...

maximizing efficiency, oh yeah

So, yeah, I've been happy to go out every day or two, and see that my plants are making progress...The tomatoes, beans, and snow peas have put out their first flowers, etc. etc.

BUT, I just wanted to post a picture of what can be done, by even the most inexperienced gardeners (a.k.a. moi) when conditions are optimized. Last summer, I grew basil hydroponically in a greenhouse.

Ugh, I miss this

The hydroponic system was SUPER simple. I just kept the roots suspended in an aerated nutrient solution. The whole thing was built using things you can find in standard hardware and pet stores. Basically, a bin, an air pump, some tubing, and a couple air stones. The hardest things to acquire are the Rockwool cubes the seeds are started in, and the nutrient solution; both of these things can be found at any hydroponics store. You can actually make your own nutrient solution, but it requires purchasing a bunch of chemicals, and it's probably easier to just buy it ready-made. If you can't get your hands on any Rockwool cubes (they look like that pink cotton candy-like insulation stuff), you can always make little mesh/net baskets and fill them with gravel. You just need something to give the plants some stability. You know, so they don't keel over. Anyhow, blah, blah, blah, I assume most people aren't interested in actually growing anything hydroponically; I just wanted to demonstrate how eeeasy it is, and what a huge difference it makes to have such an efficient nutrient/air delivery system.

healthy roots!

I literally had more basil than I could use. I made TONS of pesto for my whole family, gave bags full of basil away to anyone who would take it, and froze half a dozen containers full of a chopped basil/olive oil mixture for later use. I could cut back half of the basil, and before I knew it, it was all back. And such beautiful big leaves. They grew as big as my palms! And it was SO low maintenance. Once or twice a week I would drop by to top off the water/nutrient solution...Honestly, I only added more nutrient solution a few times over the summer. And the water level could drop to pretty much zero without any impact whatsoever on the health of the plants.

Yeah, and of course, it's important not to forget that a lot of this is also attributable to the fact that all this was happening in a greenhouse. Not a great greenhouse, mind you, but still. It was warm, it was sheltered from the  storms (which I've found basil is very sensitive to!), and there was plenty of light. My backyard, on the other hand, is lucky to get a few hours of sunlight a day, and is plagued by frequent bad weather. Siiigh. Alas, this summer, my backyard is what I've got to work with.

pretty parsley

Okay, so the parsley is sort of squeezing out the chives, but it just looks so happy that it's difficult to cut it back too much. I would just use some, but to be honest, I've been feeling like such shit, I can't remember the last time I cooked a real meal. Even if I were cooking, I don't have any good recipes that use parsley as more than a little garnish.

not sure what to do with

all the parsley

but I think it looks pretty

By the way, I totally just added that last photo because my toe ring is in it. I used to wear this little gold toe ring that I absolutely loved, but gold is a soft metal, and one day in yoga class, it broke in half. I finally ordered a new one on Etsy, and it just arrived in the mail yesterday. This time it's gold-plated steel, which I'm hoping will hold up better to wear and tear...Of course, if the ring lasts longer than the gold-plating, then I'll just be stuck with some uggo steel jewelry, but, oh well, and look at me babbling now...

pruning basil - update!

If you recall, as soon as my basil plants had a couple sets of leaves, I began experimenting with pruning and propagation through cuttings.

pruned basil cutting, soon-to-be new basil plant

basil cutting beginning to grow roots
after sitting in water for a couple weeks

I have to say, it was one of my more successful experiments. Propagation was a resounding success. MUCH faster than growing new plants from seed, and the basil plants derived from cuttings somehow ended up looking even more bushy-leafed and vigorous than their parent plants. A couple weeks ago, I planted a whole container of basil using only plants derived from cuttings off my original plants.

They look better in real life, I swear. And they've grown since - I'll upload a newer photo.

It's great that I'm getting so many new plants out of this pruning process, but the initial point of this whole exercise was to create healthy, bushy plants out of my original basil seedlings. Although, I'll admit, many plants were lost to stretches of HORRIBLE weather outdoors, or neglect on my part indoors, I think, on the whole, it's been successful. Here is one of the original seedlings...

close-up!

getting started outside

So, I haven't kept good track of my gardening for awhile, because I was overtaken by a wave of crippling paranoia and depression, but I've fixed myself up with some pills and a good drink for the moment.

As soon as May hit, I tore up a patch of grass in the backyard to turn into my vegetable garden. Screw you, pretty flowers, my garden is going to be practical and functional.

my little garden, half-planted

Of course, although I started with enthusiasm, things never go exactly as planned. I planted hundreds of seeds indoors all through March, but sort of got bored of watering them daily through April and May. In their tiny little pots, it took just about one good sunny afternoon to dry them out completely, and another for them to shrivel up and die. What with the frequent several-day-long benders and just being too goddamn tired to care in between, I lost a lot of my seedlings. 

I had vigorously pulled up the grass (harder work than it looks!) for my tiny plot, laid paving stones, and worked compost and garden soil into the clay soil my backyard is naturally cursed with...and then the cold weather just seemed to drag on and on, and I was afraid of putting my delicate little plants out in that kind of misery. But by mid-May, I decided my plants really couldn't take any more of my negligence, so out into the garden they began to go, to see how they would fend for themselves.

Progress report: I'm embarrassed to say that the things that seem to be doing the best are the chives and the parsley, which I bought at the local market and transplanted immediately into the garden. The tomatoes are baaarely growing,and the poor basil seems stunted. Some animal has been tearing up my baby lettuces. My multiplier onions are actually growing...however, I have no idea what to do with them! They're supposed to be harvested as green onions, but I only see one or two potential green onions shooting up from each bulb...Where's the multiplying, huh?

Zucchini? I planted half a dozen zucchini seeds indoors last week, but have yet to see anything sprout. I was so proud of my clever use of an old plastic strawberry container. just fill with soil (drainage holes already provided), plant seeds, water, and close the transparent lid. Ta-da, mini-greenhouse holds moisture in. So much easier than having to remember to water religiously while the seeds are germinating.

I planted my bell pepper and chili pepper seeds too late, as a bit of an afterthought. They're too small to make it in this short growing season, so there will be bare patches in my garden until I drag my ass to the market to pick up some more respectable-size plants.

Finally, the one thing I grew from seed on my own that seems to be flourishing is the little group of snow peas I planted in front of the deck.

Yeah, sure, they grow like weeds and are practically impossible to kill, but so is spearmint, and my stunted little spearmint plants will definitely not be contributing to any mojitos anytime soon, poor pathetic souls.

So, anyhow, after a month of rain, we've had two days in a row of sunshine, and maybe the backyard and my waterlogged little collection of pots will finally have a chance to recover and, god forbid, grow.

accessorizing in bad weather

It's rained all month, so I've barely gotten to use the happy red tin watering can I bought.

on growing rosemary from seed

Don't do it.

That is all.

...Okay, but if you insist on putting yourself through that particular kind of thankless torture, here are a few things I learned. First of all, I was very disappointed when I planted a tray of rosemary, basil, and tomatoes. The tomatoes sprouted and grew like crazy, and the basil soon followed suit. The rosemary did...nothing. I had completely given up hope when one teeny tiny sprout emerged. Hurrah! Right? Um, well, sort of, I guess. Eventually, a grand total of four of the seeds germinated. I had planted the whole package. Yup. It has been a month since I planted the seeds, and only one of the seedlings is starting to send out its very first set of true leaves.

Feeling like a bit of a gardening failure, I did a little research. Turns out, there is a bit of an explanation.

1) Rosemary seeds have a notoriously low germination rate. While I've read about some people having 80-90% success, it is more common to have a germination rate between 5 and 15%. And it can easily take them a few weeks (I've read cases where it took up to three months) for germination to occur.

2) After germination, do NOT get excited and religiously water your delicate little seedlings. This will kill them. In fact, it's a better to wait until the soil has completely dried out to water them again. Rosemary is fairly drought resistant.

3) Be patient. Yes, I know you feel like you've already been patient, but progress is going to continue being excruciatingly slow. So if you are impatient and require near-instant gratification the way I do, you are going to be disappointed.

Personally, I am going to stick with my puny little rosemary seeds, because why toss them out now that the poor things are there, but I will be heading to the outdoor market when it opens to buy a rosemary plant. I bought a small one last year, and it did really well, and I even seem to remember feeling like it grew fairly rapidly. But I'm guessing that rosemary needs to reach some kind of critical size before it really takes off, and I'm thinking that, based on my rosemary, and photos I've seen online, that size may not be achieved for a year or more. So patience, patience, patience. I hear it's a virtue. Or, give up on the feeling of satisfaction at having created your plant from scratch and buy a small plant, like I will. On the other hand, if you want a happy compromise, rosemary is supposed to be very easy to propagate from cuttings. I will try to remember to give this a try over the summer and report back.