Gardening journey of 2007

When I start writing about our garden, I can't but include the poem by Emily Dickenson:

My Garden

New feet within my garden go,
New fingers stir the sod;
A troubadour upon the elm
Betrays the solitude.

New children play upon the green,
New weary sleep below;
And still the pensive spring returns,
And still the punctual snow!

Its been 7 months now that the journey began and some 'no shows' not withstanding, the 'garden' is living up to its first time endeavors.Its a journey taken mostly by me and Rishi with Sandip in the sidelines - passing skeptical comments at our over zealousness.
It is funny how the same person now wants to till the soil for next year and is beginning to find 'some' beauty in the garden.

The first show was put forward by the dainty daffodils. Very easy to get them going, I didn't have to drop a sweat for them - not that I could have in the cold climes of PNW February! I was surprised by how early they bloomed. By the time we moved to the second week of February, the Daffy's were in full bloom. They even withstood the frost and a couple of about 2" snow days. Will have to increase their population next year.

The Pansies bloomed all along. There never was a time when there wasn't a single pansy in bloom.Such hardy flowers!! I even found a few stray ones growing across the yard where they were spared from the evil mower!! Survived the unusually nasty Seattle winter and up to 6" of snow.
And so did the strawberries - lots of little, red strawberries grew all along the inner edge of the garden.Very sweet tasting too.Plucked and ate a lot of fresh strawberries.
Then came the turn of Blue Grape Hyacinths - I think I would have been less impressed had I been a more seasoned gardener.But nevertheless anything that survives my 'not-at-all-green' thumb brings smile and joy to me.
By mid March, we planted the Snow peas - these were Rishi's babies and he had so much fun planting them. We were not prepared for the size these became by May. We got a yield of at least 2lbs of peas.It was fun to watch Rishi pluck the peas from the plants. Sandip thought this was the pick of our gardening effort - no surprise here!!
We also planted flowering Sweet Peas seeds around the same time.These did pretty well with very sweet smelling pink and white flowers blooming. But I feel that these look much better when a lot of them are grouped together.Will try that next year.
I tried getting peppermint to grow roots from the bunch that we bought from Indian Store and one of them did. I now have a container full of peppermints growing in my patio.During this time, I also got a package of three different types of mints from Illinois sent by fellow gardener of Gardenstew forum( thanks Zazu).All three types of mints growing robustly.
Now comes the turn of my marigolds and sunflowers.My over enthusiastic self took over and I went ahead and sowed the seeds early March.Well, within 2 weeks, I ran out of containers to put the sprouts in and outside was still too cold!! So sacrificed a lot of the seedlings and kept a few. Now I have 5 healthy sunflower plants with buds in them.One of them is blooming. YEAH!!
The four marigolds that I ultimately kept are also doing very good and blooming.These are very easy to grow and brings back childhood memory of the garden we had in the Railway quarter we lived in.
The day lilies (it seems they are called Star Gazers - not sure though), Irises and roses all did very well.The day the lilies bloomed, I was so thrilled. I thought that they would be a no show this year.
The tomato plant - which I bought from Rite Aid mid July, is trying its best to bear some fruit.
Pepper plant is a hoot - bought the seed packet from store,sowed early March,waited and waited, nothing happened. Well towards the end of April, I took some seeds from the packet of dried red pepper we use for cooking, sowed them and lo and behold - sprouts!! I now have one of them doing well. I hope it is not too late to see some fresh home grown green chillies.
Last but not the least, I am still waiting for the canna lilies to bloom. The leaves are so green and lush.The buds have also come up - so hopefully will not have to wait much longer.These are in the huge wooden containers. Planning to put some in the ground too for next year.
Will update as and when I see more changes in the garden.The link to the garden pictures are:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tinakarmakar5/MyGarden200703

9/27/07 : Looks like the tomotoes won't have the time to ripen and green chillies won't have the time to grow :(
Will have to plant these earlier next year.

Will continue adding pictures too!! Enjoy!! Don't forget to add your comments.