The first week of March is when I really started planting things this year. I started some herbs in pots both for myself and for a sister. I early started our tomatoes, our two kinds of peppers, one banana tree, and some very unusual fruit that is in a class of its own. The corner of our living room looks like this right now.

I hope you weren't expecting good photography.

From left to right in the "empty" pots.

• Oregano, Marjoram, Thyme
• Parsley
• Chives in the window box (the same as I put in the garden)
• More Oregano in the small hanging pot (it's hiding behind the lamp) to give away
• In the bigger grey pot is our banana seed.
• One leftover scraggly Basil plant from last year in the other hanging pot, as well as some new Basil seedlings. Also to give away.
• In the egg cartons I started the tomatoes (same as the garden), Albino Bullnose peppers, Thai Red Chilli peppers, and something called a Cassabanana.

If you notice the tiny pot to the far right, that is, I think, a tree seedling that volunteered in one of my pots from last year. It looks like a miniature version of the tree that hung over our apartment balcony. I decided to save it and see if I could eventually turn it into a bonsai.Of course, the actual tree in corner there is our Poblano. Once I stopped drowning it, it started putting out peppers again. To the left of that is more scraggly basil that I barely nursed through the winter. Probably won't be doing that again. I must resign myself to a basiless winter.

So far, most of the herbs and one tomato have actually sprouted.  I am very concerned about the egg carton containing the peppers and the Cassabanana. I originally put them inside something that I thought might give a green house effect, but I forgot that seedlings need air flow. I took them out when the dirt started to grow mold. I'll probably start some more just in case.

I also got to plant some flower seeds I bought last year and never planted. They are called Lupine Tutti Frutti Mix from Burpee. I don't know anything about them except that the package says they do well in shade. I have a little flower plot right next to the house that is in shade most of the day. Hopefully I'll get some flowers out of it.

We finally got seeds into the ground! We planted the beans Friday night or so but all the rest of the garden got planted today. We ordered most of our seeds from Baker Creek at rareseeds.com. There are a few exceptions that are leftover seeds from last year. Here is the list of what is now planted in the actual garden.

• Suyo Long Cucumbers
• Good Mother Stallard Beans
• Cherokee Trail of Tears Beans
• Christmas Pole Limas
• Yellow Summer Crookneck Squash (not from Baker Creek)
• Blue Lake 274 Garden Bean (not from Baker Creek)
• Butternut-Waltham Squash
• Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin 
• Rampicante Zuccherino Melon
• Casaba-Golden Beauty Melon
• Ali Baba Watermelon
• Great White Tomato
• Beduin Tomato
• Rev. Marrows Long Keeper Tomato
• Pearly Pink Tomato
• Siam Queen Thai Basil
• Brocade Mix Marigold
• Common Chives

Here is my highly accurate and very spiffy Paint version of the garden. The crossed out plot had a metal pipe sticking up once we started digging there, also the grass around it was dead, so we just left it and didn't plant anything there. Eventually, I will post a real picture.

We more or less planted along the square foot gardening idea. You will find that we do lots of things in a "more or less" fashion. We are also trying some companion planting.

Apparently, everything likes Basil and Marigolds. Tomatoes like the onion family; beans don't like the onion family. Peppers don't like tomatoes.

Today, we only planted seeds, none of our seedlings are even sprouted yet. I started tomatoes and peppers inside, but I didn't get them planted as soon as I should have. I still have no idea if they are going to sprout or not.

I decided to hedge my bets with the tomatoes (oops, I spelled that wrong on my nifty picture) and planted seeds straight into the ground as well.

There are still more things that need planting. I hope to get some okra seeds from my sister soon and we'll be planting our peppers in the front yard to show off the beautiful plants. I have some New Zealand Spinach that is supposed to be able to take heat that still isn't planted. Not to mention the flower garden and herb garden I want to create.

Baker Creek sent us a complimentary package of Lemon Queen Sunflower seeds and I did get them planted along our back fence yesterday. 

I intend this to be a casual and hopefully useful blog. My goal is to keep good information about what works and doesn't work in our garden this year. The blog cannot fail to be useful to me personally and may eventually end up being useful to others who are also trying to garden in this area. One of the things I ran into when looking on the internet for gardening info was that the info was never specifically for my area.