These past month has been very busy for us here in the TPC gardens, especially since we have so much time at home these days. We had let the weeds take over in the front garden box and we were running behind on starting some seeds this year so we made it a priority to get some work done. There were areas to clear, boxes to build, and the birds had started nesting nearby.
In the front garden box, the borage and amaranth were growing quite well along with the flowers we had saved from prior years. Unfortunately, all the other seeds failed to sprout and we were pretty disappointed. We had been diligently weeding and keeping an eye out for any signs of growth after planting but had no luck. We honestly left it alone for awhile after realizing that and the weeds went absolutely nuts while we discussed what to do next. So there was quite a bit of weeding we had to do around the borage and amaranth to clean it all up. After we found some echinacea seedlings, we grabbed basils and sweet peppers from the back garden and happily planted those where the seeds failed. Now the front garden is still mostly herbs and edibles, happily growing and producing, but not quite how we envisioned it earlier in the year. Kind of like most of our lives right now, appropriately.
Seed starters and baby pepper plants 
Blackberries growing in the yard 
Gardenias blooming
We made a lot of progress in the back gardens but there is still so much to do. It’s just that time of year. We got the tomatoes, peas, and peppers all in the ground. Then we fenced and covered them in to protect from wildlife and neighborhood cats; the plants seem quite happy now. We are going to try a different method of staking and caging them this year; I’ll go into more details with that once we finish and I have more pictures to help explain it. The fruit trees all seem to be working hard but we have lost pretty much all of the plums and every single one of our nectarines. Blackberries are popping out left and right while peanuts are going nuts in their containers. We also got our seedlings into larger pots over the weekend in addition to starting more seeds of cilantro, beans, peas, cukes, melons, sage, watermelons. We also started almost a dozen trees. Not sure what will actually survive or not but we will keep pictures and share as the year goes on. All in all, we counted roughly 75 plants that got repotted, planted, or started over one weekend alone. Whew.
Roses blooming in the garden 
Grace helping us in the garden 2020 
An herbal garden in progress
You can see here that when we start seeds at this point in the year, they stay together in the shade of our oak tree to avoid the increasing heat here in Houston. Don’t worry, these babies are all labeled so we can keep track of what is and isn’t sprouting. We learned the hard way that we have to label our seeds! If they grow, we’ll start separating them when they reach four to six inches tall. They stay outside for their entire time so transplanting them later isn’t really a big deal. We all enjoy playing in the dirt around here (good thing we make soap!!) so they’ll probably get moved into the ground around that four to six inch size. Guess we better get to finishing those planter boxes over the next two weeks.
Hail at the house in April 2020 
Figs growing on the tree in 2020 
Garlic flowering and it looks like fireworks in the garden
Hope you enjoy the pictures of our little micro farm. It’s not perfect, is always a work in progress, but shows that even a little yard can bring something yummy into the kitchen with a little bit of work. We will gladly keep updating you on how everything is growing and going over the course of this year. Dorothy has been documenting our garden for a few years now so we are considering showing more of how we do this since people have been asking. What would you like to see more of on the blog? Drop us a line in the comments below or feel free to email her directly with your thoughts. We’ve been growing some of our ingredients for so long that we sometimes forget how many people are new to us and aren’t aware of the TPC garden. Make sure you subscribe to get alerts when we post again. You can also find our Facebook page here; make sure to like and follow it for updates too.