Green Thumb?
I often hear people say that they don’t have green thumbs, that they always kill plants. I’m not sure that my thumb is any greener than any one else’s thumb, I have probably just grown more plants.
Take these boxwood cuttings for example. They were being overwintered in the basemen and I completely forgot about them until they were way too dry. I lost about 75% of them. It’s not a huge deal since they were free, they were however 2 years in the making up to this point, so I did lose some work. That’s how gardening goes though, sometimes you lose plants because of something you did, sometimes plants just don’t like the location or they get diseased. Dead plants is just part of gardening.
Have you killed any plants recently?
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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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Double Stack
It’s great to wake up in the morning with sore muscles from spending the day gardening. While it’s beautiful and sunny during the day, it’s still getting chilly at night. The furnace is still working sometimes and the cats like to run over and lay on the vents when it comes on. Here we have Samson on a shelf above the vent and Littles laying on the vent right below him. Sometimes, there’s even a cat sitting up on top the bench for a triple layer of warming cat.
The cats never fail to entertain, that’s for sure. They keep me constantly chuckling and laughing.
What are you pets up to this week?
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Friday Favorite: New Recipes
I’m a lover of food and a lover of cooking. There’s not much I enjoy more than a new cookbook and making recipes from it. This past winter, I got Nigel Slater’s A Kitchen Diary and read through it. Every recipe sounded delicious as I was reading through (his books are not just cookbooks with recipes, but more books about food & cooking with recipes sprinkled in).
Last week, I made pumpkin dal from it and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Since I still have pumpkins coming out my ears from last summer’s harvest, I’m always looking for good recipes that can use up some pumpkin. The 24 carat brownie recipe from this book is also fantastic. The recipes are pretty simple, which is something I really appreciate. They highlight good quality ingredients with minimal fussiness in cooking or preparation. I’m looking forward to more and more recipes from this book.
Are you a fan of cooking or just more a fan of eating?
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Oh, The Weather Outside if Frightful…
Yesterday was a super yucky day weather wise here in Maine. We had all manner of freezing precipitation, the sleet nailing me with 30mph winds while I was getting mail was actually a bit painful. At least the weather indoors is delightful as are the greens in the edible indoor garden.
I have many things that can be transplanted outside, should the weather actually warm up. Until then, we’re eating greens grown under grow lights and thinnings from flats of things that are on deck to be planted out as soon as I can work the soil.
What’s the weather like in your garden?
