How does your garden grow?

Pretty good! Remember those photos of our yard that I posted a little while ago, well I thought it was time for an update. David and I have enjoyed having our own little garden this year. We planted red onions, spinach, carrots, basil, cilantro, cukes, zucchini, pumpkins, beans and peas. I love having a little space that's just big enough for a little bit of everything, yet not to big to be a pain for weeding.

Today we discovered we have two zucchini that are almost too big already! How did that happen so quickly? David was shocked at my inital discovery since he checks the garden every day after work and often in the morning, and somehoe missed these beauties. Must have been his man eyes!

The tomatoes are coming along as well. We planted a few different varieties just for fun. If only we knew which one was which. Below is our row of tomatoes lining the fence.We grew lots of basil from seed this year. We've only ever bought it as small plants, but since we use so much of it we thought we would try the seed packet instead this year...so far so good.

Here's a change from one of the original photos I posted. I dug up flower beds along the house and fence. I was able to get some plant donations from neighbours to fill up the beds.

The hardest thing about doing up a garden for cheap/ free is having patience. I planted lots of nasturtiums in pots and in the flower beds. Seeds take time and therefore patience. Sometimes I look at our neighbours flower pots and beds bursting with colour and wish our were a little more pretty. But then I remind myself how much flowers cost and feel fine with the greenery and little burst of colour that we have. I am loving our black eyed susans, so bright and cheery!

Notice the little tree in the back of the above photo? I got some curly willow branches from a woman down the road who was giving them away a couple of months ago. She dug out a bush and had lots of extra branches. She told me that if I planted the branches they would take root and grow. I was pretty skeptical, but since free is free and I had an empty flower bed I thought I had nothing to lose. Anyways, I am happy to say that the little branches have indeed taken root, are green and growing well. Love it!

We've also got some pretty shasta daisies growing next to the black eyed susans.

This is our little back patio. I got the patio set for $10, it's nothing fancy but it's doing the trick. I planted some basil in pots to have on and around the table for easy access. It was perfect for the spaghetti we had outside the other night.
Here's one of my wine barrels with flowers and hostas. I got the little bench at a garage sale for $2. It's great for if we need extra seats and it a good place for some of my pots. The pots have some flowers, herbs, hens and chicks, etc in them.

Lastly, here's our second wine barrel full of a variety of herbs. All of these pots actually have some kind of herb or nasturtium plants in them. Sarah loves hanging out here and smelling the herbs.

Anyways, that's it for the garden update. That turned out to be much longer than I intended, oh well. At least our yard/ garden doesn't look the same as it did in my previous yard post.