and the garden grows

The month of May has been more than good to our garden.

At the end of April, it looked like this:

Strong seedlings. The mesclun was the runaway success from the start, but all of the greens have been surprisingly hearty. We planted the onions a week after the greens, but they sprouted quickly. See those tiny guys?

And the tomatoes have been loving the sunny days.

By May 6, the kale had taken off.

The other greens have been a little slower to grow. I think it’s because this tupperware has glass bottles in the bottom, while the other has rocks. I think all the nooks and crannies in the rocks are probably better for drainage. Lesson learned.

The onions take patience as well, but they’re chugging along.

I’m loving how easy tomatoes are. We’re planning on planting a second variety because, well, why not?

Our habaneros are the only really sad story so far. We had a few days of cold rain, and I think they’re just too desert-loving to survive a cool spell. The leaves are yellowing, and I’m not sure if we can revive them. Can’t win them all.

By this weekend, some of the greens had officially exploded and we finally got to pick them.

Our first harvest yielded a whole ton of mesclun (which we’re sowing every 3 weeks so we have greens all summer long) and a good amount of kale. And delicious greens they were. (Yes, we ate them all already.)

Since our first foray into gardening has been mostly successful, we decided yesterday to do some more planting, starting with herbs. Mint, flat parsley, curly parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, and sage. Daniel has been building planters from scrap wood when he has an extra minute. Cute, right?

The garden needed some color, so we picked up an angelonia from the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket. I love purple flowers of any variety.

We also planted some forget-me-nots from seed, along with cucumbers, zucchini, and string beans. Pictures of seedlings to come in the near future, probably by next week if this sunshine keeps up.

I can’t wait to harvest more veggies. And if they’re eager growers like the greens, we might just venture into berries as well. The roof is going to be a jungle. Nice.