The Constant Gardener 2

You may remember how, just a few months ago, I told you all about my gardening exploits. Well, now that the Italian summer is in full swing, I thought I’d take this opportunity to update you on developments.

First of all, let show you some ‘before and after’ photos…

This picture was taken in mid-April and shows my gladiolas starting to sprout...

…Look at how much they’ve grown!

Here I am tending to my young freesias...

…They’re not so ‘young’ now.

My begonias hadn’t even appeared above the soil when this picture was taken…

…After a while, they emerged. They looked like lettuces to begin with…

…But now they’ve blossomed into lovely flowers.

My little sunflower seedlings…

…This is how they looked a month ago…

…and TA DA!

Not forgetting the tomatoes planted in early April…

…They’re coming along great!

Finally, this was my mixed ‘herb garden’ shortly after I’d planted some parsley, tomatoes, basil, chili, lavender and sunflower seedlings.

Voila! It’s now more like a ‘herb jungle’.

Enough of the ‘before and after’ pictures, here’s some lovely photos of my garden in all of its glory…

Begonias

More begonias

Booti-ful! (The sunflowers aren’t bad either. He-he!).

Lavender

Chilies

Basil and parsley

Some yummy apricots! (Although I didn’t plant the tree, I’m claiming credit for these as they’re in ‘my’ garden!).

Me and my tomatoes.

Although I’m happy with the results overall, unfortunately not all of my plants have thrived as I would have liked…

…For instance, my peonies didn’t quite bloom…

…and the irises and lilies were a bit disappointing’. Oh well, better luck next year!

Of course, there’s no point in growing such wonderful plants if you’re not going to make use of them. So, I decided to ‘harvest’ some of the produce…

Here’s some of my booti-ful gladiolas.

I got Dad to help with the apricot collecting…

My stash of apricots. Yum…Can you see my drool?

Last of all, here I am with some of my juicy tomatoes.

I hope you’re impressed with my efforts? After all, how often do you come across a ‘Gardening Golden’?