I’m dreaming of spring tonight, so I thought I’d share some of my gardening with you.  Last year was the first year I had really tried my hand at gardening.  Considering that I don’t have that natural green thumb, I think I did okay.  We have a walkway that leads from the back of our garage to our deck behind our house.  On one side of this pathway I have a designated an area for a perennial garden.  On the other side, I’ve carved an area out for a vegetable garden.  Both areas were basically barren when we moved into our house in September 2009.  Last year was a good start, but this year I plan to fill up the space and use it better.

I’m planning on doing this year’s vegetable garden much the same way as last year.  I plan to do most of my plants from seeds because it’s less expensive that way, I think you get more options of vegetable varieties to choose from, and it’s just fun!  I will start some seeds indoors in March (tomatoes, bell peppers & hot peppers, and probably some flowers), and will transplant those to my garden area in mid-spring.   

The rest of the seeds I will sow directly into the garden.  My vegetable garden will be expanded this year to make room for some new plants, among them watermelon, green beans, grape tomatoes, spinach and maybe some potatoes.  If everything grows well, it will be a very full space!

Although I’ve only been at it for one year, I’ve already re-arranged my perennials a couple of times.  I think I finally have a layout that will work…but we’ll find out come spring!  This past fall I planted a whole bunch of bulbs – mostly tulips and daffodils—and did my final re-arrangement of my plans.  My hope is to entirely fill up the space with plants, so as to not even be able to see the ground.  I was not even close to that last year, but I still think I made some decent progress:

The pathway is something I’m still trying to figure out.  Strange as it may sound, I always wanted a house with a stone pathway.  I got one, but it wasn’t very pretty.  I think what I would like to do is to grow creeping thyme throughout the whole pathway so that it covers any ground between the stepping stones.  I started some creeping thyme from seeds last year, and I ended up with a few plants that flourished.  I will need a LOT more this year if I want to begin to try to cover the walkway.

My overall goal with my garden is to create a serene space that I can enjoy, with a variety of plants.  I want flowers that I can cut and put in a vase on my kitchen table, and I want vegetables that I can pick and make for dinner.  Regardless of how it looked last year, I did really enjoy the time I spent out there, and I look forward to trying it all over again this year!  

Here's a few more pictures from last year's garden for your viewing pleasure: