grow/eat/decorate: Garden Update: Late April

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
~Peter, Paul and Mary

It's been about 3 weeks since I planted my garden and I'm already getting excited by how well it's growing. Although it is still pretty early (i.e. cold) in the season for gardens in Illinois, I'm very encouraged by how well my little plants are doing.

What growing now: Late April

The biggest change in the garden is that I had to replant my herbs in bigger pots. I had planned to keep them in this cute little 3 pot planter, but they were already getting too big for it. The parsley especially wasn't doing very well in the small pot. The leaves kept wilting and turning yellow. Its doing much better since I moved it to a bigger pot and has a bunch of new leaves coming in. All of the herbs have been growing well and they seem big and sturdy enough now for me to start harvesting some to cook with.

Parsley

Chives

Orange Mint

Dill

Thyme

You can really tell in this picture of the thyme how my plants have been growing in the direction of the sun. I have been turning the pots fairly often to try to help them get sun on all sides of the plant.

The strawberry plant has been growing a bunch of new leaves too. And 2 tiny berries and a flower! Serious gardeners tell you to remove the first couple berries to help the plant grow stronger and have a bigger yield later, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet.

The lettuce and spinach seem to be doing well. They still seem very fragile and delicate (actually 'wimpy' is the word I keep using) so I'll be excited when they get stronger and more substantial.

Lettuce

Spinach

The cubanelle pepper plant has been my 'problem child' in the garden so far. It has been extremely finicky. It hasn't been growing as fast as all the others and it wilts constantly so I have it water it more often than the rest of the plants. In the last few days though it has seemed more stable so hopefully it won't give me much more trouble.

Finally, the tomato plant has been growing very well. It also seems very hardy so far which has been nice. I don't have to do too much to it and it just keeps getting more leaves.