The Fruit of my Labor

All of this has finally resulted in my first tomato of the season.

Last Class

My last class at Mobot was the Victorian Garden walk. Very interesting to learn about the origins of Victorian Gardens and the plans that went behind making our own version. This is the most traditional spot in the Victorian Garden and features a statue of Juno from the days of Henry Shaw.

Seiwa-en

Maybe the best thing about working for Mobot is that I get to take classes for free.
Tuesday night I took the walking tour of Seiwa-en, the Garden's 14 acre Japanese strolling garden. It is the largest garden of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It's my favorite place in the garden because it's so peaceful and cleanly kept.
It also happens to be where my favorite mossy knoll can be found.

I may have gotten carried away...

I have 36 containers on my back porch right now--I'm growing cherry tomatoes, basil, peppers, lettuce, sage, rosemary, lavender, mint, stevia, strawberries and dill. I'm excited about it, though.

Hanging strawberry garden...hopefully.

Filled this hanging produce basket with strawberry plants today. I'm a little concerned about the baskets withstanding the weight of the plants and dirt and water, but it was worth a shot, so we'll see.

And growing, and growing, and...

My seedlings are doing well I think. I was going to transplant them to pots this week, but the weather cooled down so I'll be waiting.

A little cactus with a pink flower(s) on it.

To be honest, I bought this while it was blooming, so I can't take credit for them. But I hope I can make it do this again!

Grow, Baby, Grow!

Baby lettuce, that is. These are my lettuce seedlings and I'm pretty proud of them. I think they look good enough to eat! ;-)

A Micro Harvest

I'm finally able to harvest some of my tasty micro greens. I ate these with a little rice vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. I feel healthier already.

It may not be spring outside...

But I have tiny green things growing inside!

Meet my micro greens, growing happily in our basement thanks to the florescent light hung by my loving husband.

New addition

The Orchid Show is going at MoBot, so of course, I had to buy an orchid.
I chose this little one, about 4" across the leaves and about 1" diameter flowers; it's a neostylis Lou Sneary, whatever that means. Hopefully I won't kill it.

I do like the name Lou Sneary.

My new terrarium

with an air plant. I enjoy it.

My succulents

I bought these plants from the Botanical Garden a couple weeks ago. I used an old copper bowl I made for the planter.

My moss terrarium

It looks like I may have picked up a couple grass seeds with the moss I nabbed--it's started to sprout.

I'm loving me some moss.

This is the real reason I went to the Botanical Garden--the moss area in the Japanese garden. I would love to have a yard covered in moss someday because it's pretty, clean, and doesn't need to be mowed.

Instead, I made myself a moss terrarium in a mason jar.

My favorite greenhouse at MoBot.

I guess this is a pretty traditional English style greenhouse with lots of tropical plants but all that green on the ground is Baby's Tears, which I love. It makes me think of the apartment greenhouse in the movie Green Card--not a great movie, but the greenhouse is so beautiful that it's worth watching just to see it.

I took a walk this morning

at the gorgeous Missouri Botanical Garden because they have free morning hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I have many photographs to share, but the first are these crazy mums--at least I'm pretty sure they're mums judging by the shapes of the leaves and the styles of the flowers.