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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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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The Mad Dash
Here in Maine, we have black fly season. It’s annoying. Black flies buzz in your ears and bite, hard. Typically, the season goes from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day. We wear head nets during the season if there’s no breeze, but we try to spend LONG days in the garden before they arrive to get as much done as possible before the little buggers hatch out.
I often take a lot of days off work this time of year, or I work in the evenings when it’s dark. These past two weeks have been no different. Any day it’s nice, I’m outside working, unless there’s something pressing I need to get finished. Naturally, I always have furry helpers when I’m working outside.
This weekend, I accomplished a ton in the garden. All brassicas, lettuce, celery and beets were transplanted. Peas were seeding, shrubs were pruned, perennials were transplanted, perennials borders were weeded and a layer of mulch was applied.
I also started working on a rock wall around part of the old apple tree up front. It’s really starting to look GREAT! On Saturday evening, after a long day of working in the garden, a black fly buzzed my ear. Even though I’ll still be out working in the garden, I won’t be out quite so much.
What insects are annoying you this week in the garden?
