Sidewalk

My sidewalk is very lush. This 1st picture is my terrace which has filled out completely.

Next to it is my feral tomato. I am glad that it is a cherry tomato.

My yarrow is growing in well, and so are the weeds. Hrmph. Everyday, I weed it a little bit.

You may have noticed that I have let my garden spill out onto the sidewalk. Most pedestrians seem not to mind though some plants get a little trampled. It's not as bad as some hedges on my street.

The sidewalk makes some things easier. I don't have to search in the dirt for these seedpods.

One plant I have growing in various locations is nasturtiums. After a while they go to seed and when they do they tend to die out a bit and drop these seed pods. I might save some to plant next year. They are also edible if you pick them early enough.

I will let the seedpods dry out then break them open for the seeds inside. That'll be one less package of seeds for me to buy next year.

Last Year's Garden - mostly herbs

There was a frost threat last night that led to me putting flower pots on a bunch of things but that does not make for pretty pitures and it was a bit cold so I have decided today to look at some photos from last year. I posted pictures of things that are great in container gardens, even if they aren't in my pictures.

I really, really like chervil. It is lacy, pretty fancy and hard to get in groceries. It is one of the Frenchie fine herbs. I have also found it to be tougher than many say it is. I have seen seedlings survive uh... incredibly cold weather, now I can't say what the bottom was, 5 or 10 degrees fahrenheit? I dunno, but I recall that the chervil in this picture came from a bunch that survived that. These guys are in a pot and this year I have them in my salad bowl.

I think it is best to start them from seed rather that seedlings but if it is late and there are only plants available, go with them. Chances are, especially if they end up in a hot spot that they will flower and go to seed sooner than you'd like. Let them. The flowers are cute. Use some as garnishes but let a few go to seed and you'll be set with more chervil by fall.

I love chamomile. I started last year with one pot. In most pots there is not just one, but many chamomile plants. I broke them up into many small bunches and planted them all over my garden. The result has been, even though I was fairly vigilant about harvesting is that I have chamomile everywhere.

This is not a bad thing. If I don't want it somewhere, when I remove it, it complies and does not come back. I hear that chamomile is one of the most agreeable plants that there is and that plants growing close to it actually grow better. I don't know if this is true, but outside of having less space, I haven't noticed any of my plants suffering in chamomile's company. The flowers also attract many beneficial insects.

So if you have limited space, try some German chamomile. It's relaxing just to look at it.

Mint is something that I only grow in pots. I love the stuff. It's great for tea and certain popular mixed drinks. I also like to spruce up any cold drink with a sprig.

I keep it in pots because if you plant it in the ground it will once established take over everything. If I had a small bed surrounded by concrete I might let it take ove, but I don't, so in a pot it stays. My pot is however large enough to grow a tomato so you might understand that I love mint. I suppose peppermint is my favorite but I also like corsican, a tiny leafed variety, in the upper left of this picture, that could be risked in a bed. Another noninvasive variety is pineapple with it kinda pretty too.

I used to have a gumby but somebody stole it. My front yard gets lots of foot traffic and the scale is such that small toys like gumby are good lawn ornaments. A giant gnome would look stupid. Todd gave me some weird soldiers to ornament my yard. I guess I oughta plant them.

Gumpy is admiring an Alaskan nasturtium. These are better sown as seeds because they are fussy about being transplanted but if you are careful, they'll be alright. I transplant all sorts of things that they say shouldn't be. You just need to be gentle and vigilant. I guess I tend to check up on my babies as often as I can til they settle in.

This is one reason why having one of those mister pump things is a good thing. There's no better way to spot water a fragile transplant. They also are good for chasing cats away and giving yourself a cooling off on hot days.

Nasturtiums are completely edible. They taste like cress, very peppery. The flowers add some color to salads, or are nice as a garnish while the leaves with their werid shape are pretty cool too. I am partial to alsaka's variegated look.

On a different topic... It seems dumb, but since I started forwarding this blog to twitter I got 2 more subscribers, er followers, and this is after maybe a week. I don't have an iphone, though I play with Todd's every morning before he brings me my coffee in bed, yes I am spoiled, but anyway I'll just keep twitting.

My canvas is not blank

I garden like I get dressed everyday. I'm no fashion plate, indeed, I have contemplated doing youtube type videos of things I discuss here but that means I have to do something with my hair! I guess I feel like my garden is half naked right now. I'm a little embarrassed to show it in its entirety just yet.This being its 2nd year, my garden is taking on a number of 'sink or swim' aspects. This budding onion is a leftover from last year. It might be a welsh onion, but I'm not sure. I noticed it budding and have decided to encourage that. Whenever it blooms I should have a better idea of what it actually is.Next my canvas shows what I decided to call 'beau disordre' a reference I recall to some Congolese Afro-pop I read about and encountered years ago. Um, I won't get into what made my brain stray that direction. The largest plant here is an artichoke, then there's a red cabbage. My strategy is to plant fairly low lying plants in front, with lots of little annual flowers at the border including allysum, pansies, lobelia, german chamomile, calendula at the edges. Much of this is selfsown from last year. I will fill in the middle later with more tender taller things like eggplant and tomatoes. Thus you see that I did not start this year with a blank canvas.On the newel post I do have a blank slate. Last year I had a rather anemic planting there. I hope to put something there spectacular but I am torn as to what that should be. There are some logistical problems to growing a globe like this. I should devote an entire post to this when I get around to it. At this moment I am think that perhaps some nastertiums would be nice here, the type that cascade. But alas! It's too early for them here! What to do?

You might notice that hanging from the left side of the sphere is a tiny hummingbird feeder. In the Pittsburgh area hummingbirds typically start showing up in mid April. I intend to make them feel welcome in my yard. More on that later.This final picture shows some of my palette. Lettuce, pansies, allysum, and broccoli. Broccoli is a definite no for the sphere. The rest I could manage.

Anybody out there have any opinions about my sphere? I am trying to decide mainly between edibility and ornamentation. One thing I am pretty sure of is that my whole yard would look better if I covered it all with a fresh thin layer of compost. I probably will do that soon.

There's a Hedge

That straddles a border between my yard and an apartment building. I am working on taming it. It's just a mess! It was a combination of rose of sharon, spirea, and boxwood, with a ton of ivy choking it up and some wild morning glory and clematis (old man's beard) growing wildly. I am eradicating everything but the spirea and thinking about keeping some clematis but keeping it in check. I know also that I can't really kill the ivy but I am greatly reducing its quantity.

I am not taking pictures because it just isn't pretty. Instead I am posting some from last summer. Just looking at them cheers me up, even though I think I sorta look like my grandmother. Maybe that's why I chose that cotton dress. My grandmother had a vegetable garden and walked around barefoot all the time, squashing spiders with her feet sometimes, but that was in South Dakota.
So here's some summery pictures that cheer me up. It's hard to remember how beautiful my garden was. I am happy to see that my chamomile has self-seeded and that there are numerous chamomile plants growing, many where there aren't supposed to but I might just leave them be. Whether it's tea or bloom, chamomile is soothing.
My latest bit of bokashi juice smells like soy sauce. I guess that's decent.