The gardening begins...

Began planting seeds in little pots a few weeks ago, and from that effort I've got some nice looking spinach coming up. I was shocked to find that zucchini planted 5 days ago has already germinated and is coming up with gusto. Read a blog post that zucchini plants yield huge crops (love that there's a "Sneak some zucchini onto your neighbour's porch day" in August). I'm not a huge zucchini fan, so I'll have to find some good recipes for using them up. In the house, also have planted dill, mint and some gypsy peppers.

Eventually I hope to transplant the seedlings to our big outdoor garden. We have 3 beds going, 1 of which is huge and 2 are much smaller. In these gardens I've planted some purchased seedlings which include pickling cucs, more zucchini, and purple peppers (which I've been told I shouldn't have planted yet b/c it's still too cold, but we'll give it a go). Some herbs too - big fragrant basil plants, sage and cilantro. I've got some heirloom Scarlet Nantes carrot seeds to plant in there as well.

I'm really loving all the heirloom varieties of plants you can get from B.C. providers. Most of the seeds planted so far have been from West Coast Seeds. I couldn't help myself yesterday and bought a few seeds packets online from Salt Spring Seeds. I'm becoming a bit obsessed with all the rare varieties of plants that you can get, especially tomatoes. I decided on Bali tomatoes b/c they look really interesting (ridged w/ marbling of pink, yellow and red) and are supposed to taste fantastic. I'm so excited to make Jamie Oliver's homemade ketchup recipe from Jamie at Home. Also ordered a lettuce blend and yellow lavender (I couldn't resist - I'm a sucker for lavender). I especially love the lavender's description on the site:

The scent has citrus overtones with a hint of spicy lavender, so place it where you like to walk in your garden for full enjoyment.

Now that I'm getting into this, I really think that everyone should grow their own food. It's so easy, and with all these different varieties, you can get things you'd never find in the grocery store.