My garden

Last summer on a random whim I decided to plant a small container herb garden on our patio--rosemary, chives, parsley, and I attempted basil and cilantro but they did not survive long.  I had no idea what I was doing, but it turned out really well and it was amazing to have fresh herbs in my cooking!

This summer I decided to be a little more prepared so I checked out "The Bountiful Container" from the library and I learned so much!  The book goes over basic setup, techniques to start from seed, and then in-depth sections on the most common/easiest container plants.  I read it cover to cover and decided on beets, lettuce, lavender, parsley, rosemary, chives, thyme, and to give basil another try!  I wanted to do beets because they are one of my favorite vegetables and from the book I learned there are a lot of varieties of lettuce that can't be purchased in the store because they are too delicate to transport so I really wanted to try one of those and decided on the Black Seeded Simpson. 

These are my purchases so far...
$5 pellet tray
$2 water bottle
$12 on seeds

Although starting from seed is a little more difficult, it is a lot cheaper- so for the plants that were stated in the book as easy to start from seed I decided to give it a whirl and....

They are doing surprisingly well!  I really didn't think they would all germinate but it only took a couple days and so far I only have one pellet that didn't sprout at all.  I moved them to egg cartons lined with aluminum foil because the book said once they sprout they don't need to be covered and this way they fit on the window sill much easier. 

Well, this was a really long post but that is my setup and I will keep you updated!