Growing Herbs and Vegtables

What a beautiful day! It was one of those days that you wished would last forever. I had to take my husband to Home Depot for a few staining supplies so he can finish a couple of doors that he is replacing upstairs. I had to drive since he is nursing a very sore back that has been out since last Thursday. He has been to the emergency room on Friday where they gave him muscle relaxers, pain pills and steroids. Then yesterday he saw his doctor who took x-rays and gave him different pain pills that he could take during the day that wouldn't make him so sleepy. I think he getting a bit more movement back but I think it is going to be a while before he is back to his old self.
So any way back to my story: I told Wayne I was just going to pick up some fertilizer for my outdoor plants while he was getting his stuff. Well, I was amazed at how many more plants Home Depot has since the last time I had been there. So I found myself browsing around the aisles and aisles of plants then then the next thing I know I have a cart and filling it with plants and a big bag of organic potting soil. I ended up getting Sweet Basil, Oregano, Cilantro and an orange pepper plant.

 I decided to plant them all in one big pot and see how they do.

 The little pepper plant has eight little peppers already starting to set on. I am hoping the slugs do not like peppers.I have such a hard time with those nasty critters eating some of my plants.

 I tried planting some carrots last summer from seeds and they did come up but I think we planted them to late in the season and I just dropped them in the soil which where I planted them was pretty much just sand. Although I do know carrots like sandy soil I just think they needed a little something else added in. Any way some came back this summer and the tops were about two feet tall so I pulled a couple today just to see what was growing.

Well,it wasn't much. I think the poor carrots were missing some nutrients and they were a little soft and maybe they had too much water this spring since the side was split on two of the three plants I pulled.

 So I ended up just putting them in the compost pile. If  I try carrots again I will add something to the sand and plant at the proper time. At least I know they will grow.

And since I am on the subject of gardening I might as well post the photos of my azaleas that bloomed so well this year and my purple rody.

 These red azaleas bloomed profusely and so did my pink and white ones.

 The azaleas were so heavy with blooms that I'm surprised they could hold up their branches. Sadly now they are all done blooming and their pretty petals are littering the ground with their prettiness.

 This is in our garden in the backyard.

 All of  my other iris are purple except for this one.

 The bees seem to love my flowers and we also have lots of butterflies.

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Right now I am working on a special project that I hope to have done in the next couple of days. Although I might not be brave enough to post it. It is mixed media and it took me several days maybe even weeks just to get up the nerve to start. So I'll just have to wait and see whether it is something worthy to appear in blogland.

Teresa