I Like Thursdays 3-23-23

Toby and Rosie are helping me write my post

Welcome to my week of "Likes"!  If you would like to join in with me and other bloggers, just contact LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color, who graciously hosts this positive event each Thursday.

I had planned to post about what I like about my sewing room this week, but after I took photos I changed things up again - lol! So I will go with LeeAnna's prompt this week about vegetables:

"Do you plant a vegetable garden or pots of herbs? What are your favorites to plant? Do you prepare seeds in advance or buy little plants? A raised bed, patio pots, or in ground? Any suggestions to what grows well? Varieties you enjoy?"

Here are some pictures from my favorite gardening book

My dream garden!

Martha Stewart in her Turkey Hill Farm garden circa 1980s

Let me just say, I LIKE gardening! My dream for decades has been to have a lush vegetable garden, styled after Martha Stewart's profuse gardens featured in her Gardening - Month by Month book. I used to thumb through the pages of that book for hours and dream and plan! Her garden was huge, abundant, flourishing, and surrounded by roses. I never quite achieved the "Martha look" in gardens, but she inspired me, and over the years I have planted varieties of tomatoes, green beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, onions, peppers, strawberries, watermelon, and pumpkin - all with varying degrees of success - as well as herbs such as dill, cilantro, chocolate mint, basil, sage, and oregano.

This was the last big garden I had in 2020, before we moved to north Texas.

I used to prepare Excel spreadsheets for garden inventories with rough layouts of each section and kept religious notes for each year. I browsed seed catalogs and seed websites in the winter and had my seeds delivered before the end of the year. My favorite things to tend were tomatoes.

See the darker tones on those yellow tomatoes? Those were part of the color!

Some years I planted tomato seeds in starter trays filled with potting soil for seeds The year I bought a heat mat was a game changer, and using it alongside a window with good light is essential. Some years I opted for seedlings at either Home Depot or Lowe's, and I always looked for heirloom varieties. In my opinion the ones I started had stronger stems and roots than those I purchased. Overall, buying seedlings is much easier, but I miss looking through the enticing tomato names. Some of my favorite cherry tomatoes were Black Cherry (great eating with a sprinkle of salt), Brad's Atomic Grape (fun to look at and tasty), Yellow Pear (mild but looks beautiful in salad), and my very favorite and most flavorful cherry, Sungold. For eating tomatoes, the best (IMO) are Red Beefsteak (sweet and meaty) and Black Krim (juicy and pretty). Really you can't go wrong with any tomato that has "Black" in the name, as they tend to have a richer flavor. When I look at the photos of tomatoes on a seed website, I always look for tomatoes that look "beefy" with very few seeds. My favorite seed companies are Pinetree Garden Seeds and Baker Seeds. 

One of my successes with watermelon - it was good!

My husband built an arbor with a sitting bench for the garden, and I hung bird feeders in it and planted roses and vines to grow on it. Around it I planted several packets of zinnias, and they thrived and made a home for dozens of butterflies (and some bees!) I believe flowers are definitely good for gardens. I would give anything to have dozens of roses - climbing, antique, hybrid tea . I have yet to have any luck with any but climbing roses.

Since we acquired two dogs who love to trample and dig, my garden dreams are on hold for a bit. I do intend to plant a tomato or two and will head to Home Depot tomorrow to see what is available. How about you? Do you have garden plans this year? Do you have some secrets to gardening? What do you like to grow and how do you grow it? Be sure to check out other positive posts right here.