New plantings, loads of work

Wow!  I mean really WOW.  My feet are so sore, my legs hurt but a quick look outdoors at how things are going makes me feel better!
This weekend we planted:
dill(3 varieties Bouquet, Dukat, and Mammoth),
cilantro
basil
tomatoes(in the ground)
eggplant (a cheat!  We purchased some ichiban, a personal favorite for stir fry)
Bell pepper (another cheat, simply because we're afraid of our own not growing enough to plant and produce later)
Sweet alyssum (cheated because there is no way I would have the room to start this!)
Marina di Chioggia (now in the ground.  Please I hope they like it there! Pictures following in a moment)
Marigolds(cheated simply for that instant gratification of seeing our front yard look pretty.  Sorry, couldn't help it.  Along with the marina di chioggia pictures soon to follow)

Our Salad bed (Bed 1) is going great~  Upfront you can see spring onions(all planted via the the method I posted earlier)  Regular onions that we're doing the same process as the spring onions to(it really works with those too!).  Next, which is not visible in the photo is my sons carrots.  Just normal, every day carrots.  Next broccoli rabe and something we're not quite certain of.  Yup we made yet again another newbie mistake.  We didn't label what we had planted.  Darn.

Next is bed two.  Much easier to identify.  Swiss Chard, Brussel Sprouts, Golden Purslane, then in a small row all sorts of peas and beans. On one side (the left) is a small bunch of red russian kale.  Still doing okay but not great,  On the other side parisienne carrots.   I've heard they're yummy!

Beds 3 & 4 had a lot of work done today.  This picture has the eggplant we just added, the bell peppers and tomatoes.  One extra thing not shown here is the sweet alyssum.  I just recently read that sweet alyssum is an excellent deterrent for stink bugs.  So since we're have such a large amount this year I figured I'd plant a bit, here and there to deter them.  In the worst case, it doesnt work?  Our garden will smell really good!  Best case?  We'll be the only people in our neighborhood with no stink bugs.

 You may also notice we got our hanging baskets up!  Now this sounds immensely dumb but I have lost the name of the blue plants hanging up as I have never encountered them before and hubby threw out one of the tags before I could write it down but right behind those plants are stevia.  Stevia is often used as a sugar substitute.
No noticeable growth on the taters however I did find that Walmart had actual purple potato fingerlings so I picked up a bag. Just in case ours don't sprout.

We have recently also planted a blue hubbard squash.  I really couldn't resist it.  It was at Home

Depot, $2.98 and I've never grown one of those!  I must admit, I'm the type of individual who sees plants as pets.  A plant just sitting there in the greenhouse/big box store/local nursery just screams at me to take it home.  I really have to fight NOT to buy each and every one so I can bring them home and enjoy watching them grow into the beautiful plants that they will become!  As you can see I also made an extra adjustment here.  We put these stakes in the ground and ran string through each one to create a lattice to allow the peas and beans to climb up.  Great idea.  Or so we thought until the local birds decided that they needed that exact string for their nests.  In their haste to take our string they have slowly been killing each of the plants.  So since I had some extra garden fencing I just cut it down to the size I needed, threaded it through the ends and slid it down.  I find as long as I get the seedlings when they're really young I can easily thread them through.  I just hope this idea works later on.  I guess time will tell.

Our seedlings are doing okay.  A tiny bit of noticable growth.  Mostly the leaves are looking greener, healthier.  The only thing that seems to grow no problem what so ever is the soup beans(Papa de Rola and Italian Rose).  It's almost like I can't kill them!
The odd thing about all of this is I used to have an almost miraculous green thumb.  Nothing could die if I was tending it however once I moved to Maryland that all changed.  The easy plants suddenly became difficult to grow.  The not so easy, impossible.  Its really sent me right back to the drawing board for several plants!
This weekend I'll be planting more of the soup beans out front. 
We also did massive planting out front.  It entailed actually digging up a medium sized area right next to our driveway. 
I'll post photos of it here later.  I ran out of time last night as a Severe Thunderstorm hit our area just as we were finishing the bed. 
Now if I could just get some of our seedlings to grow a bit, I could get them outside.  I've looked all over for advice on how to get seedlings to grow bigger but have come up empty handed.  So many different sites say don't fertilize because you can burn them however others say go ahead and fertilize.  I just don't want to kill them so I'm really afraid to do much more than water them and expose them to a bit of sunlight.