in bloom

I don't see myself as an outdoor person, so I'm surprising myself a bit -- and probably CJ even more so -- that I'm fairly interested in our yard, landscaping, and garden.

Although still patchy, our grass is coming in quite nicely. The flowers I planted around the mailbox are coming in quite well, and we may have our first bloom on one of our rose bushes soon too. I have learned one important lesson when it comes to flowers, though: that it's better to plant either bulbs or the plants, definitely not seeds. Lesson learned, I guess.

Our garden is fully planted now, and I'm getting anxious for everything to sprout or bloom. I noticed tonight that we have two tiny little green bean sprouts popping up, so I was pretty excited. We've planted four strawberry plants so far, and one already has little red berries growing on it. (Granted, when we bought that particular plant, it already had the berries on it; they were still very green.) We also learned our lesson with strawberries and rhubarb: don't buy the "bulbs" they sell in bags, but just by the plants instead. Our tomato plants have survived thus far. The jury is still out on the peppers and onions we planted. Our other plants have yet to sprout.

Here's a rundown of what fruits and vegetables we will hopefully have this year: rhubarb, strawberries, green beans, zucchini, cabbage, carrots, scallions, onions, peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Any suggestions? Any good recipes we should try out? We're saving coffee grounds and eggshells, but what about any other good household fertilizers we might try?