Nature is fascinating! Yesterday morning I came out to find my Hyacinth Beans were beginning to sprout 1-2' through the dirt. I meant to take a picture but the day flew by and then it was nighttime. Before going to bed I came back out on the patio with my dog Maddy and took another look at the planter and POOF!! they grew inches in one day. A confetti moment indeed! 

With some TLC I hope my Hyacinth Beans will look as lush as they do on the seed package from Botanical Interests where I bought the seeds from. This plant is recommended for pots and I'm glad because they are also toxic so planting them where my Maddy can't get to them was key. What I need to find out is this...when the plant does grow and either the beans or other parts possibly dry out and shed and fall to the ground are they toxic like they are fresh. I'll be back with the information once I do a little research. Hyacinth Bean also creeps so I'm going to try and get it to creep up the hanging chain and see where it goes from there. 

Today I will be planting Black Cohosh, Orange Mint, Rosemary, Passion Flower, Eucalyptus and Lemon Balm. I'll also be checking some of the herbs to see if there is enough to trim and dry for future use in oils and tinctures. 
Drying herbs usually involves rubber banding the herbs, placing in paper bag (which is optional) and hanging in a dark, dry space inside. With some herbs you can use a window screen to spread out herbs or flowers to dry. The reason it is best to use a rubber band when hanging herbs is that as they dry they constrict and if you use a string there is a good chance the herbs will fall down once they shrink. 

In the near future I will create an album of my urban garden which will provide more information about each plant and document the awesome process it is to dig in the dirt as my urban garden grows and is utilized for so many health reasons. It's amazing what one plant can do alone, imagine a whole garden! 

Today I went out to water my potted garden and found this little birdie hanging out on the patio. S/he seemed to be in that awkward stage of learning how to fly, looking so cute waddling around. After a couple of hours baby birdie flew up to the backyard. I went out to look for birdie, didn't find her/him but saw two adult morning doves sitting on backyard wall so it appeared that mom and dad were watching over their baby. Most times parent birds will stay close and fly to their kid to feed them until baby can fly steadily. I'll still keep an bird's eye (haha) out for baby birdie and hope s/he makes it safely to full flight. 

Speaking of 'babies' check out baby sprouts of sunflowers coming up! I don't know about other gardeners but as soon as I wake up I boogie on outside to see what has sprouted. Looking forward to sharing what grows in my urban garden, a mixture of herbs, veggies and flowers. 

I am going to plant this array of herbs and veggies later today in my potted garden. Sage, onion, rainbow peppers, tomato, eggplant, strawberries, camomile.... and I have some seeds to plant. I raise my potted garden the veganic way, meaning using no animal products or by products to fertilize etc... Can't wait to dig in the dirt!