Mmmm, vegetables...

Absolutely one of the things that we're most excited about with the new house is the fact that we have a yard!!  For all of those midwesterners out there, a yard is standard fare.  For our price range and in the city limits of Philadelphia, we have a sizeable backyard, and a nice sized front yard.  Our front yard is graced by a lovely magnolia tree with gorgeous white blooms.

We'll use our backyard (and spacious deck) for barbecuing, playing catch (something we used to do all the time in Colorado), volleyball (if Nick gets his way), and

 growing our own vegetables!

Since we don't close on the house until the end of May, which is a bit late in the growing season, we decided to start our own seedlings: 

 We planted these two Sundays ago, April 12, in the hopes that we could get a good start on our seeds and transplant them as soon as we move into the house.  As perhaps you can tell, we are novices at this.  Let's see if I can identify our plants for you.  We have 6 types of plants growing in a 25 unit biodegradable seed kit.  At the very back of this photo is the row of broccoli.  Then, from left to right, we have five different seedlings in the front four cells.  On the far left, green onion, followed by rosemary (they have just come through the soil), then zucchini (BIG!), then jalapenos, (also newly sprouted), and finally green beans.  The green beans are trying to take over the world.

Maybe you can tell better from this photo:

You can also see the delicate broccoli seedlings a bit better here, on the far right of the cells.  The largest green bean plant is already about 8 inches tall with HUGE leaves.

So, we are happy with our growing success, since we're newbies at this, but we have a serious problem: the roots of the green beans have already started poking through their little containers.  We close in 37 days.  These puppies are ready to be transplanted and we have no yard to do it in yet.  We're planning on improvising, buying a larger pot to put them in for the next month or so.  We had no idea that they'd grow so quickly.  Pretty silly, huh? 

Anyhow, I can't wait until they start sprouting the actual vegetables.  I had a garden once when I was 8 or so.  I can't remember what I grew then, except I know I had strawberries.  I didn't even like vegetables at that age.  It'll be so fantastic to eat what we've grown ourselves, and next summer we intend to have a much larger and better planned garden.  It's been so much fun to keep track of our plants.  I'm continually amazed at how quickly they went from seed to seedling.  The changes have been quick and dramatic.

And on a final note, I'll leave you with my curious kitties.  They love tending the seedlings, keeping track of them, watching them grow.  Colby was in a pensive mood, and Bella clearly doesn't like having her photo taken.