Spring Gardening

It's March already, and as we live on the warm Gulf Coast, our garden is already planted.  We are still waiting to see our zucchini and squash seeds break through the ground, but most everything else is up.  I planted a lot of heirloom tomatoes and pepper seeds, as well as quite a few hybrid peppers, too, in pots in the garden, but we also bought some seedlings from the garden center.

Here is the hot pepper patch so far:

There are Cayenne, Hot Bananas, Mammoth Jalapenos, and something known as "world's hottest," I think those are Habaneros.

And here are the sweet peppers so far, 3 each of green. yellow, and red:

There is space in between them for the seedlings I am growing, mostly a carnival mix of many colors of bells, along with my favorite heirloom, Chinese Giant.

And the tomatoes are on the other side in this garden.

So the back 10x12 garden will be full of tomatoes and peppers this year (and basil), and what was the pepper and tomato garden last year now has zucchini and squash, zinnias, black beans, garlic, sunflowers, chard, sequoia beans, and will have corn and eggplant (and more zinnias).  I am not showing pictures of that garden because it is just coming up (except for the garlic, which is a foot tall already).  It also is littered with leaves.  There is a Live Oak tree in my side yard that sheds its leaves in spring right onto that garden.  Since we planted the seeds we are having to hand pick the leaves frequently so that the seedlings do not get smothered.  This little garden is fenced in, though, so we are about to run a screen over the top and eliminate this problem.

I haven't planted luffa or pole beans yet, as we want to build a new trellis for these.

I did take some pictures in the herb bed.  The echinacea is up.

And here is a comfrey emerging:

This other comfrey is hardier and leafed out already:

The bee balm sure has spread and is looking nice.  I hope it will finally flower this year; I have had lovely flowers from bee balms in other yards, but it has not flowered at this address yet.  Bee balm is also known as Oswego Tea, by the way, and the strangely shaped flowers are really interesting.  I think it likes more shade than it gets in my yard.

The stevia is up and growing; it grows really tall and flowers; I want to better about using this herb (for sweetening tea) this year.

Oregano, one of a couple clumps in the perennial bed:

Lemon balm, aka Melissa:

The pineapple sage has not yet come back!

Pineapple Sage is my favorite herb in this garden, and we have been growing it here for 4 years; last year it was a huge bush with at least a 5 foot diameter all around, including tall.  It is the last thing to flower in the winter, and so I am thinking it is late to come back...but I read last year on the internet that sometimes they just don't come back, and so we are worried.  We bought a new one just in case:

Look how much blueberry flowers look like blueberries!

Here are my zinnias.  I planted a ton of them in pots to put in the garden later.  They are also springing up as volunteers in 2 of the three gardens and I haven't pulled any yet.  I love zinnias :)

And here is a surprise.  We have been shocked by this Gerber Daisy, which has not seemed very happy since we bought it a couple or more years ago.  It seems happy now:

That looks like summertime to me, but I took the photo today!
What are you planting in your garden this spring?