and soil. I'll have to take another look at the bags to see what brands I got, but both were organic. The boy did a good job getting down and dirty with me and the tomato plants lugging around the sacks of soil in the rain so we could get them potted before dark. Thank you Lovely! :) I'll have to get some photos up soon. Tata for now!