How does your garden grow?

Besides leaving friends, family and a church we loved, one of the hardest things about deciding to move to Korea was giving up our dream of owning a home.  We had been in the process of looking for over a year, sometimes going out multiple times a week to look at homes!  For over a year we had been seraching MLS listings, deciding what was most important to us in a home, researching locations, crunching numbers and dreaming of settling down and settling in.  One aspect of owning a home we were both really excited about was having a yard.  I couldn't wait to have a small garden (our apartment didn't allow it) and Steve wanted a dog.  Some days it is still hard that we are apartment living and not home-owners but maybe "someday" the Lord will give us a home of our own.  Then again, maybe not.  We are learning contentedness in all situations and learning that joy does not (and should not) be circumstance-based.  Circumstances will always disappoint and if our joy is attached to the things we have (or don't have) or the circumstances surrounding us, we'll always find reasons and ways to be unhappy.  It is enjoying life as it is and finding joy and contentment in the Lord that will lead to a satisfying, joy-filled, happy life.  Any other way, we are finding, will disappoint.

So, back to my garden.  Two springs ago I was telling Steve "next year, I"ll have a garden!"  And then that spring came and went and we were still house hunting and I said "well at least I know next year I will for sure have a garden!"  Shows how much I knew!

This year for my birthday Steve planned to buy me a small garden and help me set it up in a sunny corner of our porch. 



We aren't totally finished with it yet, but so far I have some tomato plants (which just started budding some flowers!), some different kinds of lettuce, squash, celery, lavendar and rosemary.  I'm hoping to get some more containers and plant spinach, carrots, and some grass for Caleb to play in (Korea doesn't have much grass) and if I can find basil plants already growing, I would love to have some basil (in the past I have not been able to grow basil from seeds for some reason, not sure why).  I also have some flower seeds (Thanks Mom!) that I'm hoping to get planted soon too.

We'll see how my not-so-green-thumb does but it is fun to have some semblance of a "garden," even if it isn't exactly what I originally had in mind.

So....

~ How does your garden grow? 
~ What are you planting this year? 
~ Any green-thumb readers that have some advice or tips for a newbie pot-gardener?
~ Any great recipes or "to-do's" with a lavendar plant?  I'm really excited about it and it is doing great but trying to decide what to do with it now, besides smell it's deliciousness.