Positive Focus Thursday - It's All About The Plants!

The past few weeks has been more taxing to all of us due to Covid-19. Some days it's hard to remember what life was like before mid-March and everything turned on its head. 

One interesting thing, and a good thing in my opinion, is more and more people are becoming interested in gardening.

I have been gardening since I can remember. Or at least running around in a garden. 

My grandfather had a large back yard filled with roses, veggies, and fruits. My parents always had a little garden of some sort, whether it was in the back yard or plowed by the tractor at the farm later on.

And I love my indoor plants - my orchids, Hoyas, Peperomias and anything I can get my hands on. 

I have haunted nurseries and grown plants from seeds and cuttings and they never fail to lift me up and bring me joy. Ever my failures, while disappointing, are not enough to make me stop.

And this year it's especially comforting and enjoyable. Especially since Lady K is taking an interest in plants and gardening.

This past Friday, on my day off, I potted up almost all of the plants I have on hand to put into containers.

It also gave me a chance to take a closer look (and look for more aphids)...



The blueberries are getting bigger and bigger under their protective netting. Savvy is eagerly anticipating picking her crop of berries and we have plans to make some Lavender/Blueberry Jam, some to consume ourselves and some to give as gifts during the holidays.

A surprise to me was this marigold I picked up to help repel bugs from my tomatoes. The blooms are as big as my palm - lush and thick.  How could you not be happy when you see these bright spot of golden yellow.

A couple of 'rescues' from last year are growing well this year for me. The first is my grapevine.

It has tripled in height from last year and has a half dozen clusters of little grapes. I am hoping I get a couple of grapes to sample this year. 

And my bag of dried up lily bulbs which did grow some last year are now surging forth. In fact, one of them is about 3 1/2 feet tall and right now shows about half a dozen flower buds so far.

I need to take a picture of it when it starts blooming with Lady K beside it. As it stands right now, I won't have to bend over to smell the flowers - they will be practically face high.

Last, but not least, are my tomatoes and peppers I am growing. It is so much fun to discover new tomatoes every day slowly growing bigger and bigger. Plus some of them are not just about the fruit, but also the foliage, like this one...

This is Elsie's Fancy 19-30, one of the experimental tomatoes I am growing. It was named after a grandmother (not one of mine) of the developer and is supposed to have ivory or yellow, good-sized fruit. I can't wait to see a plant, 3 feet tall, with variegated foliage.

So these days being positive is green in color and growing.