(Re) Chic

I love having a garden plot. I think its one of the best things I've done since moving back to Columbus. However, it does have its drawbacks. This is what the extent of my zucchini gardening was before my garden plot:  I still had the benefit of growing delicious zucchini, it was right on my front step where I could check it everyday and the supply was limited by the plant size, which was in turn limited by the pot size (this pot was rather large but still did not provide unlimited zucchini).   Now lets turn to my current garden plot.  Since my zucchini started ripening a few weeks ago I have harvested 4 zucchini with another that's ready to be picked all at least a foot long!  I'm up to my eyeballs in zucchini!  I've been trying to pick them when they're smaller but they grow so fast that they're huge by the time I realize they're there!  (Due to my work schedule I haven't been making it to my plot everyday).   So what do you ...

As you can see I have not been very wordy lately and that has mostly do to with the fact that I am currently apartment hunting and starting a new job. But here are some of the things that I've been doing while not having my life in upheaval. Made my 1st batch of pickles using my Grandma's recipe Trying out new recipes like this one from Allrecipes.com. Harvesting my garden to get ready to move.   And of course...being addicted to Pinterest! I promise I will be getting settled and be back in the writing rhythm soon!

I apologize for my lack of updates lately. So hopefully this one will be nice and long and placate you angry blog readers :-p   I finally felt well enough today to go back out and work on the "garden" on my porch. It's been terribly neglected lately. So first, I repotted the blueberry bush Josh bought me.  We're really excited about it...its a Pink Lemonade Blueberry which we think sounds AMAZING!  It was in a really small pot when we bought it but since it was so close to fall I wanted to wait until it dropped its leaves, I know it looks sad, but its supposed to look that way.   After that I planted the iris rhizomes that I got from my Mom over labor day weekend.  I know its been over a week, but they were so dry to begin with I think they'll be fine.   Don't judge my Walmart bag...I was recycling! I was thinning them for her in the hopes that they would bloom better next year but they were so thick in her flower bed that I...

Above you will see my Sweet Potato Vine when it was just a baby.  It was cute and tiny and didn't even reach the sides of the hanging container I had put it in.  Now it is HUGE!  Despite the fact that it does not receive as much water as some of its plant friends nearer to the water spout it is doing surprisingly well.   Of course it can only ever live alone as it will overtake any plant friends it would have in its container with it.  The tubers are edible but I have my doubts that they will be very good...I'll let you know at the end of the season.   And of course, the tubers you don't eat you use to start new plants next spring!   I love perrenials!

As you all know I worked for a year and a half at the Community Garden Project, Grow Food, Grow Hope. And when you work at a community garden people are always asking for gardening advice or trying to give their own; and in my adventures I was always hearing about different ways to grow potatoes. Even recently I have heard tell of interesting potato growing schemes such as a "Potato Bed" .   Well the idea that you could grow potatoes in very small spaces was very intriguing to me because what better way to supplement your diet with things you grow yourself than potatoes?!   So way back at the beginning of the gardening season I found some seed potatoes and some potatoes that were growing eyes and I decided to conduct the Great Potato Growing Experiment.   I planted seed potatoes in containers-one that was meant to simulate growing in actual earth-(although it wasn't very deep) and the other in a 4 quart pot.  I also planted some extra potatoes tha...

Moss Roses Pink Hydrangea Yellow Rose Tiger Lily Husked Tomatoes Zucchini Cabbage

I'm really excited about this blooming this is one of the few perrenials I have that have 1. Survived and 2. have rebloomed!   I really love hydrangeas, they are just full of blooms and this was a super great deal.  For awhile my Lowe's store had 1/2 off their already reduced items and I got this bush for under $2!  I think this one time blooming is worth that alone.   So here's to good deals that keep giving!  

My Husked Tomato plant I first became acquainted with Husked Tomatoes last year at Wilmington's Tomadah Paradah event.  The plants are more low growing and shrub-like than your ordinary tomato and the fruits are surrounded by husks such as those you would find on a tomatillo.   According to Trade Wind Fruits they are,  "Small orange fruit similar in size and shape to a cherry tomato. The fruit is covered in papery husk. Flavor is a pleasant, unique tomato /pineapple like blend. The ground cherry is very similar to the cape gooseberry, both having similar, but unique flavors." I would definitely agree that they have a unique flavor I wouldn't have said pineapple but reading it that's not a completely inaccurate description.   The fruit In the above picture you can see the husks that form around the fruit.   The fruit are quite a bit smaller than a normal cherry tomato would be (even smaller than most grape tomatoes I think) and are m...

I just finished reading a post saying that there are only 178 days left in 2011 , and it challenges the reader to think about what their goals for the year were and basically to  And get back to what you were going to accomplish this year.  So I thought I would take some time to think about what I was going to accomplish this year so that I can do exactly as Sir Mix-A-Lot recommends.   The first obvious thing that I was working on this year was my 101 in 1001 and as you can see from the Update I've been fairly passionate about it and I'm doing well.  Plus I've got until September of 2013...so I've got some time.   A Personal  Manifesto is something that I started thinking about during the WordCount Blog-a-Thon.    And I was reminded of it recently thanks to Escaping Mediocrity who sent out her own manifesto that has been both inspiring and daunting in the face of writing my own.  Its something that I still want to do.  I feel l...

I've been catching up on my Google Reader feed with some crafty blogs that have some great projects. Here's a few things I really want to try out: 1. Fabulous plant waterers I love the champagne bottle!  I found this on Love and Trash's blog and you can read the article here.   Not only does she link to where she found the idea but she also links to another blog who creates them using light bulbs and a ball point pen! I'm going home tonight and sticking as many wine bottles into my potted plants as possible!  2. Mason Jar Chandelier The one shown was created by Love and Trash but the full tutorial can be found from Kara Pasley Designs.   I'm not sure about the Mason jars (because I could be canning in them) but I love the idea of using old glassware to create my own chandelier because I've been DYING to have one for my dining room.  So feel free to send me ideas on what I should use to create my own! 3. Worm Com...

Pretty Pretty! When I first replanted it.  In Full-bloom.  Foxglove's scientific name is "Digitalis" which refers to the size of the flower bells and how easy they fit over the human finger.  However, what I find most interesting about Foxgloves is their biennial growing habit.  Foxgloves do not bloom every year but spend the first year of their lives growing just the leaves of the plant and then send up the spike to bloom during the second summer of their lives.   

I have never grown naturtiums before this year.  Apparently they're super easy to grow and don't seem to mind being neglected.   And in this vein, mine has bloomed!  I bought it a few weeks ago at the Master Gardener plant sale because I had recently learned that they're edible and used them in an Edible Landscaping Plan I had created for a garden at the ministry.  So I bought one to try out and with barely remembering to water this hanging basket it has a beautiful orange flower to surprise me today! Apparently they have a slight peppery flavor and both the leaves and flowers are edible.  Since I had some extra space in my square foot garden down the street I also sowed some into that garden.  So I'll let you know how long they take to germinate.  The seeds look like mini human brains and they grow into kinda floppy droppy plants which is why I love them in my hanging basket.  In future posts I want to keep writing about all the p...

I COMPLETED MY FIRST BLOG-A-THON!!!!!! I think that's a pretty serious achievement and on top of that I start my new job tomorrow!   So wish me luck and I promise that just because I'm not posting everyday does NOT mean I will be neglecting this!   Now, I'm going to garden!

I have been thinking again about my personal manifesto, especially since tomorrow is my last day at this job that I have done for over a year and a half and things are going to suddenly become at least a little different.   So the first statement of my manifesto is going to be:  I will not let my work be my whole life.   My work can define me, but it can't be the definition.   That's really all the farther I've gotten, but I was just thinking about it earlier so I wanted to share. One other update: I am working on my "Plant Profiles" or whatever I was going to call them, so hopefully I will get those organized and I will have some sort of REGULAR schedule about posting them...since I've almost completed my 1st ever blog-a-thon!  

The rain has NOT stopped here in Clinton County.  In the past 24-hours we have gotten over an inch and a half of rain.  And that was all AFTER I repotted my flooded plants last night...here's what I woke up to this morning.   My flooded garden Homeless plants.   I'm going home now to see about moving the bed and rescuing the plants before this happens again...wish me luck!

I just got back to my apartment after being home for a wedding this weekend and I've already found a casuality from yet ANOTHER rainstorm. I apologize there are no photos, but nothing would take in the dark and my porch light wasn't QUITE bright enough. A few weeks ago I had planted a few cabbage, begonias, and brussel sprouts in half an old trash can my boyfriend had sawed in half for me.  Since it then created a container that was short one side I used an old recycling bin as a rain barrel and container side.  Today's rainstorm must have produced several inches of rain because my recycling bin overflowed, into my "container," it got so heavy it bent the side, so water, soil, and several plants overflowed out of my trashcan flower bed and onto my steps for me to find when I arrived today.  I scraped a little bit of soil off the sidewalk and tried to replant the plants a little but I'm worried the waterlogged soil from the sidewalk and the shock is not g...

So with the sun shining, the blue sky, and the cactus I thought I killed growing!  I pretty much feel like a B-A today!   But for those of you who don't know...let me tell you the story of this cactus.   This cactus is actually a piece of this cactus that fell off during the repotting process.   Have you ever repotted a cactus?  Yeah...its not the best choice.  Its best to leave giant cactus lie.  Which is also advice to give someone who, while driving home from work one night sees a cactus on the curb and decides "I'm going to adopt that"  That girl, was me.   In case you can't tell by the above photograph the original cactus is living in a plastic container approximately 1 1/2 feet square and just as deep.  It probably weighs between 25-30 pounds and is overflowing out of its pot.  I decided to pick up this cactus, put it in my car, and take it home with me.   The other thing to note about this cactus is not ...

I know yesterday I said that I was going to post pictures of my garage sale finds but I have something that's even better...gardening photos! Today was the annual Clinton County Master Gardener Plant Sale (they also offer workshops but I couldn't afford to attend any) and I bought more plants than any girl could ever need and I am super excited about it.  The Spoils So of course after purchasing a quantity of plants that was NOT in my budget...I got to plant them all.  And I feel pretty proud of myself for the creative containers and the ingeniuty involved in getting that many plants (along with everything I was already growing) in my available space.    Half an old trashcan converted into a planter A skillet full of impatiens As I was choosing and smelling the different varities of vegetables and herb plants that have become available to me from this sale i've decided that I want to do a little more homework with my plants to ensure that I'm picki...