It's been great to read about this. With school and a busy schedule, I was almost tempted to give up on my garden, but this thread kept me encouraged to continue.
So, despite all that y'all say about the ease of growing spinach and beans, neither ever work for me.
I sowed them at the right time and waited, but for the beans I got slow-growing plants that were still so short when the time came for me to put my summer plants in the ground, and for the spinach I got shrimpy leaves that did not grow. *sighs* Maybe next year.
Because of being so busy, I was not able to keep a close eye on my seedlings, and a lot of them fared badly. They were wilted, leggy, etc. I eventually gave up on the worst, transplanted the better ones, and bought myself some plants from the farmer's market. I was able to get Brandwine tomatoes, Habanero peppers, and some butternut squash and zucchini. A few peppers from my Hot Pepper Seed mix survived, so I'm hoping to get more peppers than habaneros and cayennes. Unlike I hoped, I won't be graduating beyond eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers this year. I'm crossing my fingers for zucchini, but I don't have a whole lot of hope for it.
I also decided to expand my herb garden. The mint from all these years did not come back this year, so I replanted some mint seeds, as well as basil, oregano, rosemary, dill, and cilantro. I'm really hoping that they come up and thrive.
I decided to deviate from my unfortunate Utilitarian-Gardener mindset and plant some flowers.
I planted marigolds (which are for a utilitarian purpose), zinnias, and sunflowers.
I've been so exhausted with school that I haven't been able to commit my time and energy to gardening, but it seems like working with the soil and planting things helps me calm down, so I'm trying to find a way to balance the two. I have not been able to get too many pictures, but I'll try to this or next week.
One of my tomato plants actually got baby tomatoes this week, which I was really surprised at--I've never, in my 3 years of gardening
, seen tomatoes that early. That hazelnut-sized tomato gave me hope.