garden v2.4

it's time for a long-overdue garden update!

i've got a nice little slide show of pix i've taken in the garden over the last weeks. and here's a general run down of accomplishments:



tomatoes
too many to count! the cherry tomatoes are sweet with a medium-tough skin. they stand up well to omelets, pasta dishes and fair extremely well on their own with a tiny bit of salt. the yellow pears are sweeter with medium skin and are huge stars in caprese and pasta salads for their awesome color and shape.

cucumber
i asked lowriter (my friend of the farm) when i should harvest the cucs and after learning a lot of much-needed awesome cucumber information, she told me of the wisest thing yet - check the tag. hehe... turns out my variety grows to about 4" - 6" and thus far i've had 2 successful fruits and one on the way! it looks like there are many more pre-cucs, but according to lo's awesome knowledge about fertilization, they may not come to fruition (oh, yes, pun intended - been waiting to use that one all summer! muahaha).

herbies
basil = success beyond imagination. i've harvested one amazing crop for mass pesto production (frozen and stored accordingly for colder days). i may sneak out one more medium-sized harvest yet! rosemary - it's beautiful. i've enjoyed watching it sprout out into a cute bush. it's seasoned many piece of chicken or fish! the cilantro went to seed a while back, but not before providing a few small harvests for mealtime.

flowers
well... better luck next year? i say this every year. next year though, i promise to get a hearty variety. marigolds? something that will be hard to maim....

garden v 2.2

time to plant!

last year's metal buckets needed a revamp. my herbies and tomatoes drowned last year so i poked more and bigger holes:

drill!!

i'll have more pix of the basil, thyme and assorted others at a later post. I chose to put the cucumber plant and one cherry tomato plant (as a social experiment) in the two big planters. they took very well!

pretty sunshine!


and of course, the grand experiment:

i have two bags of upside-down tomatoes hanging from the balcony above mine. they've been anchored down to reduce swinging and twisting and they drain rather well. the other two bags will go on the other side of the balcony. hopefully i'll have enough soil for them!

garden v 2.1

growy things!

this mom's day us ladies ventured to the local nursery and picked up some really fun greens for show and plant. i got excited about the herbies but i think i may have to go out and get some more. see, my tomato solution this year is to grow them upside down a la yelling guy's ad. this frees up a TON of pot space and will allow me to plant a lot of cilantro and basil - my two staples.

for color, i scored some pre-planted antique violas (one of my favorite flowers!). i went pre-planted because i seem to have issues with flowers. at least this way they start off with a fighting chance.


list of plants thus far:
tomatoes - cherry and yellow pear (i may try for a bigger red like big boy but i'm nervous)
cucumbers - plan is to do these upsideown too
basil & purple basil
cilantro
thyme
rosemary
viola

garden, pt 8 :: the fruits of labor

after "toiling" and "pruning," i finally have a "crop" to "harvest"...

:: yellow tomato plants ::

the yellow tomatoes are officially not yellow (more orange) and golfball sized. they have a tougher skin but are very juicy inside and taste absolutely wonderful! i either eat them as a snack or use them to jazz up a meal. my favorite dish so far was simple: perfectly cooked scrambled eggs, half a california avacado w/ cottage cheese and one whole "yellow" tomato. all sprinkled lightly with salt & pepper and nothing more. glorious!

:: red tomato plants ::

i have to admit, i am a bit disappointed in my hybrid reds. they are supposed to be at least baseball-sized, wonderfully fleshy and very tasty. so far, i have 1 out of those 3. next year i shall get the same type of plants but plant them by themselves in a larger pot (larger than what i have the yellows in). they apparently need space and fooood to grow big and yummy. however, they are extremely tasty. since the yellows arrived first, i didnt think my garden could produce richer flavors. but perhaps due to the golfball size, the hybrid reds are ah-maze-ing. no salt needed on these buggers. my favorite meal with reds: gorgonzola mushroom ravioli in sage butter w/ fresh shredded cheese.

:: herbies ::

to date, the herbies have not progressed any further, but they have proven quite helpful in the kitchen. i've made: a lovely simple syrup with local honey and thyme (for cocktails!); amazing hamburgers with thyme, rosemary and goat cheese; and delicate tomato, thyme and goat cheese omelets along with many other dishes that required a kick of fresh basil. i figured this would be my most useful crop, and to date, it is. my plan for the herbies is to attempt to bring them indoors for the winter. not sure if they'll keep, and at the first sign of indoor failure, i pluck, dry and store. next year i'll spread out the herbies a bit more in a good container, and solemnly swear to water at regular intervals - the basil plants have black stems, which i'm told is a result of bad drainage, hence preventing more positive growth.

this has been a fun experiment, and i'm very glad it's producing such wonderful products!

garden, pt 7 : feed me seymour, FEED ME!

a tip of the hat to the old adage "the kettle wont boil if you watch it"... i now am the proud "mama" of two nearly ripe tomatoes! as i suspected, the two re-potted monsters are of the yellow variety. After my busy week/weekend and a steady 2-day rainfall which kept me inside and unawares, the little guys popped their color.

the red plants aren't doing bad at all. in fact, i have quite a few little guys struggling to fill out. i'm seeing some roots pop out of the top of the soil. intuition (and imagination) says it rained a bit much and the roots simply needed a breath of air. i am inclined to put some extra soil on top and provide a bit of plant food. any yays/nays or other advice out there?

my prolific herbies maintain their productivity. never failing me, they spread steadily and respond rapidly to my regular trimmings. if i cooked more, i'm sure i'd have an audry issue on my hands...

the last surprise came from my bastard child - the aloe plant. i purchased it about 2 years ago and was told it's very hard to kill an aloe plant. i think i loved the aloe plant a bit too much. in fact, i'm pretty sure i abused it with un-desert-like treatment. circumstances as they were, i thought i killed it last year. unable to admit my defeat, i took it with me through the big moves and finally resigned to leaving it on the porch, unattended. alone in it's ideal environment (hot, day-long sun exposure, with lack of attention and water) the little guy actually started thriving. the green is inching back up the stalks! it's a miracle, folks.

of course, what was the first thing i did when i realized what was happening? i watered it. doh!!

garden, pt 6

garden update! lookee - i have tomatoes growing! (if only i remembered which type of plant this was....)

garden, pt 5

it is with sunburnt shoulders and a happy soul from toiling the earth that i bring you this post! after a lot of hard work and thought, some major edits should be noted:

1. tomato plants

my tomato plants have me worried. they refused to grow UP and started flowering quite early. i worried that they were in too shallow of containers with too poor of soil. so i finally remedied the situation and overhauled all of my pots, starting here. two tomato plants got special tlc and i carefully (oh so gently!) re-potted them into separate containers with a good mix of soil and a bit of fertilizer. the pic here shows romeo pouting demurely on the porch (i was about to leave for work - he's a bit on the needy side). the pix below show one remaining tomato plant with a re-potted flower (it has promising buds) and the other has a new buddy - the new basil plant, which is already strong and healthy.

2. herbies

there is too much thyme. i could make many, many bad puns here but to spare my most loyal of readers (who hear too many bad puns from me on a daily basis) i shall refrain. as a remedy, in my spare time, with a fistful of thyme (oh to hell with it...) i cooked up a simple syrup. simmer 1 cup of water with 1 cup of honey and a bunch of sprigs of thyme for 30 min - 1 hour. strain, cool and use as desired. i created a lovely sunday night cocktail: 2 oz vodka, 1.5 tbsp simple syrup, topped with lemonade.

the rosemary is coming along nicely, but it stopped growing, so my hope is that the new soil enriches the plant's health.

the first basil plant is struggling in the same manner as the rosemary. i tried my darndest to give this one the most new soil. it now has inspiration from the new basil plant in the pot sitting beside it. the best source of inspiration can be jealousy, right!?

garden, pt 4

basil update:

after much deliberation over the advice from my commenters and mom, i decided to remove the now definitely dead basil plant. i'm hoping this was a fluke plant, as i already expressed my concern about overcrowding, and a small weed-out will hopefully only help the remaining herbs flourish.

to solidify my decision, i pruned and came up with my first tiny basil crop of the season. it was very yummy in my pesto orzo w/ chicken & parmesan supper:

1/4 c. fresh or frozen pesto (thank you jane!)
1/2 c. packaged orzo, (cook al dente then drain well)
1/2 lb. chicken, cooked (i use salt & pepper and the george forman)
parmesan cheese to taste (i use the shredded kind - a lot of it)
1 - 2 Tbs of olive oil
small handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped well*

toss all together and salt as needed (my fave salt these days is coarse sea salt). I realize that some of my readers are concerned about carbs, and i readily admit that my orzo is regular pasta from trader joe's. i have not been able to find "healthy" orzo. if anyone has, please let me know!! otherwise, you can sub dreamfield's elbow macaroni. oh, and of note - parmesean cheese is one of the "healthier" cheeses out there. rule of thumb is: the harder the cheese, the healthier it is (AND less lactose).

*this is my fresh addition to the meal - it's not necessary, but gives the dish a kick.

garden, pt 3

the basil is having issues...

does anyone have any idea what's going on here? i googled "wilting basil" and all i get are references to either the soil being too dry or too wet. i know it's wet enough b/c the other herbs are flourishing. but perhaps the drainage on that side is too much/too little? should i remove the sick plant? does it look like part of it may revive? and of course: did i plant them too close to each other?

garden, pt 2

the garden is blossoming!

it appears that all of my plants have taken to their new surroundings on the porch. i spent an hour on the front walkway pounding nail holes into the metal pots for drainage (it worked!) and arranging my greens into neat rows.

I have four pots of cosmos in yellow, orange and purple.

one long pot of herbs - (left to right) basil, basil, rosemary, thyme. i'm debating whether or not to hang this baby over the ledge.

one tub containing 2 tomato plants and a cosmos (did i overcrowd?). note the little guy hanging out in front - that's 2 more tomato plants that i dont have pots for. i'm debating putting each one in it's own large pot to see if they grow bigger tomatoes due to more growing room.

and another tub with 2 tomato plants and a cosmos.

a few days after the planting, i put some used coffee grounds around each plant. i heard that it adds nitrogen to the soil and can prevent certain bugs. whether or not those bugs exist in the city and feast on porch plants is unknown to me, but i took the precaution nonetheless. plus, i happen to consume a lot of coffee...

the garden, part 1

i planted a tiny "garden" this year. in previous years, i've simply gone without or borrowed/begged/stolen from relatives and friends. the noble pastime of gardening has never appealed to me before. for one, i do not have a green thumb. i'm currently in the process of killing an aloe plant. an ALOE plant. i cannot figure out what to do with this poor little browning, shriveling plant.

i have a typical viney-green-leafy unkillable office plant in my cube. it's got some giant bare spots on it's "arms" and i'm slightly ashamed of how it wilts after long weekends/weeks w/o watering. but i think i'm due for some diligence. i am gung-ho to learn about this dirty biz. i want something green and flourishing in my house. so i started small:

a few tomato plants - beefeaters and some yellow ones (i need to look at the label again)
2 basil plants
1 thyme plant
1 rosemary plant
6 cosmos (purple and yellow)

as soon as i can, i'll take a picture of my newly potted plants and post it here. my plan is to post regularly about the plants health and productivity. i'll then have a record of what works for apartment gardening and what does not.

wish me luck!