Fruits of the Garden

I'm in garden mode this week, obviously. Bear with me if you're a black thumb, or aren't into that sort of thing. This year I didn't get to build the grandiose raised garden bed of my dreams. I haven't even started building a rain barrel or a compost bin. Each something I wish to accomplish over the summer. Hopefully.

I did manage to pick up a few plants from Aldi of all places. If you aren't familiar with Aldi, it's a great little German-based grocery store. The prices are low because you have to bag your own groceries (bring your own or buy them), shelf stocking is minimal (everything is pretty much set out on pallets), and you put a quarter into your shopping cart to use it which eliminates the need for having to chase down shopping carts throughout the parking lot. Anyway, we love Aldi. It's where we do all of our shopping for groceries aside from the local farmers market.

Here are the plants I managed to pick up from there:

Our $7 sweet pepper plant. We've already used a ton of peppers from this little plant, and there are so many more left. Can you believe that this little guy came with all of these peppers already on it? I had the intention of transplanting it into a bigger pot, but I might wait until we are done harvesting it. I don't want to put it into shock. I love dicing up the peppers and adding it to my egg salad.

The tomato and pepper plants here were each $2 at Aldi. I definitely need to repot these guys. I've already got a little 'mater growing. The smaller plant is lemon balm. He got a little crispy after not being watered one weekend when I was away. I need to put that into a bigger pot, too. Something to do hopefully after this weekend.

My plants have been living happily on the back porch now. I might just keep them there in the container garden. They get plenty of sun here, and brighten it up.

Our blackberry bush has blossoms, and I can't wait for it to produce. It's happy in it's new home on the side of the garage where it gets lots of morning and early afternoon sun. The raspberry bush does not have any blossoms, but it has been growing nicely. I bought the small black trellis from Lowes to help the plants have something to grip to along the base of the garage. It should suffice for the next year or two.

I'm a little disappointed that our garden is relatively small this year, but it gives me plenty of time to properly prepare a space for next year. Hopefully by then our compost pile will be established and ready to transplant some healthy, organic soil into the raised beds. It may be a slow transformation, but we will eventually get there. :)

How about you? Do you have a garden or are you a black thumb?