You might remember my garden posts from last year. In case you don’t, long story short: I had a little Victory Garden that I adored. I had 3 tomato varieties (Celebrity, Big Boy & a little patio tomato), 3 peppers (Cubanelle, red sweet pepper & Big Bertha), an eggplant (Black Beauty), Elite zucchini & Marketmore cucumber… plus all the herbs you can imagine; rosemary, cilantro, sweet basil, variegated oregano, mint, Italian parsley, fringed lavender and chives. I was all about using my fresh herbs & veggies to cook with last year, and I was pretty much totally bummed when the season ended. I ended up drying all my herbs that could be dried and jarring them for use throughout the fall/winter. I still couldn’t wait to start digging in the dirt again, smelling the sunshine & eating my own vegetables I grew myself right outside my back door.

So of course as soon as the weather was nice, I cleaned out all my pots & containers & got them all ready for a new season. My chives were already crazy, they were huge with their little purple chive-y flowers on top, and my variegated oregano had come back along with my mint. I basically decided I’d skip the zucchini this year (last year I did not have luck with that, Google the terrible phrase ‘zucchini flower abortion’ and you’ll see why) and that I’d skip the catnip too (same results as the zucchini, oddly), but that I’d get pretty much the same stuff as last year. Last year was the first year I expanded past herbs (& my roses which I’ve been into for years) into vegetables, and I had a pretty nice crop so I figured why not stick with what works? So I bought three tomatoes again, this time Beefsteak, Better Boy & a Roma (my fave!). I also got another eggplant, another cucumber (Burpless Hybrid, some of which I plan on picking at a smaller size to pickle) and three peppers: one Cowhorn, one Habanero (oh yes, I went there) and one red Bell pepper. Then I went herb crazy! Cilantro, dill, rosemary, flat Italian parsley, oregano, more mint, sweet basil– oh my. I don’t have any lavender yet, but I might buy a small plant if I see one. Alot of my plants this year are from Bonnie. Last year I had one & it grew amazing, so since I was running a bit late with my planting I decided to go with some fully grown plants from them. They’ve been around since 1918 & have an excellent reputation, so if you’re too impatient (or too late) to grow from seeds- go buy Bonnie!

It may sound dumb and obvious, but I strongly recommend tomato cages with the larger varieties. Last summer I only had one cage & ended up tying my other tomatoes to large wooden stakes & praying in heavy wind & rain that they’d be okay. I got lucky, but better to be safe than sorry, right? I did lose an eggplant to a bad storm, though. That couldn’t have been helped anyway, the vine just snapped.

Here’s my romaine. I can’t wait to start eating this, romaine is one of my favorite lettuces!

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And here’s that variegated oregano from last year. I love it.

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Here are some of my other herbs. Don’t worry, I won’t show you everything, because there’s nothing exciting yet in terms of growth. Once I start getting buds on the tomatoes & peppers, etc I’ll get picture-crazy again.

Basil, chive & my skinny little parsley. If it’s anything like last year, it’ll end up 3 ft tall!

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Cilantro is another of my favorite herbs, ever

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Great with chicken!

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Look- some buds on my Cowhorn pepper! Looks like those’ll be the first to have a taste-test.

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And finally… my most favoritest of the vegetables this year… the one tomato I really hope grows huge… my Roma!

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That’s basically it for now. Hopefully in another few weeks I’ll have more interesting shots to share. I’m also really excited for the Cowhorn pepper; all my peppers last year were sweet or mild. This one is supposedly much hotter, which I like. I can’t wait to make some pico de gallo & salsa & summer tomato sauce with my OWN veggies! I already made a cilantro-lime Jasmine rice with my cilantro, which was amazingly delicious. And easy- just snip off some cilantro, pull off the leaves and put them in with Jasmine rice as it cooks. When it’s almost ready, squirt in some lime juice & sprinkle some salt. Ta-da! And I think I’ll make some hot sauce or some hot salsa with my habanero’s. Beware, all ye who dine at my house *smile* You never know when I might get my peppers mixed up. Mwahahaha.

If you’re interested in container gardening, or totally new to it & wanna learn more, here’s a great resource, and here’s another. It’s really easy & fun to do, not to mention extremely gratifying. If you’re scared, start off small with herbs. I know Gina told me she’s a bit scared because, in her words, “how do I grow a thumb? as in any one, mine isn’t even black, its non-existent!” You might remember her from Cooking the Books, but she’s got a new venture now: The Sweet Life Center. If you’re a mom or mommy-to-be and you live in the LI/NYC area, you might wanna check it out! And you can follow it on Twitter too @yoursweetliving to find out more. Anyway, Gina says she’s scared to start a garden, but it really is easy! I promise. Start off by buying a few fully grown herb plants. If they last through the summer, try growing them from seeds the next spring. Then if that works, buy some fully grown vegetable plans (and LARGE pots, if you’re not planting them in the ground) and see if you can go without killing them. If you succeed, try growing them from seeds the next spring. There are tons of online resources you can access, including answers to just about any question you have.

While I was planting, I remembered a funny story. Back when I was little, maybe 10, I wanted to grow vegetables. I don’t really know why, at the time I didn’t eat any of ’em! But I loved to plant & garden so I guess I just wanted to grow stuff. I went with my mom & bought tomato seeds & planted them. A few weeks later, a large plant was coming up! It was green with big leaves so I staked it up and went and got a tomato cage and some fertilizer. I diligently fertilized my tomato plant, pruning dead leaves off and weeding the soil. A few weeks later, it was huge! At least 4 ft. tall …but no buds. I wasn’t too concerned, but my parents kept saying, “Where are the tomatoes!?” I guess I was just so excited about growing something, I didn’t even realize it hadn’t fruited. Nearing the end of the season, my aunt Marilyn & uncle Pat (who you may remember passed away recently) came over for a barbecue & I was all excited to show my uncle my tomato plant. I dragged him over to it and said “Here it is! My tomato!” And he looked at it, squinted at it, bent over, felt it, squinted some more, then straightened up and turned to me. He said, chuckling, “That is not a tomato. That’s a weed.”

Yep. I caged & fertilized a weed for 3 months. Needless to say, I’ve gotten considerably better over the last 20 years. Maybe uncle Pat will be lookin’ over my garden this summer, keeping things in line for me celestially.