Strawberry Bed Refresh
Our strawberry patch is 6 years old now and in need of a refresh. With the redesign of the main garden, they need to be moved to make way for a walkway. Instead of digging up the plants we have to transplant, I decided to purchase new plants.
Since ‘Sparkle’ are our favorite berries, I ordered 50 crowns from Nourse Farms. They are my go-to source for asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, and other soft fruits.
Since the area of the garden where I want to put all the soft fruit is new and the soil hasn’t been amended, we decided to try some of the strawberries in raised beds. I got this cedar from the local mill, I was able to trade eggs for it. These new plants won’t produce berries this year, but we still have the old patch for that. We’re looking forward to lots of berries in years to come.
What’s your favorite soft fruit?
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Look at THIS!!!
The ‘Pizza my Heart’ pepper from Renee’s Garden that I grew in a pot last summer and overwintered in the house is producing peppers like mad. I’ve been harvesting a few peppers each month, yesterday I harvested a big handful to put on pizzas.
I’m going to pop this plant out of the pot, prune it a bit, then plant it in the garden. No doubt, it will respond with delicious peppers in 6-8 weeks. This fall I may dig up a few other peppers and overwinter them in the basement to see how this works on a slightly larger scale. Peppers are a staple in our household, if I can harvest fresh ones for 6-8 months of the year I’ll be one happy cook!
What are you harvesting from the garden today?
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Herbal Compress
Last Friday I got bit by a black fly on my eyelid. Fly bites tend to leave me with a ton of inflammation, often the size of a gold ball or larger. That means I woke up the next morning with my eye so swollen it wouldn’t open. Since I had an event to attend on Saturday evening, I was keen to get the inflammation down quickly. After a bit of research, I settled on a mis of: freshly harvested dill and rosemary mixed with some lavender blossoms from the pantry.
It was made into a tea into which I dipped a washcloth. After chilling the washcloth in the freezer, I applied the compress for 10 minutes every hour. By evening, the swelling was mostly unnoticeable. I think dill was the main component in the reduction in inflammation (the lavender helped tremendously with the itching). Five years ago the same thing happened to me and my eye was swollen shut for three days. This time, the compress made a huge difference in the length and severity of the bite. I’m quite happy to have discovered this gem of a compress, no doubt it will come in handy this summer as the deer flies will be out in July. It’s a good thing I always have a ton of dill in the garden!
What herbal remedies have you found work like a dream?
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Homegrown Lemons
I purchased this meyer lemon tree a year or two ago to add to my collection of potted citrus. It bloomed last year and set 9 lemons. Considering I have a lemon tree that’s over 10 years old and has only set 1 lemon, I was AMAZED.
I’ve been harvesting the lemons and using them in drinks. It’s such a wonderful feeling to plug a lemon straight from the tree and squeeze it into some fizzy water.
Even though I’m still harvesting ripe lemons, the plant is getting ready to bloom once again. Now if only my other citrus trees would be this productive.
What fun things are you growing and harvesting?
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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.
