From the Yummy and the Pretty Sides of Maegan's Garden

I started this blog a few months back with a goal of making one side of my small yard pretty and the other side yummy. And today, after 5 months I'm now enjoying fresh blooms and vegetables from my little patch of  the Earth. I've harvested fresh kangkong (Chinese greens), okra, radishes, eggplant and green peppers.This is where I get fresh basil and tomatoes for pasta, parsley for meatballs, malunggay for monggo and tinola, chives for fish and dill for salads. I shared some basil plants too with my neighbors and inspired them with what they call "green revolution".

Below are the plants and harvests from the pretty and yummy side of our little garden in the city.

From the pretty side of my garden, the pinks, red, orange, white and purple blooms started to make an appearance this month. Here are some fresh cut flowers and pictures of my flower patch where I grow zinnias, asters, carnation, sunflower (they will bloom in May) and recently, ageratum.

This is my flower bed. I used empty formula tin cans (painted white) to plant asters. I also planted some asters on the ground. The ones in little black plastic pots are basil as my left side of the garden is already full. The one in the middle planted in the big round clay pot are dill and sunflower. Though I also have about 6 other sunflowers in the bed itself interspersed with mostly zinnias, aster and carnation.

Budding zinnias

The pretty side--I can't wait until all the flowers are in bloom.

The pinkiest zinnia in the garden. :-) This is a semi-full bloom of the profusion series.

Red single bloom zinnia.

Blooming purple zinnia. This one is a semi-full bloom.

Asters. I planted them in painted white tin cans.

Even the asters on the ground with poor soil are blooming! :-)

Chives should be in the Yummy Side of the yard but again t's so full of plants as you will see later. You can also the full bloom red zinnia and white zinnias beside the chives.

Now let me show you the Yummy Side of the fence. Below, you can see my vegetable patch. It has tomatoes (big and small ones, the biggest is about the size of my fist), basil, eggplant, calamansi, malunggay trees, guava tree, parsley, squash, okra, green pepper and in the small plant box lemon tree seedlings. I used to have radishes which were so stunted and upland kangkong but they got some disease so I uprooted them both and transplanted the basil where they used to be. The tomatoes are bearing lots of fruit, I was about to uproot them because it's been 4 months and not a single  and fruit when I saw a single small flower and I decided to give them a chance. Within a month, it bore over 100 tomatoes and it's still blooming so I'm definite I'll be getting more. The only problem is the aphids. I already bought a sprayer and will take care of them as soon as my baby daughter let me have some gardening time.

Yummy side with my lavender plants at the back.

Today's harvest.

The tomatoes are about this big!

Below, you can see the eggplants. This is the first fruit and I hope to get some more. It's planted in a recycled mineral water plastic bottle (same as with the parsley and green pepper).

Green Pepper:

Below you can see a small growing guava tree which I think is planted by the birds. Underneath it,large Italian parsley and an eggplant.

Quite recently I also planted squash right where the sunflower didn't germinate on the left side. I never thought they would all germinate still for they've been sitting on the kitchen window sill for around 3 months and looked so dry. Our previous house helper wanted to plant them for herself but forgot to. I intended to feed the birds with it, but they grew to my surprise! I hope they grow healthy.

And of course, my lavender which was the main reason I got into gardening.

 It's been raining for two days and I hope it doesn't kill them. One of the two grown French lavender that I bought look like it's dying when I transplanted it two days ago. I will write about in another entry on lavender growing. By the way I put an update on my 5th month lavender growing experience in the tropics five days ago here: Lavender Growing Update: 5th Month

Not in the picture are: Calamansi which is under the tomato plants and floss flower (ageratum seedlings).

Over the coming days I will talk about each plant and what I learned about them. Just like people they have different temperaments and preferences which surprised me. This gardening experience is truly rewarding and it's my wish to share this wonderful experience with you.