First Flower

This little iris bloomed Saturday.

Last year I bought a bunch of 4-inch springtime flowers: hyacinths, crocuses, tulips, daffodils and irises. I mentioned to my mum how lovely I thought the muscari I saw at the florists were and she gave me a bunch to plant. I also planted geraniums and marigolds in some other baskets we had. I planted nasturtiums before I went to Spain. When I got back they had sprouted leaves, but never bloomed. I continued to water them, but soon lost interest and instead tended to my potted herbs.

In January I noticed little green leaves starting to push back up through the dirt. I watered them diligently and patiently waited to see what they would turn out to be. On Saturday morning, I noticed that the first flower had bloomed, an iris.

Encouraged by this, and the fact that my mom mentioned that when she was over last week that it seemed that two of my geraniums had survived the winter, I bought myself a pair of gardening gloves. The gloves gave me the courage to weed out the dead, alien-looking stems that I didn't want to pull bare-handed because I'm a wuss. I also bought parsley to add to my herb garden and romaine lettuce seeds. I was at a backyard barbecue last summer and a guy had a salad from his balcony garden. He said that if you just pick the outer-leaves, the lettuce will continue to yield leaves all summer.

In the next few weeks I'd like to get a few long window boxes to hang off the side of my balcony. I think part of the reason my nasturtiums didn't do so well is because of lack of prolonged direct sunlight.

I'm excited to see my garden grow!