balcony garden update

It's harvest time in New England, but while my CSA has kept my refrigerator stocked for months, my balcony garden has not been so...prolific. There are a couple things I can blame this on:
1) The weather
1a) The summer was really hot and dry and therefore not good for growing much of anything
1b) The summer was really wet and rainy and therefore not good for growing much of anything
1c) I did not pay attention to the weather at all this summer, nor would I know what makes for a good weather-growing-pattern
2) I planted things that were not right for a balcony garden
2a) and/or I did not plant them correctly
2b) and/or I did not tend to them correctly
3) My plants were doing just fine until I went on a few extended vacations in August and September and left them under the care of two different plant waterers who completely screwed up what was once a good thing.
4) I never once read even so much as the back of a seed packet to see how much light and how much water each plant should receive, and thus administered equal amounts of light and water to all six of my plants.
5) Any of the reasons listed in this actual poem entitled, "Why Did My Plant Die?" by Geoffrey B. Charlesworth.

So how did each plant do? Let's recap.

What fared well:

Rosemary - by and large, this was the heartiest of my herbs. Two solid stalks (trees?) of beautiful green leaves. I routinely pulled a few leaves off to use in my cooking, and anything I made with this rosemary tasted great. I'm going to have a ton left by the time the first frost happens, so I need to make some serious plans quickly about how to store it all. This one was the clear winner of the summer.

Mint - I thought I'd killed this plant a half a dozen times. The leaves would turn brown and crinkly and I'd think it was time to put it out of it's misery when the very next morning I'd see a pot full of bright green mint. As of this post, it's back to it's flourishing state - so unless I get cracking on that mint ice cream I never wanted to make in the first place, this one may outlive us all.

What didn't work:

Oregano - I really thought I had a winner with this guy. For a little while there, I was worried that I'd have too much oregano. But then I went to Chicago for a few days and came back to a pot full of dead leaves. I still left the plant as is though, because it turns out that dead leaves make for easy crumbling of herbs into things like pasta sauces and other savory dishes. So maybe not all is lost? There's also a new leaf I found peeping out of all the dead ones, so maybe there's hope for this one still???

Basil - I think this was doomed from the start. It started flowering almost as soon as I repotted it, and it wasn't until just a few weeks ago that I realized I needed to remove the entire flowering stem, not just the flower itself. So I have a lot of dead basil stalks and only a few teeny tiny leaves that have been delightful on pizzas and in sauces, but not nearly enough to make any of the pesto recipes I so dutifully saved to my Pinterest board all winter long. Sigh.

Dill - Oy. My dill plant went to flower faster than Bring It On: In It To Win It went to DVD. I spent the summer watering a pot full of dead dill flowers. Once, I crumbled up some of the flower tops and sprinkled it into that night's dinner, but I'm sure that was somewhere between possibly unhealthy and downright poisonous, so I'm probably not going to do that again. Oops.

Lavender - This poor thing. The one plant I DID want to flower, did not, save for one pathetic little plume that ultimately blew away in a hefty gust of wind. And now it's just sad looking. Sorry, Monet, no fields of lavender for you this year.

The takeaway.
I really should have done some research. Like, I think that even a three minute Google search on the care of some of these plants would have saved me a lot of strife and yielded much better results. For some reason I assumed that because I had decent success last summer, I'd have the same, if not better results this year. Unfortunately though, I was completely wrong. Granted, I did buy these herbs fully formed from the greenmarket whereas last summer I started my plants from seeds, but I can't in all good consciousness lay all the blame on my beloved market. So I'm pretty sure that my biggest mistakes were some combination of over/under watering and/or incorrect light exposure, mistakes that probably could have been easily avoided. That being said, I really enjoyed tending to my little garden and relished in the fresh herby goodness of my plants every time I was able to incorporate one of them into my cooking. I'm already thinking of what I'll do differently next year (spoiler alert: I'll start by reading a gardening guide), but in the meantime, I'll be over here seasoning my drinks with rosemary and mint.

Balcony Garden 2015

Herbs are the name of the game this summer. While last year I poured my heart and soul into both herbs and veggies, I was left ultimately underwhelmed by the vegetable production. I yielded just one teeny tiny eggplant that was too cute too cook and a total of seven grape tomatoes - hardly enough for a sandwich, let alone the vat of fresh tomato sauce I had envisioned when setting up the garden. So this year, I decided to not even spend my energy on vegetables and instead focus on herbs - basil, rosemary, dill, oregano, spearmint, and lavender*. (*Yep, lavender is considered to be both a flower and an herb). I have to admit, though, that while last year I started everything from seedlings, I went the easy route this time around and bought these guys from the green market when they were toddlers. Why? Part laziness, part schedule, part crappy weather throughout most of pre-growing season. I only feel the slightest bit guilty about it, but then I realize that not growing your balcony garden from seedlings and instead buying your plants from the local farmer's market is a really silly thing to feel guilty about, so I get over it pretty quickly. Anyway, it's already July - how is my garden growing?

Basil - I'm having a slightly hard time with this one. There were some gorgeous leaves right away that I made sure to put on every pizza and dish of pasta in the tri-state area, but then it started to grow and flower, which I eventually learned is something I should not let happen to a basil plant. And then I heard on a podcast that once your basil starts to flower, the leaves are bitter and almost unusable. So is this a lost cause? Will I not have the spoonfuls of pesto I so longingly envisioned? I'm still watering every day and removing each tiny flower as soon as I see it, but I'm a bit confused as to how to proceed.

Rosemary - doing great! There are two decently-sized stalks(?) that are full and fragrant. Every now and then I pull off a couple of leaves and throw them into whatever I'm cooking, and the dish tastes fresh and wonderful. Good job, rosemary.

Dill - I think the dill has started to flower as well. And/or I don't know how to harvest fresh dill. AND whatever is there is so think and wispy I couldn't take a picture of it. DISCLAIMER - I plant things as if I know what I'm doing, but then never actually take the time to read or learn about the things I just planted, assuming that if my forefathers could survive off the land then I can grown some measly herbs. DISCLAIMER #2 - My forefathers did not, in fact, successfully survive off of the land, they instead took the first boat out of Italy when the going got tough and settled in urban Chicago, effectively removing any necessity of ever living off the land again. So clearly I come from hearty farmer stock. But back to the dill - what the heck do I do with this dill plant??

Oregano - flourishing. I'll probably need to repot this at some point, because it's threatening to take over my balcony. Anyone need any fresh oregano?

Spearmint - I have nearly killed and then miraculously revived this particular "Kentucky Colonel" like five times already. I secretly think my spearmint plant is punishing me for leaving Louisville six years ago (I lived there for three years and almost-but-not-really stayed for good), but I show him who's boss by adding a sprig to my bourbon while dreaming of simpler times when men were men and ladies carried parasols.

Lavender - so I haven't exactly turned my balcony into an idyllic and sun-streaked Provençal garden like Pinterest told me would happen, but I do have a solitary flower that smells delightful and is oh so pretty to look at. While I suppose my lavender sachet business will have to wait another year (which sucks because I already bought the domain to Spadoni'sScentedSachets.com), that little lavender bud is a constant reminder that hardships can be overcome and to always reach for the stars.

What are you growing this summer? Want to kick it grade-school-style and trade me half of your Lunchable for some oregano?

balcony garden/update 03 (final!)

It was a few days after the average date (we had a blissful week of Indian Summer), but the first frost finally hit the NYC area a few days ago. Luckily, my attentive boyfriend paid more attention to the week's weather forecast than I did and alerted me to the fact that I had about four hours to remove all signs of life from the balcony, lest I lose five months of moderately time-consuming work.

Reaping the harvest
At this point in the season, I had one small planter each of oregano, basil, and chives, and four tomatoes total - one that was ready for picking, and three that showed up late to the party but so eagerly wearing party dresses that I couldn't turn them away. I tackled the tomatoes first - the red guy joined his previously picked bother on a most wonderful turkey and cheese sandwich, and the three unripe tomatoes got cut and placed in a jar of water. Disclaimer: I have no idea if that's what I was supposed to do with the unripe tomatoes, but it's been two days now and they are slowly turning from green to red, so I guess it's working(?).

Now, for the herbs: All three varieties were still doing pretty well, so I knew I wanted to save as much as possible. I had read a handful of articles suggesting that I freeze some of them in olive oil, so I did just that - I picked and washed the oregano and basil, and placed a small palmful of each (roughly the amount I'd use in any one dish) in the cups of an ice cube tray; three "cubes" got both herbs, in case I feel like using a oregano/basil blend (pasta sauce, anyone?). Then I filled each well 3/4 of the way with olive oil and placed the entire tray in the freezer. If I want fresh oregano or basil any time this winter, in theory all I have to do it throw the entire oil cube into a sauté pan along with any other vegetables I'm choosing to add to the dish.

I decided to try something else with the chives since I usually add them fresh to a meal instead of sautéing first. So I simply cut the chives at their base (I felt like I was giving the entire plant a hair cut) and placed them in an empty jar. I'm kind of shooting in the dark with this one, but my plan is to let them completely dry out and then either finely chop or grind them into a powder, and sprinkle that over my food whenever I feel it needs a chive-y kick (baked potatoes? popcorn?? the possibilities are endless).

The takeaway
This was my first time ever attempting to grow something other than a few (unsuccessful) bamboo plants in my college dorm room and one (equally unsuccessful) succulent in my first New York apartment. And honestly, I was pretty nervous. I was worried that nothing would grow and that all my effort would be for naught - but after a couple of pep talks from various green thumbs, I turned my visions of a thriving balcony garden into a pretty decent reality. After all was said and done I netted a small planter each of oregano, basil, and chives, and 6 (and counting!) cherry tomatoes. The eggplant though, I regret to inform you, was not as successful. I kept waiting for it to turn from a bright to a dark purple like I'd read on various gardening websites, but instead it went from bright purple to a sallow green. I don't know if I did something wrong other than not pick it at the correct time, but it ultimately was inedible. The succulents, I'm happy to report, are thriving. Maybe it's their placement on a well-lit window sill, or maybe it's the fact that for the first time in a decade I can control the temperature in my dwelling and therefore aren't living in an igloo five months out of the year, but my five little succulents grew into six after a successful propagation, and at least four of them are due for a serious repotting sometime soon.

So was it worth it? YES. I grew to love saying "good morning" as I watered them each day, and what became a ritual of going outside a few times a day provided an unexpected comfort and joy within me. Also, watching something grow from nothing into something is simply pretty cool. I'm almost certain I'll be in this same apartment next summer (not always a given in my freelance lifestyle) and I'll definitely be instituting Balcony Garden 2.0, but focusing more on herbs than vegetables. Growing tomatoes was fun, but one handful of cherry tomatoes in September doesn't actually help me out in any true culinary sense. The herbs, on the other hand, were so quick to grow (and grow, and grow) that I was able to begin incorporating them into my cooking by early June, and being able to walk the fifteen feet from my kitchen to my balcony to grab fresh herbs whenever I wanted was one of the highlights of my summer.

What's this I see? Is it - could it be - yes, I think it is. I believe my little black thumb is turning green ;)

52 photos/weeks 33-36

33.) A weekend away in the Berkshires, complete with good food, great friends, and Adirondack chairs.
34.) Soooo I signed up for a 5k....
35.) A most perfect balcony garden tomato.
36.) M: I should go for a run. J: Let's take a bike ride instead. M: Sounds good.

52 photos is my personal challenge to take one awesome picture per week in 2014. All photos were taken by me on either my iPhone 5s or Cannon EOS Rebel T3i (my "big girl" camera). If edited, I use Snapseed, Instagram, or Adobe Lightroom. Follow me - @maspad - to see these and many more pics!

How to water your plants while away on vacation

J and I spent much of August traveling around the country to see friends and family. While I love spending time with people we don't get too see anywhere nearly enough, I was worried about how I was going to keep my plants watered (if you've been reading my blog this summer, you'll remember that I've been rocking my first ever balcony garden, playing mama to chives, basil, oregano, two tomato plants, and one teeny-tiny eggplant). One of the trips we took was a short little jaunt, about 48 hours in total. I didn't stress too much that weekend - a healthy watering before we left the house on Friday morning held everyone over until I got home on Sunday afternoon. But there were two other trips that lasted four days each - just a little too long for the plants to go without water. So for those two trips, I created what I think is a crazy easy slow-watering system that releases a pre-determined amount of water over the course of a few days!

Two words: ice cubes. Two more words: really big ice cubes. The night before we departed for each vacation, I filled quart-sized Ziplock baggies with water and stuck them in the freezer. I also filled up an ice cube tray with water and stuck that in the freezer. Right before we left for the airport the next day, I poked four minuscule holes in the bottom of each bag and placed one inside each plant. The chives and oregano got one ice cube each, the basil got two. And that was it! I returned each time to empty baggies and plants that were still alive. In need of a watering, yes, but nowhere near as bad as they would have been without the vacation-watering-system.

To poke the holes, I used one of those pointy metal turkey trussing lacers that came with a turkey-tying kit from last Thanksgiving, but if you don't happen to have those on hand, any sharp pointy object will do. It's also good to keep in mind the shape of your plants and the size of your planter. The first time I tried this slow-watering system, I kind of plopped the baggies in the freezer and didn't think about what shape they'd take once frozen. I ended up with four really large and misshapen orbs of ice that I had to pretty much shove into my planters. For the subsequent trip though, I set the bags in the freezer so that they were pressed up against each other, and used a flat box of veggie burgers to anchor the whole thing - the resulting blocks of ice fit so much better into the planters. While I wouldn't push this entire endeavor beyond four days (any longer and you're probably going to want to get a friend to stop by and water the plants in your absence), it is such a quick and easy way to keep your beloved little plants and herbs alive and kicking while you're on vacation :)

balcony garden/update 02

Houston, we have vegetables!

Well, ok. That's not technically true. What we have is the for-real beginnings of some soon-to-be tomatoes and one honest-to-goodness eggplant. BUT STILL. Seeing as how it's been three months since I haphazardly threw a bunch of seeds into a few pots of dirt, I consider this some serious progress.

Regarding the tomatoes: I have three different pots of plants. Two are filled with stalks that I replanted when the original pot got overcrowded, the third is full of the initial plantings. I'm not sure why, but that third, original pot is doing the worst of them all. The stalks are short, the leaves are kind of pitiful, and there's no sign of a tomato. The other two pots, however, are delivering a bounty handful smattering smidgen of fruit! There are currently three little green orbs fighting their way to fruition, and I couldn't be more proud of my little pomodori ;)

The eggplant is thriving. Granted, I was gifted this plant from a farmer-friend, so I can't take full credit for its' prosperity. But I did receive it before there was even the hint of a vegetable, so the fact that I nurtured this guy to near-edibility is pretty impressive. I'm not 100% sure when he'll be ready for picking, but I feel like a good Google search should generate that answer.

In other plant-related news, I inadvertently propagated one of my succulents! Apparently this is an actual thing (see: here, here, and here), but I only discovered it after an arm (leg?) fell off one of my succulents. J had been watering them (like all good parents, we give them a bath in the kitchen sink on Wednesdays and Sundays) and a little piece fell right off. I felt so guilty about the dismemberment that I couldn't bring myself to throw the arm away, so I put it on the surface of the dirt in which I was growing oregano outside. Women's intuition? A mother's love? A potentially innate über green thumb? Whatever it was, I unintentionally aided in the regrowth of a succulent, because in order to propagate them, you need to pull off any extra growth and lay them on top of some dry cactus soil. The soil I used was neither dry nor cactus (it's been pretty rainy in the northeast and I wouldn't know a cactus if it poked me in the face), but after about six weeks, the little arm started growing some new, um, arms!

I finally put the oregano out of its' misery and moved the succulent to his own home. Following the advice of people who actually know what they're doing (better late than never), I carefully removed the leaf and placed it on top of some new soil. He has since rejoined his brothers and sisters on the window ledge in our kitchen.

My other succulents are doing shockingly well. They're actually starting to get a bit overgrown (I've had to "stake" them using extra chopsticks from last week's beef and broccoli), but I'm not sure if I'll be able to foster any more propagation, simply because I'm running out of both room and time. I love my apartment, but it sure isn't set up to house a greenhouse full of succulents (I think I'm testing J's patience with the four vegetable, three herb, and now six succulent plants we currently host). And weather-wise, it may be hard to believe but cool fall mornings are on the horizon, and I don't want to harm any new plants by exposing them to harsh conditions. So until then, I get to just marvel at the private Jurassic Park that lives in my kitchen.

They grow up so fast ;)

Balcony garden!

Confession: I've secretly always wanted an herb garden of some sort, but previous to this year, have never lived in an apartment with appropriate ledges/sunlight/floorspace/wallspace/etc. to do so. Confession: I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when it comes to plants, herbs, vegetables, green things, things that grow in dirt, or anything else of the "plant it yourself" kind.

But this past Easter, along with the requisite egg-shaped Reese's and $20 bill tucked into a plastic easter egg, my mother sent me her version of a home-gardening kit. Seed packets, gloves, a plastic trowel, and one of those knee-pad-kneeling things, all tucked into a watering can and wrapped with a raffia bow (my mother rocks, you guys). So after some mid-April hesitation and anxiety, I threw caution to the wind, bought some pots, bought some dirt, and planted the seeds.

Then I spent the next two and a half months fretting about like a worried mother hen, constantly checking for growth, freaking out that nothing was ever going to grow, jumping for joy when the first little buds popped up through the dirt, and marveling when those little buds turned into actual plants and herbs.

But through this all, at no point did I do any actual research on what I was doing, because why take the fun out of experimentation? I mean, this is the life cycle - shouldn't it just work on it's own?

I did, however, spend one entire afternoon procuring and affixing two plastic flamingos to the balcony railing. Priorities, people, priorities.

Thankfully, the herbs pretty much did just grow on their own. I planted chives, oregano, and basil, and though the oregano has been a little slow to grow, the other two seem to be flourishing (although there might be some weeds in the oregano and basil? Let's not forget that I have no idea what I'm doing). Regardless, I'm sensing some homemade pesto and possibly some baked potatoes with chives in the near future.

There was a point in which I showed a picture of my tomatoes to a coworker, who turned out to be an ex-farmer (I love New York), and she told me that my planter was getting too crowded for all the tomato seeds I haphazardly threw in there and that I needed to replant the seedlings into larger pots. This same coworker also showed up the next day with an eggplant plant that she picked up for me at the green market, which officially makes her my favorite ex-farmer of all time. So after another few trips to the Bargain Stop for cheap dirt and plastic planters (I love New York), I put on my big-girl-gardening-pants and replanted my tomato plants. I now have three different planters of tomatoes - one is full of the original planted tomato seeds, the other two house the replanted tomatoes.

Strangely enough (or maybe not strangely at all, because again, no idea what I'm doing here), the repotted plants are doing much better than the plants that never left their original home. Everyone is getting equal amounts of sunlight (the balcony faces west and we get ample amounts) and I've been pretty consistent in when and how much water I'm giving them - about 8oz. in the morning unless the forecast calls for rain, which at that point I let God do the watering. I think (?) what I'm doing is working, because just this morning I found TWO little new developments - a little bud of something on the eggplant plant, and a little flower of something else on one of the tomatoes.

Are these the beginnings of actual vegetables? Am I secretly a gardener-savant? Should I push this urban farming thing to its' limits and add some chickens to the mix??* Stay tuned, because all these questions and more will get answered in the next installment of Mary's Balcony Garden!**

*No chickens were or will be harmed in the making of this blog post.

**I should probably find a day job. I'm working on that, I promise.