My garden has officially entered the wild zone! After carefully trying to contain my tomato vines as much as possible, I finally gave up & let them go!

I'm working on sprucing up the garden area with some aged mulch I had. It's been a slow process, but I'm getting there.

I stumbled upon some sad-looking lavender plants at Walmart & Home Depot on sale and couldn't resist bringing them home. Lavender is a perennial, so I'm looking forward to harvesting it year after year. I already got a small harvest this year that I plan to make into oils.

I also discovered some wild mint on our property, so I'm slowly transplanting some in another garden box. 

I'm currently obsessed with perennial herbs. Secretly, I love anything I only have to plant once!

My tomatoes are almost ripe, so it will be harvest time for them. Because I have so much going on, I'm planning on just freezing them & then figuring out what to do with them later.

I also have a few peppers coming along.

The garden takes quite a bit of upkeep, but I love it so much.

Here's a peek at my garden in June 2023!

The beginning of June was super dry & hot here. We went for an absurd amount of time without rain. Even though I was watering twice daily, the ground was still dry.

Finally, we got some rain & my plants took off! The scorching heat subsided, providing some much-needed relief for my thirsty plants.

This year, I planted tomatoes, peppers, corn & herbs.

I chose varieties with a short growing season for the tomatoes & corn. I want two determinate tomatoes growing "seasons" this year, so we'll see.

You may be surprised that I have tomatoes & peppers coming already. That's what happens when I can't wait & start seeds in January/February!

I'm still hoping to get in some pumpkins. I saved pumpkin seeds last year & I want to see if they'll grow this year.

It's so funny to look back on my gardening journey. I've been doing this for 7 years now & it's incredible how far I've come. I started with tiny garden boxes with plants I bought & almost killed. Now, I start my own plants from seeds & have thriving gardens!

Seed starting is off to a weird start for me this year. Instead of planting everything at once, I've taken it slow, starting things at random times & using what I have.

My setup is super simple this year. 

I'm just using my huge bay window as my "greenhouse." I found a super cheap metal shelf at the thrift store & it works perfectly for organizing my seedlings. Because I'm working in small batches, it didn't make sense to bring out my large flats, so I'm using containers I got at Dollar Tree. They work really well as a greenhouse within a greenhouse & keep everything organized. It's easy to take the containers to the sink for watering. As the seedlings get bigger & are transplanted into larger pots, I use the lids of the containers as trays. I'm also using a super cute mini greenhouse I got at the thrift store.

To transplant, I'm just using the cups I had from years past. I cleaned them out at the end of the season last year, so they were ready to go this year. I also got a few supplies at Dollar Tree.

It might be a little early to talk about the 2023 gardening season (especially since I still need to clear garden beds from the 2022 season!), but here I am.

I got an email this morning from my friends at Burpee & all of their seeds are currently buy one get one free! I couldn't pass that up, so I loaded my cart with everything!

I'd like to do a huge garden next year. I want to try all the varieties of everything!

I'm currently really into small-space gardening, so I got a lot of plants that can be grown in containers.

My current favorite pastime is watching gardening videos on YouTube. There are so many great ideas! 

Here's what I bought during the Burpee sale: