Friday Favorite: Edible Houseplants
This past week, I moved out the ‘Pizza my Heart’ pepper that I overwintered in the house, along with the basil, parsley, a few types of thyme, figs, bananas, and all the citrus trees.
The pepper plant is covered in peppers, germination indoors was great thanks to all those Asian ladybeetles. I harvested peppers in January, and I’ve been harvesting one or two every week throughout the winter. I’m interested to see how this pepper does during the summer, I’ve read that peppers do much better in their second year. So much so, that some gardeners dig up a lot of their peppers and overwinter them in their basements.
Then basil and parsley were harvested regularly throughout the winter, with a bit of liquid kelp, they just kept growing and producing fresh herbs for the table.
My citrus trees are also covered in fruit (though I forgot to go down and get photos of them). Adding a few edibles to the houseplant collection is such a great way to save a few dollars in the winter and add a bit of deliciousness to your plate. If you’d like to give edible houspelants a try, I’d recommend digging up a parsley plant this coming fall and overwintering it in the house. Fresh parsley is such a wonderful addition to so many meals, it can be quite spendy in grocery stores as well.
Do you have any edible houseplants? Do you grow herbs indoors during the winter?
If you’d like to try growing various edible plants in the house, consider reading Growing Tasty Tropical Plants In Any Home Anywhere as a primer. I read this book years ago and have been growing edibles in the house ever since. My favorites are figs & citrus.
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Blink and You’ll Miss It
The first summer we moved into our house here in Maine, I planted bloodroot in a small damp, shady area behind the house. It’s been slowly growing, thriving in the area where not many things want to grow.
It’s such an amazing little plant, if you blink, you’ll completely miss the blooms.
As soon as I start working outside in the spring, I make it a point to check on the bloodroot every day so I don’t miss it. On Monday I noticed it was blooming, by Tuesday evening when I went to point it out to Mr Chiots, it was already fading. The blooms only last for about 24 hours.
Do you have any fleeting flowers in your garden?
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Asparagus Season!
We really enjoy asparagus, when we moved here, there was supposed to be an asparagus patch. It was overgrown with quack grass, and thus the asparagus was not happy. After a good weeding and mulching, we thought it would bounce back, it didn’t.
Two year ago, I started two heirloom varieties of asparagus from seed. Last year, I added 50 crowns of asparagus (25 of Jersey Supreme, 25 of Purple Passion).
They grew well all last year, this year we will be able to harvest a few spears. Newer studies show that asparagus actually produces longer if they are harvested in their second year.
Next year, I’ll replant the crowns started from seed in rows, I’m not sure where I will put them at the moment, perhaps in second rows alongside the current rows of asparagus. When I went to Monticello 8 years ago, I was blown away by the HUGE bed of asparagus.
A huge plot of asparagus foliage is a really show stopper in the garden. Since my asparagus will be behind a perennial border, I think it may be the perfect backdrop for a mix of roses, clematis, catmint, and other lovelies. You certainly can’t beat the perennial nature of asparagus, a vegetable you plant only once every 25 years or so is a big win in my book!
What’s one of your favorite seasonal vegetables?
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Soaking it Up
This time of year really is the sweetest. It’s warming up, the soil is ready to be worked, there aren’t many insects, and there aren’t many weeds either. Yesterday, it was 85 degrees here and perfect. I spent the day madly planting seedlings the main vegetables garden: onions, spinach, lettuce, beets, etc. I worked until I could barely see.
I planted four trays of alliums: Patterson, Redwing, Red long of Tropea, and Conserver Shallots (all seeds from https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/onions/specialty-cooking-onions/red-long-of-tropea-onion-seed-2333.html). I’m really looking forward to fresh onions, the ones in the root cellar are starting to sprout and the stocks are getting really low. Luckily, chives are coming on and those give a great onion flavor. I’m starting to get excited about this summer and what the garden will bring.
What are you transplanting?
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Taking Shape
I’ve been slowly working on smothering all the perennial weeds under the old apple tree out front. It’s take a few years of mulching with cardboard and grass clipping, but it’s finally in good enough shape to start thinking about the final garden that will evolve in that space.
After looking at it for the past few years, this spring I noticed that since it’s right outside the front of the house, we see it all the time when we walk by. This time of year in particular, we notice the tiny scillas that bloom there. That’s when it dawned on me, this space would be a fabulous spring garden.
I started moving snowdrops from another bed, I’ll plant a few small tulips and daffodils this fall. When those die back, it will pretty much be left as is, except for the various boxwood I planted underneath that will be pruned into spheres.
I may make a few cement spheres to go under here as well. The focus will definitely be in the spring, when we can notice it and really enjoy the beauty of the new season.
Do you have any great plants to recommend for a spring garden? Do you have any themed garden areas, or areas that a specifically designed for certain seasons?
