Green Thumb?

Once we move (which will be THIS MONTH! Holy smokes!), we will be able to start a garden. Right now we have just two containers at our house that we will take with us. One is full of (very tart) strawberries and the other contains lavender. We also have about 15 tulip bulbs in red and yellow that are already out of the ground and inside the house in a box.  All the other plants at our current house (irises, lilies, vinca, peonies, yucca and other mystery shrubs) will stay behind since they were already there when we moved in. I thought I would take a minute to talk about what kinds of things I am hoping to grow over the next few years that will eventually add up to a full garden.

I currently subscribe to Garden Gate Magazine which I love. It is all about gardening flowers, not vegetables, but it contains no advertisements and has beautiful photographs and great articles and tips. Not only do they release a full-color magazine bi-monthly, but they also have special issues that you can purchase from the newsstand and books on specific topics that you can also purchase, often at a discount if you are a subscriber. The magazines that come in the mail with your subscription are 3-hole-punched for easy organization and you can buy back issues of the magazine bound as books from their website (or a DVD of every page of every issue ever published through 2012). I have looked at a TON of gardening magazines, but this one is by far my favorite and the only one I have ever wanted to purchase a subscription to. (No, this post is not sponsored, I just love this magazine this much.)

Starting this fall with bulb planting, I hope to start a garden in our new yard. Here is a photo I took of the same flower bed that I rescued my tulip bulbs from a few weeks later when they were dug up and destined for the trash can. I got both yellow and red, but don't know how many of each I have because the flowers were spent and removed before I picked them up.

I also would like to grow some lemon grass to repel mosquitoes and for privacy. I like the way it looks in containers. I don't know if it spreads aggressively if it isn't contained, I'll have to do some research.

There are so many beautiful flowers that can thrive in our area that I'm not sure where to start. I want to plant so many things. I will probably start with some more containers for annuals while I plan out a perennial garden space.

We also currently have strawberries, but like I mentioned they are really tart. I will have to read up on strawberry varieties to find a sweeter option.

I also want to grow blueberries and possibly raspberries at some point since I can't eat strawberries myself (I'm allergic).

I am also looking forward to a SMALL number of cucumbers and zucchinis (they both seem to produce a whole lot of fruit) as well as corn and some heirloom tomatoes.

Any other suggestions from anyone?