It was 80° in Portland while I was on vacation in Mexico! Guess I should have stuck it out a little longer. :) Anyway, the hot weather coaxed my favorite red and black tulips to bloom and get promptly scorched. …there’s always next year.

Vegetable Garden Planning
Last year I had one 4×4′ raised bed vegetable garden. It was my first attempt at gardening and I thought I if I was successful with one box I could graduate to two or three boxes this summer. Yeah! I’m currently trying to figure out how to fit everything I want to grow into three 4×4′ boxes. I overcrowded things last year and it got pretty messy toward the end of the season.

The image above is my initial garden sketch for this year. My “must haves” are tomatoes, peppers, basil, cilantro, lettuce and peas. I’m excited to try out cucumber, green onions and basil this year.

A few self-imposed guidelines for narrowing down planting choices:

• Veggies I buy often.
• Veggies that are expensive.
• Veggies that have a short fridge-life and/or are best picked fresh.
• Plants that are easy to grow.
• Plants with a small footprint.

What’s on your “must have” garden list this year?

I was getting pretty antsy about starting my garden so we went to Drake’s 7 Dees this weekend. I always prefer a local garden center over the facelessness of Home Depot or Lowes and today I wasn’t disappointed! There are real people walking around, ready to answer questions and help.

I brought my BHG garden plans with me, so I showed a Drake’s employee. She was quite excited and after a few minutes there was a small crowd gathered around to help! Apparently one was the “orderer” so he had all the dates the various plants would come in. They thought it was a little early for my Mailbox Garden and suggested I start with the planter box Easy-Care Cottage Garden and wait to tackle the Mailbox Garden in late April or early May.

The Osteospermum caught my eye right away – there was a ton of variety and they all looked pretty healthy (not that I’d know how to spot an unhealthy plant). There were some interesting textured ones with twirled up petals, but I settled on the classic shape in a light purple shade and orange. I was researching color combinations when I got home and found this awesome photo from the Garden Wise Guy – Mexican Evening Primrose and dark purple Osteospermums. Oh well, I already committed to my Osteospermums and Nasturtiums!

My total purchase was three 4-inch Osteospermum plants, a packet of red and orange Nasturtium seeds and a packet of Morning Glory seeds (that I may use in the side yard).

The Osteospermums are already in the ground! When we got home I tilled up the flowerbed and added some leftover soil from last year’s veggie garden. They look really tiny all alone in that big planter box. I hope they fill out. And it’s still too cold to start the Nasturtium seeds, so I think I’ll wait until after vacation. The only other things in that flower bed are tulips – I hope they don’t bloom while I’m in Mexico.

In all, a good start.

The weather has me thinking about (flower) gardening. I’ve been musing over the Better Homes and Garden’s gardening plans all winter and have narrowed it down to two plans since I tend to get a little carried away. I love how BHG.com has the plans in PDF form (and I’ve saved them all in case they get interactive on us).

Here are my two choices:

Easy-Care Cottage Garden
Combines nostalgic plants with easy-care gardening. I’m opting for just the Nasturtiums and Osteospermums since the brick planter box is only two feet by 12 feet.

Mailbox Garden
Tough plants for the harsh growing conditions surrounding a street-side mailbox. I might be biting off a little too much with this one…but it’s so pretty! I’d love to have this by my mailbox. The plan looks like a lot of work but there’s a good chance the plants will survive since they are “sturdy” and “drought/heat tolerant.” The plan is for an 11 by 15 foot section but I may take out a few plants in the back row to shrink it down a bit.

Week 8 – Throwing A Party
Find a recipe
Prepare your apartment the day before
Get home early
Vacuum
Do a final purge for clutter and empty the Outbox
Buy fresh flowers
Cook & eat at home this week
Plan the week ahead

Who first discovered all of these flower tips? Like the penny/tulip one… Did someone accidentally drop a penny in the bottom of a vase and then realize that it made the tulip stems stand up straight? Or did a scientist/botanist know that copper reacted with the flower? I guess I could Google it. Nah… I really just wanted to take pictures of all the flowers I bought for $5 at the farmer’s market. 16 flowers for $5… awesome!

Week 2 – Clearing the path
Clean kitchen from top to bottom
Outbox
Buy fresh flowers
Determine your style
Find a new recipe & cook at home
Choose the date of your housewarming

*Update*
I think I really identified my style last time. At first, I thought the “list your favorites” exercise was a little silly. Really, what do my favorite actors and music, where I was raised, and who my role model is, have to do with my decorating style? However, once you have them all listed out, it’s kind of neat to see the underlying theme. So, to re-cap, I shall call my style “eclectic organic modern,” because just organic modern doesn’t quite fit me. :)

Week 1 – Creating your own vision
Repairs: living room blinds
Vacuum
Move bike to balcony
Sit on the balcony and observe the space
Buy fresh flowers (a habit now!)
Earth-friendly cleaning products (Method qualifies)