I am making a garden.
I tried in October, so that I could just transplant them outside in the spring, but my son killed them.
So, I'm starting over.
I've got tomato, strawberry, pumpkin, and apple seeds.

I'll post photos soon, hopefully.

Do you guys have a garden?
How green is your thumb?
Any tips and tricks to help a newbie?

Holy crap you're growing a tree? I wish you the best!

Thanks!
It's going to take a long time, but since we bought this house, I decided that I might as well.
xD
I like the idea of having a garden and letting neighbors have their pick~
I should grow some herbs as well, but I might just go and get the plants and replant.

I have a garden! My mom let me "take over" a garden she wasn't really using that's right outside my bedroom window. I spent two years working on it, but now that I'm in college I don't have much time to tend to it anymore. It has a lot of different things in it, but I'm not so great at garden planning and just sort of stuck things in various places as I got them, so even at its fullest, it looks a little sparse. If nothing else, I'd like to get more ferns and hostas to fill in some of the bare spots. Here's an incomplete list of what's in it:

• Ferns
• A Japanese painted fern
• Hostas
• Purple Irises
• Lily of the valley
• Daffodils
• Live-forevers
• Lamb's ear
• Hydrangea bush (alright, it's on the other side of the pathway, but close enough!)

Aaaand a couple of things I've forgotten the names of. One of them is this ground cover sort of plant with spotted leaves and little purple and pink flowers. It's ridiculously cute. Here's a bad picture. It's blooming now, so I ought to go take some photos of it tomorrow.

Sometimes I plant annuals, but I just really don't like bothering with things that don't come back. Just makes me sad.

As for tips, I read one piece of advise from a landscaper once that I've found to be very true: always plant in groups of odd numbers greater than one (excluding big things). One plant looks bad, so does two, four looks awkward. 3, 5, 7, that's the way to go.

If you're planting perennials, account for the fact that they'll get bigger as the years pass. But if you space them out too much, it'll look barren for the years until then. Account for that when you space, or consider filling blank spots with annuals.

Be really realistic with yourself when it comes to how much time you're willing to put into your garden, and research plants before you buy them. Don't buy an ultra fussy plant if you know there are going to be periods of time where you're not going to want to do more than water them a couple times a week. If you want low-maintenance, look no further than the sides of the road. If there's a flower you see absolutely flourishing along the highways come June, you know that plant is good for your area without any more care than mother nature allows it. Don't underestimate wildflowers.

Plant flowers that attract bees! Do it! Do it now! Bees are dying out like crazy, and planting flowers for them helps.

Get in mind some rough idea of what colors you want in your garden. Nature will look good with nature, but doing plants that are all dark-leaved can look better than a mish-mash of all different shades. Likewise, flowers. All different colors will look nice, but if you plan it out to be colors that complement each other (like purples and whites), you can get a look that's more cohesive and visually pleasing. Or if you dig the every color look, keep that in mind when you're shopping so you can get colors you don't have yet.

But what flowers do bees like? D:

Here you go!

Plant a Bee Garden

I can't wait until I can move into a bigger place. I don't think my co-renters would bee too happy if I attracted what they considered pests.

I want to plant a butterfly garden as well~

I'm scared of bees, and I hang my laundry, but I will try to do a bee garden.

I saw a thing where you make a little bird bath and add sugar water and banana slices and butterflies eat them right up! You have to keep it clean, though, and I'm not sure what other types of insects (if anything unsavory) it would attract.

There's no need to be scared of bees, they're really not aggressive unless you're messing with their hive or step on them or something. The scary ones are wasps and yellow jackets. Those will sting you just because you're there. Bees are much more mellow. Especially those big fat bumble bees. They just like buzzin' around.

I mean, if you're allergic to bees, then it's good to have a wariness of them, since the stings can affect you so badly. But if you're not, just don't step on them and you're good.

I was hella scared the other day.
I was hanging my laundry, and this big, fat bumble bee just showed up.
I basically dropped what I was doing and ran myself and my son inside, because I am not sure if we are allergic.

The big fat bees are so adorable, but I honestly never see them anymore. :(

I just saw one earlier today! I was taking a momentary break from studying to stare out the picture window in my living room, and suddenly this huge, fat bumblebee started buzzing around in front of it. He ran right into it with this big plunk and then sort of recoiled all dizzy and buzzed off. Poor thing.

I think it might rain today.
No laundry hanging today. D:

OH OH OH!
The tomato seeds germinated, and one pumpkin seed did!
Still waiting on the strawberries and apple.

Ooh, you're trying to grow an apple tree? That sounds so great! good luck with it! I'm under the impression that trees are pretty difficult to start from seeds. Personally, I just prefer to buy them as a sapling so I don't have to mess with the difficult early stages.

It hasn't even sprouted yet.
I'm going to do some research.


I need to simulate winter, got it.
Plus, I need to get another apple.
xD

When I would want to start out my plants (I planted pumpkins last year only for the surprise spring snow to kill them off), I would use an old trick from elementary school. Get a plastic sandwich bag and put a wet paper towel in it, so so wet that it makes a pool, but nice and damp. You then put the seeds in and place them on one side of the paper towel, tapping the bag to a window so that the seeds are facing outside.

It was always fun to watch the seeds starting to sprout. Of course, you do have to add a bit of water every so often to the paper towel doesn't get dry. I've never tried it with an apple seed, but it may work!

Yeah, I'm germinating the seeds in a wet (not sopping) paper towel in a closed resealable bag.
The apple seed I had to stick in the fridge.
I have to keep it there for TWO months.
The strawberries are going to take at least a month to germinate.

The tomatoes and pumpkins germinated fine; all but one tomato seed germinated!
I have six tomato seedlings, and two pumpkin (out of four).

The last time I did this, it was with tomatoes, bell peppers and cantaloupe.
I was growing them during winter in the house to transplant outside in the spring.
My son ripped them out of the trays the seedlings were in.
I almost cried.

So, I'm starting over.
I am starting a tad late, but spring showed up a little late, lol.
It's fourty six degrees outside right now!
D:

Um, so I have a germinated apple seed if I could mail it to you. o__o A whole apple full actually. Apparently if you leave fresh apples in the fridge for more than a month and a half they decide to go Rome on the rest of the fridge... One of them almost started growing into the fruit.

Edit: What's weird is the apple isn't rotting at all. It's a wee bit soft... and that's it.

I ended up buying an apple to eat and put a seed with the other in the fridge.
xDD

That's so cool, though!
I had apples in the fridge for the longest, but ended up throwing them out, because I thought they were bad.
xD

I don't think apples really go bad in the perfect temperature. I'm really not sure why there isn't a market for frozen apples in the first place. There are berries, pineapple, peaches, melons, we've got pomegranate seeds now! But the closest I've gotten to apples is pie.

One of my tomato seedlings has died.
//cries

I have five left.
xD

Two pumpkin seedlings that are thriving, and I am germinating basil, onions and Moonflowers.
:D

So, I checked on the seeds, and ONE STRAWBERRY SEED has germinated!
Almost all of the onion seeds have, and about five out of about twelve of the basil.

I did about thirty onion by accident.
It all just poured.
xD

Oh, and all of my Moonflowers! :DD
Three.

Moon flowers? I've never heard of them. Congratz on the strawberry! Temperamental little buggers, those ones.

They are so pretty.
They only bloom at night~


Thanks, I'm still waiting on the others to sprout...
But I will be happy with one.