Starting small

By the first week of March we'd started weeding and tilling the old plot out back, the same garden space used for decades by a Gerald Thames, a man we've never met, but who built and lived in this house with his wife, Pansy, from the 1940s until a few years ago.

We worked chicken and cow manure into the garden plot, and used organic soil in the starter pots (Miracle Gro brand)... almost all of our plants are sprouting now. Some are already in the plant rows, many are still in seedling pots. PFE got tubing, stakes and nozzles and has created a great watering system, fed by the old well. (Another useful legacy of Mr. Thames.) There's a bit of sand in the water this year, but it's not clogging. Here's the plant list so far

radishes (from seeds)
Italian bush beans (from seeds)
onions (from seedlings)
carrots (from seeds)
okra (from seeds)
tomatoes (from seeds... beefsteak and sweeties)
garlic (that comes up every year from the prior owner)
strawberries (from seedlings)
eggplants (seedlings and from seeds)
herbs - basil, parsley, tarragon (from seeds... also some basil seedlings)
brussel sprouts (from seedlings)

I think that's everything. And this past weekend (3/21) I planted two flower rows... zinnias and sunflowers. Three or four years ago my friend Kimber told me she'd had good luck with zinnias on Folly Beach. Ever since, I've planted them... with two packs of seeds giving me daily blooms from June or July to fall. I planted the annual two packs again this year.