Grow, garden, grow!

There's an abundance of greenery here at the apartment - so much that we needed to rearrange the living room to accommodate everyone's sun needs!

From seed, Sean and I grew regular basil (that towering green plant in the above photo), Thai Basil and Black Opal Basil which is a lovely shade of purple with a green outline! We also grew tomatios, hot peppers, cilantro, parsley and a slew of flowers - Cypress Vine, Morning Glories and Poppies! In the left window in the photo above is my poor succulent I rescued from a greenhouse at the end of last summer. Somehow its still hanging on! And in the right window is a glass of green onion roots, happily growing away. If you use green onions, don't throw out the white root - just sink it in a glass of water and stick it in a window - the shoots will regenerate!

With little success last year growing tomatoes and cucumbers from seed, we purchased some sprouts well on their way and planted them in the orange buckets and planters to the right. Also, some strawberry plants ( I can't wait!) and some mint! Oh and some catnip, which Kali immediately attacked!

 Having searched for Anemones (the flower, not sea creature) for quite some time, I was lucky to come across a plant two weeks ago at a nursery! Sadly, it's not fairing too well, and I can't figure out why! The second round of flowers were pale pink, rather than a deep red as the first batch was. Hmm...

It's been so rewarding to watch these plants grow from seed, especially the regular basil - it just took off immediately! We had sprouts in the beginning of March and by mid-April, the basil leaves were as large as my hand!

Also fun(ny) has been watching Sean take care of the basil - his favorite. I came home one day to find the basil in the bathroom, which has a west-facing window, for maximum sunlight exposure. I guess this just proves Sean would make a good father one day, haha!

We started the seedlings back in late February/the first week of March, when there was still some snow covering spring blossoms, and lined our window sills with the small pots.  It's been fun to check on the daily growth of the seeds and then sprouts and now full-on plants. I would highly recommend trying your hand at gardening. You don't even need a green thumb! Basil, cilantro and parsley have been exceptionally easy to grow. For flowers, sunflowers and morning glories were also simple! All you need is waster, dirt and sunlight!