The last week of March was just really hectic with school.  Papers and exams and more papers!  I’m just feeling a bit caught up… but have quite a few more papers due before the end of the semester.

Over the weekend, my husband and I worked on our yard: weeding, planting bulbs, planting flowers, and seeds.  We’re also getting our vegetable garden ready.

Here are some of shots of what we planted (and found) in our flower garden:

Celosia

Pink Impatients

Do you see our tiny little friend on the flower?

These little sprouts are called “Tia To” in Vietnamese.  They are also known as Perilla and is like Japanese hojiso or Japanese Basil. We use them in our noodle dishes and summer rolls. Its one of my favorite herbs.  You will sometimes see this leaf as a garnish  with sushi.  Reading the back of the seed packet, it says that it can also be added to pesto and any other sauce.  The flowers are edible and makes a fragrant tea.  It’s a great ground cover too.  It says that the deep mulberry leaves made it a popular bedding plant in the USA after the Civil War…I thought that was interesting.  I can’t wait for them to grow!

When the tia to is mature, it will look similar this:

I also found these little fungus.  They were tiny and just so weird; I’ve never seen anything like them before.

Next, we’re going to start our seedlings.  We’ve got seeds for squash, hot peppers, cucumbers, brussel sprouts, lettuce, thai basil, bok choy, and even sunflowers.

I am excited for our future garden harvests!

Do you have a garden? What are planning on planting, or have already planted?

XOXO-