My first season of trying to grow things has gone well. I had low expectations for my gardening abilities. Thus far, I’ve eaten my grown-from-seed green beans and sugar snap peas. I had some spinach come up, but I neglected to pick it before it started to flower. I will try that again in the fall.

This first pic is of my only surviving tomato plant from seed. The germination rate on the tomatoes was nearly 100 percent. I had about eight or nine seedlings that I put outside. The seedlings in the back were all scarfed up by some sort of critter. I put two seedlings in the front bed. One of the seedlings was also scarfed by a critter. This guy powered through and is doing well. Something has eaten off a few of the blooms on this guy. So, I’m not holding my breath on getting tomatoes.

I purchased a few strawberry plants. I was feeling too impatient to grow them from seed. I love strawberries. A couple of the plants are planted. A few of them are in a planter. I’ve had them for a little over a week. They seem to be happy. Both the in-ground and in-pot plants have new growth. The picture is of the plants in the pot.

The bell peppers have been a struggle. Their germination rate was a little less than 50 percent, when I had them indoors. We just started a pot from seed outside a week ago. That one seemed to germinate well. The area the pot is in gets full sun almost all day. I’m wondering if that wasn’t the key for them. I put about 5 pepper seedlings outside. All but one of them got eaten in the back yard. The poor little survivor got its leaves bit off several times, but I keeps trying to sprout new ones. I think that one might make it. I put two seedlings in the front. One of the two was eaten. I included a picture of the pepper plant that is doing the best.

I killed my basil seedlings. The basil germinated at a 90 percent rate. I moved five seedlings outside. All of them died. It didn’t seem that they were eaten like many of my other seedlings. I wonder if the sudden increase in sunlight was too much for them. We planted more basil in a pot directly outside. Thus far the basil seedlings look very happy. I’ve included a picture of the basil seedlings. We also planted some onions and catnip in planters. I’ve learned that basil and catnip seedlings look awfully similar.