Beau Désordre

I was in Africa once. I saw what was called the "Zairoise miricle" that people could live and breed without any real government. I enjoyed the local music I heard there. Years later I bought a bunch of records at a flea market, 5 for a dollar or something. They were from the 70's I think. I had scant knowledge of what it was but I believe I found some Soukous. It was different than most of the African music I heard on the radio, and to my ear better. Zaiko Langa Langa was one artist and this was described as being "beau désordre", beautiful chaos. I think that that could describe my garden.

These pots are looking very nice. I got my lacinato kale, very stately, next to the salad bowl.

I just let the chamomile take over the swan. It looks a bit weedy perhaps, but I don't care.

My strawberries are getting luscious.

Hops, Tulip Bulb and a Cute Kitty

It's getting hard for me to come up with titles. Given that these posts are photo driven rather actually about any specific gardening issues.

The cascade hops are growing fast. I might expand the area I have for them to climb on. The salad ball is still filling out but some stuff is getting past its prime like the mizuna. I have nibbled on a couple flower stalks so far. I'm not sure if I want to let it go to seed or harvest the whole thing. It would leave a large bald spot right now. When the nasturtiums fill in I might pull it. The lettuce hasn't bolted yet.

Should I be explaining stuff here? See, I can say a bunch of random things about whatever, but it's sorta easy for me. Once I talk to people, especially new gardeners I'm struck by how little they know.

I'm not a tidy gardener. I groom this ball and my saladbowl, and my beds actually by kinda grazing. If I see a leaf overshadowing something else, I'll pull it and eat it on the spot. If it's a whole plant I generally save it for later.

I pull a few plants up by the roots and put them in a glass of water on my chocking board. Basically, for the past few weeks I have made a series of 'salad bouquets' Really, they are quite pretty.

The bouquet on the right is from a month ago. That's mizuna and fennel. They must be 500% bigger now, especially the mizuna.

I am pretty happy with how my tulips turned out but now I am a bit confused by this recent development. What you see here is a tulip bulb forming just bove the surface of the soil. There seem to be 6 of these growing.

Does this mean my tulips are really happy, or are they very unhappy? It does look like the healthiest tulips are the ones doing this but what do I do with these bulbs?

I tend to treat tulips like annuals, something I pull up and compost when they are done, but these were so pretty and so many passers by commented on how lovely they were. Should I dig them up in a few weeks and store them till September? I will decide soon, won't I?

Sally is a ham for the camera. This is her response to "Sally, do something cute." Need I say more?

Beautiful Day

It's a beautiful day. Abe the cat prefers stepping stones to walking on soil. Keeps his paws clean but sometimes he has to leap.

When Sally looks at me usually her eyes say, "What can you do for ME?" One thing I do for her is give her fresh catnip. She seems to prefer to be serviced rather than getting it herself. But as you see here, I make her work for it.

I have reason to believe that this ladybug really likes chamomile.

After a year with no blooms and a winter in my basement, this bonnie plant artichoke has a bud.

I seem to be getting into a sort of routine here. Blogging everyday isn't that bad, but I gotta say, a faster connection makes it far less frustrating.

Black and Blue Blooms

Anytime I find myself liking a plant, I want to know more about it. I want to know where it came from, what uses it may have outside of what I am using it for, whether it has any cultural significance to anything. Seriously, there's a lot of history to a lot of seemingly simple plants. I am very interested in new world plants, and this flower, Salvia guaranitica is a new world flower.

The first thing I figured out after purchasing 2 without knowing much, is that it's a great hummingbird plant. Well, I learned things in regard to its cultivation like it gets big. In warm climates it can be invasive but in temperate places like Pittsburgh it has survived some pretty harsh winters. I might try to winter this if I keep liking it. I will opt for retiring it to my coldroom rather than letting it winter outside because otherwise it will probably die. I wanted to know more about it specifically. It has a nice smell. (gets up to let cat inside and to sniff flowers to better describe)It smells like a fruity sage, not like anise to my nose, though I only have smelled 'black and blue'. There are other slight color variations, all I believe are pretty vivid blue.

So it smells pleasant. Is it edible? According to Rose Marie Nichols Magee, in this blog post, Salvia guaranitica Anise Scented Sage, Rose Marie, one of my heroes, the flower at least is edible. Oh good! More snazzy garnishes!

It seems to have been named after the Guarani Indians of Brazil who drank yerba mate before anyone else. They seem to have used the leaves as a sedative. It sounds like this might be more than a little stronger than say chamomile tea so maybe I won't experiment with that.

Anyway, I enjoy this plant more now knowing that it's not just a pretty flower. I hope you enjoyed these pictures showing my first blooms opening up. I am looking forward to more. Don't you like how the flower went from this dark purple/blue to that^^^?

Hummingbird Flowers

I like hummingbirds. I got hooked a few years ago when i lived in a place that seemed an unlikely spot. For some reason I bought a 3 dollar nectar feeder and put it up and lo, there were hummingbirds. Later I found out that there had been a neighbor who fed them in the past. You see, hummingbirds are creatures of habit, which brings me to the present.

Last year I saw a total of 3 hummingbirds in my yard. I had one feeder up but got mad when they didn't show and let it go. This year I have resolved to entice them as much as possible and so far have seen 2. It is early so I think I will see more. What should draw them in more are various flowers that I have planted. I think that they just haven't had a reason to come here but I know a lady just 3 blocks from me that has hordes so I'm sure I can entice them.

Various salvias are excellent. Pineapple sage is highly recommended but in my experience, here in Pittsburgh, it does not bloom until very late when the bird are leaving. This year I decided to try Salvia guaranitica. This is very highly recommended. Below is one of my 'black and blue' plants. I put them in my earthbox on my front porch ledge which last year held broccoli. This plant could become 4 feet tall. We shall see. It was 4 inches tall just a few weeks ago.

What is kinda interesting to me is that hummingbirds are allegedly attracted to blue. I know that they like red, but some say that they, especially western hummingbirds, love blue. This is just the calyx of the flower. It is the black part of the flower. The flower is a vivid blue. I have been waiting for it to bloom since I have planted it. I suppose I could have chosen a pot with blooms already but I subscribe to the belief that's it's better to let your plant grow in a bit before it blooms, whether it's a vegetable or a flower. The calyx is just opening.

This lavender flower is mona lavender swedish ivy. It is an upright plant that likes some shade so I have it on a table on my porch. The flowers do not have much scent but I sampled a flower and found that it has sweet nectar. This was an impulse buy, more expensive, 10 dollars, than most plants I buy but I think it was worth it. Aren't I cheap?

This cypress seedling should have red blooms on a long vine. I also will be planting some scarlet runner beans, but I haven't decided where.

I'd really like to see more people helping hummingbirds out. They aren't just cute. They eat lots of bugs to quote a quote, "Hummers need nectar to power the bug eating machine that they are."
-Bob Sargent

My source is Hummingbird Feeders, a page on HUMMINGBIRDS.NET. That site is very informative.

Why Bokashi is Important or Gabrielle's Garden Experiment

Todd is very interested in micro-organisms. He's brewed many beers and wines and just this spring grew some delicious oyster mushrooms. We joined the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club this spring and though some lectures seem long to me (sorry) it is overall a very interesting subject. This all ties in with what I think should be much more important to gardeners.

Today Todd told me that the white house lawn has been mycorrhizalized, if that's a word. Let me quickly say I greaty admire the Obamas for this and their organic vegetable garden as well as their beehives! Yes, the Obamas have bees!

Anyway, mycorrhizal fungi have a symbiotic association with plant roots. As a layperson, I want to explain this in a way that a layman can understand. I can't quite do that.

The company Mycorrhizal Applications, Inc. provides links to videos and articles that might, in a manner of thinking, mycorrhizalize your brain. Another company Gardens Alive sells many specific products of this sort of thing. I recently purchased a fungus gnat insect control, Knock-Out Gnats™ Granules, from them as well as a few other items. It's been about 2 weeks since I started using it so I can't fully endorse it yet.

Anyway, if you compost various things in using various methods you will probably generate a lot of good stuff for your soil. In the past I practiced vermiculture but for reason stated in a previous post, I got annoyed with it. The worst thing was the fungus gnats infestation which hopefully I will eradicate this year.

I think bokashi can inoculate your soil with mycorrhizal fungi if you introduce it to your bucket. I have ended up inoculation my bokashi with wormcastings leftover from my wormbins and I think that that might be very effective. I'm not a scientist but I do know that wormcastings are rich in micro-organisms. I have however mixed a lot of things into my bokashi bucket including just for fun, a little oyster mushroom spawn. Todd threw a handful into the little collection bucket that we store next to the sink to collect for the big bucket. We let the spawn go til it was pretty clear that it was colonizing the little bucket. indeed, I started to line the little bucket with wet newspaper the better to keep it going and to inoculate the waste before I transferred it to the main bucket. Typically it takes a few day to a week until the little bucket is full, or needs to be emptied because of smell or attracting things we don't like.

Anyway, I can't quite say that my method is the best. I just planted some tomatoes on top of buried bokashi, using the above method of inoculation with good stuff. I will let you know what results I have. I just think that ultimately the best stuff to make your garden grow well is probably already in your garden. Exceptions to that rule are new houses which probably have soil out of balance.

I feel that I need to add to this. I do not want to say anything that is untrue. I found a bokashi peddler that claimed that bokashi does not create ANY CO2 which is untrue. I don't think that bokashi would be the most effective mycorrhizal fungi inoculant. I actually think that a good yard of compost would be the best start. If I had a new house where the ground had been radically disturbed. I think I would spread a genuine granular mycorrhizal inoculant on my property. I'd probably start by covering all my soil with 3 inches of compost, then I'd rototil it into the top 6-12 inches, and then I'd inocculate it. I would probably also hold off on doing any major plantings for a while, perhaps I'd plant a cover crop to let the soil settle. A year later I'd do a more permanent planting.

I hope I am not overstating myself, I just do not want to advocate any snake oil, if you know what I mean. I would like to see people look locally for answers to things, I guess that's my main thing here.

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.

Random photos

I took this swan picture by the light of 2 lightbulbs. It had just rained and the chamomile looked like some fairy thing. I had to doctor the result a bit but I like it. Eh, it's a canon powershot... I mean I guess there might have been something fancy I could have done to take this better but still.

Here's me editing my garden, sorta akin to copy and paste. I decided to stick some more of my birdfeeder sunflowers in back. Surprizingly, they spring back pretty quickly, especially given that it's been so cool and wet. I still have a bunch of millet and other mystery birdseed babies in that I'm not sure about. I blame the squirrels!

I love chives. They make a simple thing really nice. They are one of the 1st green things in the spring, they are super easy to grow, even in pots and their flowers are pretty and edible. I have been known to scope out chives that are slightly differently colored but in this garden I only have lavender.

I understand that in certain SE Asian cities crowded, and I mean crowded beyond what most of us experience that you see lots of little pots full of various onion greens. If you have only a balcony and want fresh produce, start with chives.

Here's the 1st eggplant I planted this year. It is called ichiban, which means "number one" in Japanese. If I had to choose one eggplant to grow it would be ichiban. It's beautiful with black stems, I am rather partial to dark things, and very productive as well as good eating. I tend to harvest eggplant while young which is when they are most tasty and this also keeps the plant productive.

For some reason I have ended up getting this from boxstores, though last year I ordered one from California. My local nurseries spurn this eggplant and instead favor 'little fingers' which is also a similar, nice eggplant, but not as pretty. Its stems are green but the eggplant is similar. Don't get me wrong, I have a little fingers too that I haven't planted yet but, I will plead with my local nurseries to carry ichiban! It is called 'number one' for a reason.

Here's yet another post today. I think what I am doing is worthwhile but currently I have an average of only 10 visitors a day. I hope that this will increase. Anyway, it is my habit to post before I am done editing which means that if you are really keen on this blog, you oughta not click on new posts until they are at least an hour old.

My boyfriend got me set up on bit.ly which I forward to my twitter account when I am really(I think) done editing a post so if my incomplete posts are annoying, you might do better to follow me on twitter and click on the bit.ly link. I am gobbism.

Mostly Blooms and my Berm

It's been cool and rainy, great weather for sleeping and other things. I have a rain collection system I am working on but it like most things I do is sort improvised. When and if I perfect it I will share details that a layman may read and see and apply to their own situation. I will say that in my improvising, that I have been careful about mosquitoes. Those mosquito donuts are available everywhere and should be used, indeed, even a birdbath can get infested with mosquitoes, they need very little water to breed.

We start this with my yarrow which was growing in the grass between the sidewalk and the street. I decided to let it grow wild and bloom this year. Last year I felt compelled to trim it with the grass. It looks pretty but untidy, musch like the chamomile growing in the cracks of the sidewalk but when these blooms pass, I intend to dig up my berm and give it structure so it really looks like I intended it to be wild. Anything to avoid having to mow it!

Another berm improvisation is this sea thrift. It is all but swallowed by the grass and clover. Again, I will try to change this.

There's chamomile all over my garden including, of course the berm. I planted this cabbage here for lack of another spot for it. I sorta wish they sold them in 2 packs but I guess I could have passed this on to somebody. The thing is that most people do not plant as early as me which means I either abuse the seedling by keeping it in its tiny plug or I have to transplant it to a slightly larger pot. I wish people would think more about their gardens in April, really folks, if you do, it usually comes together and grows better too. I might offer discounts for early bird gardeners, yeah I think I might just do that.

The pole are there because my landlord uses the detached garage in back to hold construction material so he drives down my driveway pretty often and kept running over things I planted here including my crocuses! Maybe he's gotten the hint and I'll take this down. I did widen the entry by a red brick and put a large cobble stone down as a barrier that can be felt as it is run over.

This next picture belongs in the dew post but is here. Yes I have strawberries. No, they're not on the berm. This is the 2nd year so they should be and certainly look more productive than they were last year. Maybe I should plant some of these in the berm? Most people who walk their dogs sorta avoid leaving anything behind here. Atctually, most dogowners clean up in general but there's always one who... OK, no strawberries on the berm.

Well, I sorta wish this blog wasn't so scattered but when you consider the structure of my garden, this makes sense.

More Stuff!

As promised, I am doing another post. It's May you know? There is just so much beauty I could cry, but I won't.

Here's the cheddarhead eating by my saladbowl, which is filling out nicely though this isn't its best side. Behind it is lacinato kale and an eggplant. Yup, I haven't caught up with everything here.

This planter has a matching one, sorta, on the other side of the steps. It started last year with lipstick salvia which i wintered with partial success. The salvia was kinda ragged so i filled it in with mizuna which already needs to be harvested, allysum and of all things hops! The hops are an unknown ungendered quanity. A friend gave me seedlings this spring and just for kicks I am keeping a few to see what's up. Who knows, I might end up having a new variety.

This porch still life is my fancy swedish ivy, mona lavender, with vases of chamomile and acapulco anise hyssop. I trimmed back the feral chamomile a touch but wanted to see if the buds would bloom in a vase. They have.

Chives are so easy and pretty, especially when they bloom. In the background is one of my bokashi buckets.

Well, I think that's it for today. I have a lot that I haven't covered.

Dew!

This morning was foggy and I realized as I drank my coffee this morning, dewy. I yelled for Todd to grab my camera to document this and here it is.

I planted this lacinato kale last week I think. It's looking lovely already. I haven't harvested any yet but it is good eating. That and red russian are my favorite kales right now.

 

Here's a closer view of a leaf. It was just beautiful.

 

Next we have an artichoke leaf.

 

And finally a cabbage leaf over some mizuna which I still need to harvest. No hurry though.

 

I think I am going to try to do a post a day, if only because I now have super duper fast uploading. My garden is growing at warp speed. I think I might do another post when I finish this. I think it's just easier to upload only 4 photos at a time but I take so many beautiful pictures so I must post more.