Garden (mini-farm) Update

Learning the ways of things that grow from the ground, and loving it!  One concept I discovered, very simple: the leaves absorb the energy from the sun and the roots absorb the nutrients from the soil..... so if bugs eat the leaves no matter how good the roots are the plant dies.  Thankfully we've only had a slight bug problem but I'm gonna nip that in the bud; seeing a LOT of spiders and leaving them be hoping they'll eat whatever's eating my leaves and also ordering lady bugs, supposably they help control the aphids....  
So here are the pics I took this morning:

"Herb Spiral", got the idea from a really cool book, "Self Sufficiency for the 21st Century" (in my Amazon store!). Awesome book with a lot of good pictures and step by step instructions with photos for the ADD and time constrained momma.  My herbs are doing great, made Cory and I a delicious salad last night: Green leaf lettuce, red bell peppers, cucumbers, pickled leeks, red onions, both varieties of basil you see here (green and purple), cilantro, mint and parsley all tossed up with some Thai curry and brown sugar grilled shrimp and my Vietnamese dressing :P soooo good.

Some wild green onions growing right by, under the deck.  Should have put these in my salad! Gotta pick them today.

Sugar snap peas, first garden baby's born!

Lettuce bed, started from seed.  Can't quite figure out yet why the one in the lower left corner isn't growing as well :-/

Cory's tomatoes.  He's so proud :) I think these were started from seed. What's great is at this point we have no idea what varieties we planted and where; we started most from seed, 4 different varieties, some died and we replanted with stuff we bought or got from friends.... will be a total surprise when they begin to bear fruit.

Growing food anywhere we have space, why not?! Strawberries and marigolds on top, herbs second level and lettuce in the bottom.  This is just a "Stack-a-Pot" I bought at Kmart to put on the deck.  Soon to come, an experiment involving corn stalks, pole beans and winter squash planted together alternating with sunflowers, to border/grow up the side of the deck..... my friend http://applenamos.blogspot.com/ came up with this idea, hope it works if it does it will be beautiful and edible! Never would have thought I could go from killing houseplants one year to growing a huge ass garden the next... just goes to show you, with the right motivation you can do anything :)

Weather here in South-mid-west CT is gorgeous, let the sun warm your soul, have the best day ever,

<3 Miss Z