Spring in the Urban Garden

Lots of garden activity going on around here!  I snapped some pictures, and this is a long post.

The lovage overwintered in the big pot.  I added thyme and purple basil, as well as some flowers.

Two weeks later, it is lustrous and lush.  And I did add a chervil plant to the side there.

The pots on the front porch posts got begonias and winter savory (still haven't looked up how it's different from summer savory). 

And we got the casualties of potting for pretty:  a marigold and a twig of savory.  I am eternally grateful to A for giving me tiny vases.  I don't always have a big fancy bouquet, but I always have tiny ones.

The hen-and-chicks succulent is coming back in Ben's old sneakers.  

In the spirit of spring, I suddenly furbished up a wire stand I found in the trash several years ago.  Doesn't it look nice in red spray paint?  It holds the shoes now, as well as a baby bay tree (and a clay pot for some stability).  That's a pot of mint next to it.  The winter killed it off in the pot, so I dug some out of my bed and repotted it.  In midsummer, the mint in the bed struggles and gets spotty while the pot keeps going strong.  The bed is close to a black walnut tree, and it's also rather damp there.  

This is a praying mantis nest that our friend Harley gave us.  They will hatch any day now.  We glance at the nest every time we go in and out the back door.

I successfully transplanted an enormous (to me) rhubarb plant from my friend Naomi.  My neighbor identified the vine growing on the fence as a clematis, although it's a mystery to us where it came from. 

Naomi also gave me a big bag of cut rhubarb from another plant.  After several pies, a batch of chutney, and a batch of rosemary rhubarb jam, I am contemplating pickling the rest.

I had put the rosemary plant back outside into a garden bed, but it seemed to be getting powdery mildew.  After a little online research, I yanked it out of the bed and potted it in a clay pot and set it where it could catch the sun and breezes.  Fingers crossed.

And this is spinach, cut from our raised bed from a spring planting.  I absolutely love going out to my back yard and getting something good to eat.  I think I am getting the hang of this gardening thing so I can do that more often.

Tending Houseplants in Winter

When we heat our homes in winter, our houseplants can suffer from the hot, dry air.  Most plants like humidity.  This winter, I took some extra steps to help my plants.

I set a tray of water close to the rosemary plant to put humidity in the air.  I bought a cute little vintage mister and tucked it into the windowsill corner next to the Norfolk pine.  I showed the children how to mist the pine and the rosemary, while avoiding the nearby jade plant who doesn't like water on its leaves. They love this little task. 

When there are small pieces of wet laundry or wet gloves, I lay them on the top of the radiator so the wetness evaporates right next to the plants.  In fact, I air-dry most of our laundry on drying racks to try to keep a comfortable humidity in the house.

So far, my plants are looking really good!  

Genevieve planted some dill seeds in December, which I thought were probably too old to sprout, but dang if those little seeds don't keep stubbornly growing!  I had told her they were her responsibility, but she has totally forgotten about them and I, for sheer joy of green, growing babies, have been watering them and turning their pot so they grow up straighter. 

I recall how my houseplants suffered through previous winters, and I'm pleased to see mine looking so healthy right now. Are your houseplants looking good?

Rosemary

I am going to try my hand growing rosemary, my favorite herb.  I bought a little plant in March and just planted it Saturday - and planted the oregano, too, whoops, so I had to protect it at nights. Wish me luck as I keep plugging away at gardening!

 Here is what I know about growing rosemary, from the lady who sold me the plants:

1.  likes well-drained, even sandy, soil
2.  likes to be evenly moist or on the dry side
3.  must come in in my winter
4.  planted in a plastic pot with holes in the bottom, and then buried in the ground, so I can easily retrieve it in late fall for a sunny, indoor windowsill
5.  will grow as large as the pot I put it in
6.  happiest in spring and fall, when days are warm and nights chilly

I love rosemary on roasted beets, in these scones, and mostly recently, in the crust of a lemon tart.

The Last of the Summer Garden

I did, in steps, put the summer garden away.  I picked the last of the green tomatoes and two (total yield) green peppers and we had them in green tomato curry tonight. I made a final huge batch of pesto from the basil in the front pot and back yard.  I took the whole oregano plant and made a Greek slurry/pesto with it, which we ate over baked potatoes. I dug the rosemary pot out of the bed and brought it inside, sending the big ancestral jade plant over to my sister to make space.  I chopped a pile of summer savory and fermented it to use in soups and salad dressings this winter.

And in what I imagine to be French farmhouse style, I dried the entire thyme plant.  It was a happy note in my kitchen for a week.

Then I roughly stripped most of the leaves off the twigs and bottled it up to store.  Home thyme.

There seems to be no fall garden.  I planted spinach, beets, carrots, and parsnips in August and September - how proud I was to accomplish staggered plantings! and out of all that, 1 beet and 2 spinach clumps came up.  Humph. 

I have noticed more experienced garden bloggers mention casually that such-and-such did not come up as if it is no big deal, but to me, this is still a big deal.  Perhaps I am just playing little-house-on-the-prairie where there's no money or food if the seeds don't grow. 

I should probably just focus on the garden success and count the rest as a learning experience, except I'm not sure I know anything else about how to make beets, carrots, and spinach grow next time. 

In related news, my houseplants are all looking gorgeous right now.  Too bad we can't eat them.

Late Summer Garden Update

I experimented with planting herbs in my porch pots this year.  It was very successful, although the purple basil took over, the creeping thyme died, and the lovage was very stressed by the July heat.  I love having thyme and summer savory available and looking so pretty.  I have yet to use the fresh rosemary; at first, I wondered why, because I adore rosemary, but then I realized it is more of a winter flavor to me. I'm hoping to overwinter it inside.

 

 

My baby basil plants are doing great.

The green beans in the raised bed were puny.  I ripped them out and started planting spinach in one and two week successions.  I have never done succession plantings before and I'm so proud!  I put reminders on my online calendar so I don't forget.

I am also experimenting with parsnips and beets beside some of my flowers; my husband warned me that they are especially susceptible to the juglon poison from our black walnut tree, so I don't know if it will work.  I do want to fill a big pot with soil and try growing some root vegetables on the front porch in our southern exposure, away from the wicked black walnut.

We got a pumpkin volunteer from somewhere (Halloween pumpkins?  I don't know) and it is romping over the fence and setting on adorable pumpkins.  Will they be big or miniature?  Who knows!

We had several volunteer tomato plants this year, and a volunteer pepper plant.  I moved the pepper plant out of the tomato jungle and I hope it will produce some peppers soon; it hasn't even flowered yet.  Some of our tomato plants are terribly wilted due to some mysterious blight, yet they are green and producing, so I just wince when I look at them and let them go.

 

How's your green thumb this summer?

 

Herbs and Flowers in my Porch Pots

I have gotten pretty comfortable with container gardening over the years. I typically plant three pots of flowers on the front porch with thrillers (tall plants), fillers (bushy, medium or small height), and spillers (a creeper that spills over the edge of the pot).  I even know how to secure my pots so they aren't stolen off the porch, a sad but real part of downtown city living.

However, inspired by my friend last fall, I wanted to see if I could work more edibles into my gardening overall.

I filled my big pot with a geranium, a few begonias, and then (the edibles!) thyme with purple flowers, variegated creeping thyme, creeping rosemary, purple basil,  and lovage.  The smaller twin pots on the porch posts got a few begonias and summer savory. 

We'll see if they fill out and look lovely and if I remember what each herb is.  I'll take pictures in a month or so and report back.

In other gardening news, I'm still mulling how to do a container of carrots or beets.  Our peas are up and looking happy.  New baby dill plants are growing.  Our lettuce is nice and hearty.  And I have started a packet of basil seeds inside on the window sill instead of buying plants the way I usually do.

I planted hen and chicks, a creeping succulent, in Ben's old sneakers. Not edible, just adorable. 

This spring, I pulled out some irises and lily of the valley to make space for a rhubarb plant from my friend Caryn (thanks again, Caryn!). I am hopeful it will take root well enough to survive the summer heat, unlike the last one.

How are your edibles coming along?