For some reason today I had that sudden urge to reinitiate my blog. The Garden Sprout, triumphant return, why today I don’t know. Part of it might be that as great as Facebook is for reaching out and sharing snippets, blogs are great for more dialogue and great depth of information. So today I decided to look back in on my old Garden Sprout blog and even considered starting fresh, starting somewhere else, but I realized that even though I haven’t posted to this blog in sometime, people were still finding posts, were still reading posts, posts that are the start of who the Garden Sprout is now and I didn’t want to lose that. So, for all my fellow sprouts, though it’s been some time since the last post on this blog, here’s to future posts and please feel free to poke me with a thorn to remind me to post if I become slack.
For a further point of interest…for some reason I chose today to check back in and login to my blog. Not long after I receive a notification from WordPress…Happy Anniversary! Today is three years since you started this blog. Huh….go figure right? So…here I am, here we are. Trying to sprout ideas and help people learn and encourage them to jump in to the wonderful world of gardening without fear.
I wanted to roll back into the blog world with a few hopefully supportive and helpful comments. I see all these blogs and photos and beautiful pictures all over the internet and everything looks beautiful and perfect. No weeds, no diseases, not bugs, etc. But in my world of gardening that’s not reality. The picture above shows the imperfections of my yard. I bought a house almost two years ago and guess what, I still have weeds, I still have disease, bugs, and it’s a work in progress. All too often I think that people become discouraged by the beautiful pictures on the internet and aren’t sure where to go, but that’s okay. Gardening isn’t a perfect place it’s trials, it’s errors, it’s learning, it’s enjoying and having fun! For me I love to garden because it’s fun and I love being outdoors. Do it because your heart calls for it and bursts if you don’t. 🙂 The picture above…all those little white blurps in the yard…that’s white clover. I don’t treat my lawn, never have and that’s okay. Part of gardening is also understanding what you are happy with and are willing to put up with.
At the end of the day through weeds and diseases this above is what makes us happy. One of many things to flower, but tomato flowers right? Above is a variety of cherry tomato called Sungold and this variety is absolutely AMAZING! For years I grew Sweet 100’s and after trying Sungold, I’m never going back. These guys have been in the ground nearly a month, sat through cold and not tomato happy weather and a frost warning covered by old bed sheets and today we have flowers and hopefully soon to be cherry tomatoes. If you are looking for a variety that kids will adore this is it. They are a gorgeous golden yellow and sweet and an amazing snack for young and old. I can’t wait to share photos of these one they are in full on tomato mode.
And for those of you just starting into landscaping and working in your yard or those who are starting to think about it and feel overwhelmed, hopefully this helps…so am I. I teach gardening for a living and I have my own yard and some days I don’t know where to start. At the end of the day, sometimes you need to just start digging and jump in shovel first. 
P.S. – The above digging whole if for soon to arrive blueberries but that’s for another blog post. 🙂
Garden happy!
The Garden Sprout 