Hen Gardening Party

Oh! Am I kicking myself for not taking any photos at our little hen gardening party! (There weren’t actually any hens there, city ordinances against livestock and all, but that’s what I called it to gently let the fellas know that it was a ladies party.) I made a pot of tea, we covered the kitchen table in newspaper, rolled up our sleeves, swapped seeds, started seeds, and generally had a lovely time of it! Lovely LP has never really gardened before, as she laughingly told us “I want to be a gardener, I really do.” So JM and I were giving a few tips, and we loaded her up with peas and lettuces and spinach and chard to plant in the next few days and beans and squash and cucumber seeds to plant Mother’s Day weekend. Her clever daughter took some snapdragon and convolvulus seeds to put in a pot together (I thought she had a rather ingenious idea to put the snaps in the center of a pot to grow tall and then to have the convolvulus trailing around the edge. I love the creativity of children.)
And then when I thought we had totally overloaded her with gardening information and the hopes and dreams and wishes of fresh vegetables from her own garden, we started seeds in flats. And I’m not just talking one or two, we started enough seeds for at least 6 gardens!

Tomatoes:

• Brandywine
• Mexico
• Cherokee Purple (my personal favorite)
• Mr. Stripey
• Eva Purple Ball
• Early Annie
• Roma VF

Cherry Tomatoes:

• Yellow Pear
• Blondkopfchen
• Ghost Cherry
• Camp Joy
• Gardener’s Delight
• Hawaiian Currant
• Black Cherry

Peppers:

• Jalepeno M
• Garden Salsa
• Sweet Bell Pepper Mix (I have no idea what will come up!)
• Sweet Banana Pepper Mix (again, surprises!)

Eggplants:

• Black Beauty
• Lavender Touch Hybrid

Other:

• Libson Bunching Onions
• Impatiens
• Marigolds
• Parsley

(I'm a little nervous about whether there's enough room for them all once they're transplanted.... we'll see how that goes in about a month)

After everyone left, I transplanted the Lavender Lady that was ready (23 of these little guys)

And that’s on top of the little starts that are already sprouting!

Thyme seedlings are super easy to grow - these are about 2 weeks old.

The super high-tech seedling markers are pieces of paper encased in packing tape.

JM scolded me a little that I haven’t been blogging the garden as it grows till now, and that it’s not just my garden that I’m growing, so I should be sharing what’s happening to all of these little seeds. Perhaps this is the start of something wonderful, helping other folks learn to grow their own food and flowers. I like the idea of that, growing my and other folks gardens. It’s like gardening foster care, when the little plants are ready, they’ll move on to their permanent homes.

So here’s the blog, lovely JM!

And here’s to another day in the Maple Tree Garden.