Recovering

Alright! So today was not my best day, but that doesn't mean I can't think of something to make the day better and guess what... I have just the thing to do it. This morning was not one of my better moments and I think I have dishonored myself in the face of my employers for it, but hopefully, because they are such great people, they won't hold it against me. Either way, in an effort to drag myself from this ridiculous rut I decided that it was time I went to Nicky's and did some gardening. Her garden is less mine and more of just a relaxing place to sit while I planted sunflowers into the seed plugs she gave be for my birthday. 2 rows of Sunspots, 2 rows Dwarf Incredible, 2 rows Teddy Bears, AND 2 rows of Mammoth Russians. That's a lot more sunflowers than I should be allowed to even touch in one day, but I have already plugged them and as of tomorrow we will be on the look out for the babies so they can be put in the garden and Chris and Kelly's. I do love sunflowers. I wish I was one. I also trimmed the chives, which will soon go in the book! Found the lavender from last year has sprouted and begun making flowers, and transplanted basil and the mystery plant that I had in one of the seed plugs. Butterflies were making their appearance today as well. I think in an effort to feel better, tomorrow i will document all the photos down and make a photo entry to show how bright the world is. I have to say, he made everything beautiful. I just have to look out my window.

My Garden!

Its grown so beautifully people! There is just something so great about having gone over there last night to see my people and the product of hard labor. The plants look gorgeous! I'm overwhelmed.

The whole thing turned out great! Look at how it thrived! Before and after!


Just look at the marigolds and how lush they are!


And the spikey plants!



Everything is so beautiful, and all the potted plants lived, but just look at my sunflowers!!!!! Following the sun and the kept safe from todays storm by the fence. There are so many blooms I can't wait to see them again!

Sorting

Alright so a few days ago my honey badger/sunflower bunny/MIK, came home. It was great to have him here and show off my little seedies to him. Of course he thinks that its silly no doubt, or my obsession with them is. I think I told him at least ten times how excited I was that, get this, THE CUMIN HAS SPROuTED!!!! Soooo exciting. That's right, two little cumin sprouts.

Now, now some of you might not know just what a cumin plant is good for an apothecary. Wellll, I don't know either! HAhaha, so I'm going to use this time to tell you.

Alright, so first off, apparently as a tea it aids with acute stomach pain. More tea making ^^ And of course this time I get to find out what flavors go with the taste. According to my sources, its a spicy little seed, so making a tea from it should be a new experience. It can help with flatulence, indigestion, diarrhea, nausea, morning sickness, and atonic dyspepsia, AND great for tumors in small animals. If I'd known that I would definitely have been growing cumin before when my aunt's bunny rabbit 'Bean' got sick.

Ooooo! I just found some hugely good news for my sunflower bunny, Mikki. According to several sites, cumin is good for the kidneys and livers. Now this might not seem so oddly amazing but you have to take into consideration, the HSP. Lately the henoch schonlein purpura has been tearing apart his kidneys lately. There has been a large about bleeding there and I think that perhaps if I could get him to try some cumin tea that perhaps it might just help him a little bit. Now the trick is getting Mikki to try it because well, to put it plainly the man does not like tea, nor does he like homeopathic remedies, but I think if I give him this expression, O_O He might just do it so that I'll stop giving him creepy stares.

Also it helps with lung pains, and that's something I REALLY need. I've been using an inhaler and steroids to open up my lungs for years. Anything I can try to help makes me a happy girl. Hopefully I just make the tea tolerate.

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Oh and also for the record. I went to the storage last night and retrieved some pots. his morning I checked to make sure that I had all my soil and such. I'm going to wait until Saturday before potting though because I would like the seedlings to raise up a bit higher. They are still a bit short.

Tomorrow! I am taking my pouch of things to Chris and Kelly's house so that whilst the little one's are asleep i can pull that persistent plant from the ground and pack all the leaves away into a bag. In my pouch, is going: pruning scissors, garden gloves, hand trowel, hand hoe, garbage bag, and bulbs! I don't know if tomorrow I'll get far enough into the cleaning process to plant yet, BUT I want to be prepared.

For those of you who don't understand why this means so much to me. In all honesty its a lot more about finally being able to give something to Chris and Kelly after all the things they have done for me. After the two years I have spent working for them, they have taken such good care me as a person. Paying my doctor's bill when I got sick, and just the way they treat me. They are good people. I want to give them a beautiful garden.

Bringing in the new Year

Hello 2011! That's right all, new year means new template, means new look. I have moved on from being an unconventional gardener, who knows nothing about plants. To someone who really wants to learn what to do with these things I've grown. Now no worries, I am certainly NOT going to be leaving out the growing sections, because I plan to get more elaborate and attempt all new herbs and plants. I plan on though, adding to what I'm going to do with them and have been called a poor man's apothecary. Which for those of you who don't know, means that I am using my herbs and plants to help with healing and such. Which for others who are just beginning to watch this, I have been in search of many a helpful remedies to help out my brave and strong fellow, Mikki. I have already proved that the basil tea does its job because as of yesterday my tea was drank by a truly head achy and stomach achy individual (mom), and after giving her my new basil tea with honey, she felt instantly better. So we know I can at least do this. Unconventional uses, rather than an unconventional garden.So thus is what I am, and you are joining me in the adventures of my life. A passion I have yet to be bored with this the beginning of time.

This year, I want to makes soaps, shampoos, and teas. Essential oils even if I manage to either build or receive a still for getting the oils out of the plants. This means lots of new flavor complexes and experimenting with new sights and smells. I really am quite excited about this new endeavor and hope that you will all add a little something on your preferred smells and flavors. Lets all hope that this is a good growing year!

Tomorrow begins the planning!

Season Two!

Well since the season is coming to a close I thought that perhaps I should speculate on what next year looks like in the way of this one's garden. I finished packing away all my nice pots for the winter. I'm sure I'll be digging them out at the start of April once seedlings have again been brought forth from the dirt, but for now, the cold has taken the better of them. I did however leave out two pots to experiment with. A plastic one, hoping that it would be less cold that a ceramic pot. And the very first pot I ever bought. The little blue one.

I am of course waiting to begin until 2011, but that doesn't leave January devoid of planting! Its like a fun game to play with yourself. Weighing the pros and cons of what plants to attempt growing in January. I'll letting the basil have its resting period, since we just finished playing with that, but I do in fact want to have an enormous herb garden someday and I want to say I've at least attempted to grow things other than basil. Even though we are all fairly aware by now that its my favorite since I am yet to kill one off accidentally.

Anyway I fished out my box of seeds to discover these have yet to be successfully attempted: Savory, Italian Parsley, and Cumin. Now that we know this however, we check heights and sun exposure times in the wonder book, also known as, The Complete Herb Book by Jekka McVicar.

By the way, quick fact! Did you know Parsley was used to decorate the dead's tombs? WEIRD! But anyhow, it only gets to 10" about which is good and definitely doesn't like being transplanted, so into the tiny pot that would go, with a towel wrapped about it to keep warm and in my sill. Perks!: Chewing it raw promotes healthy skin, fresh breath, and eaten cooked can promote suitable treatments for UTIs. Very nasty those things. OOOOO And I could make hair rinse from it. Sounds great! We shall attempt that one. I am excited for all its uses.

On to the Cumin. Shocked as I am to find that cumin isn't in the book, it looks interesting. My packet says its up to 12" Tall, and is suppose to harvest after the seeds turn brown... hmm... not very helpful. Lets check the net shall we? Oooo looks like its great for boiling into a tea to make a stomach pain reducer, and OH! The horror! Requires long hot summers to grow. Well I guess that means no cumin for the January season.

Hmmm how about that Savory?

Oh my... well it gets 12" tall and is world renown as an aphrodisiac? Oh dear. Apparently the stuff was suppose to be the stuff of myths. These half goat people would stand in a field of the stuff and called it 'the herb of happiness.' Well... I hope there are other uses because I don't need any of that stuff getting involved in my garden. BUT! I wonder if Mik knows that because he claims to know all in Greek and roman myths. I should ask him, bwahahaha...

Oh my! Such a good thing, I found some more uses, good for asthma! Yay for me. I should try that. I think savory is our winner, and not only be default either. Oh goodie, and it makes great tea. awesome.

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Alrighty then all we have decided on the plants to attempt. Now because its winter, and because these seeds say use in 2010, I will attempt to grow them three times. If no sprouts come then I say its one of the tow things or both, and we'll try again with new seeds in spring. Very, very exciting. I can't wait. Especially since savory looks like pine needles. Fun.

For now though, I say adieu and good day to you all.
Justine

Christmas smells great!!

You know what I realized? Pine is an amazing smell. I mean I just got home from Florida and let me tell you something, I love that warm weather, but something about walking through the pine tree section at Menard's just makes my heart flutter. Its all the right time of year for pine trees and know what? All the more right time for Basil! Yes I know its been ages, but well to be perfectly honest, it doesn't matter. All my plants have passed on by now, I had to allow them to take their last breathes before leaving on vacation, but that didn't stop me from drying the final plants and guess what this happy camper got to bring home with her for Christmas?

A MORTAR and PESTLE!

That's right! My dad bought me that gorgeous little stone there that says very sweetly, 'Bless this Garden.' I was very wobbly eyed when I received it because as we all know this little hobby of mine really matters to me and it makes my heart light up to see that others notice that as well. The mortar and pestle were a gift from my grandma Judy. Who let me get it while we discovered a quaint little cooking store at the mall in Bradenton. Its small and perfectly fits in my hands. And that's right you know what I made with it? I made Christmas presents!

Sure I can't buy things since we all know that aside from being rather frugal I am also about to lose my job and can't really afford gifts, but! I can make gifts. I took that little pestle and ground up that basil and mixed it with my mom's favorite generic tea blend and repackaged it for gifting to whomever it fits best. As we are playing secret santa this year I have to be careful who I gift to because I don't want to seem unfair. I think my person will enjoy them though... I hope. Speaking of gifts though!

I am sending Dad the basil oil. I made it and now it has someone who will appreciate it. He was very excited when I mentioned it because he likes to cook. One of the best cooks I've known actually, so I am gifting him a bottle. Bottle two went to friend Josh, as he now eats only organic foods and thought it was super cool. At least I hope he thought so... Bottle three is going to my sister. We all knew that was coming though right? The culinary queen should certainly have a bottle. So that covers that.

Now as for this tea, I'm hoping that I did it right, but I'm pretty certain that I did. I first, slowly took apart a tea bag and emptied it's contents. Afterward I used a teaspoon scooper to figure out how much was in there and replaced it 2/3 with basil and 1/3 with the original blend, so its still tea like of course. The next kind of basil I grow (hopefully a bigger variety), I'll try mixing with chamomile and that might give it a nice blend. All I know is it smells amazing!

That's it for now on the gardening end of things,
I'll update you all later with the outcome!

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The Gardening Bunny.

Preparing for Christmas

Well since not many people actually read my blog, I don't have to worry about people who are receiving these actually reading this. BUT! I spent all night last night working on making the basil oil for the specialty little containers I bought at Michael's. I plucked 8 tablespoons of fresh basil from the first plant, and was overly surprised to find that that there is at least another 8 tablespoons on that plant if not 16 and the same on the other plant. With the addition of extra virgin olive oil, my basil oil is not 'setting' in the cold dark closet for the next 3 weeks. Every weekend I am suppose to shake it up and return it to the closet. After that I put the oil into the bottles and put in a few fresh leaves and they should be ready for gifting. Apparently the longer it sits, the better the oil is infused.

Anyway I found the recipe online and with aid, figured out how to bruise my basil leaves without a mortar and pestle, though that doesn't stop me from needing one. Any way after that I was inspired to find the uses of my basil oil and I was happily excited to find that my Sunflower's favorite food, (aside from gyros and mozz sticks), that we cook here at home actually is seasoned often with basil oil so I am really excited to give him some tasty basil oil pasta! It appears its also good for our tummy aches so I'll have to try it this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend! My grandmother's burial is on Friday afternoon and I'm thinking basil tea for everyone might be nice. Well... for those that will drink it. My uncle John and his family are coming up for this as well, so I hope that everything goes well.

Goodnight all,
Tine.

Hello Oxygen!

For those of you who don't know, I have been battling with a rather nasty chest virus lately and this afternoon I finally met with my old and dearest friend OXYGEN! The family and I, after our glorious soccer game, traveled to Starved Rock State Park, it was extremely amazing to have all that oxygen provided by all our wonderful trees. Very nice to finally be able to breath like a normal person again.

Anyway, on to the big news!!! The Dwarf Incredibles... have blossomed!! That's right after leaving them in window to soak up as much sun as possible after the sun decided to start rising too early to get them out for their normal doses. It was great! It is great! Look at the little petals and its first tiny stamen things are extruding pollen. Its greatness!!! They are beautiful. Now you should also know that I am going on vacation starting Monday afternoon (can't miss Sunday night football), and heading to my brother's house for the week. I do enjoy those visits, but sadly it means that while I am gone I must leave the glorious garden in the care of Emma and her mother. They are good gardeners, I get my own slightly greenish tinted thumb from her, but she also doesn't have much time in the morning to be taking them out all the time. Hopefully the sunflowers continue to release their little stamen things and get even bigger. So far there is 2 blooms, hopefully with will get the last third one.

Also, the lack of sun has claimed another life, the savory is has passed on as well as the nasturtiums. They just couldn't be coaxed into surviving, but there is one more of the nasturtium plants left and its quite healthy. We'll try new savory after Christmas is over. Mom says anything that dies before Christmas can't be replaced because the table I've been using for the garden is the table we use for the tree. Our apartment being so tiny and everything. Anyway, time to baby my babies and prepare them for the night, wash the sill so they can go back out there and then wash there indoor trays so they are ready for their mommy's vacation.

A Distinct Lack of Sun

yes that's right people, its become that time of year where my plants are starting to lose about an hour and a half of sun per day and let me tell you its certainly showing in the nasturtiums. Its very distracting to see my plants get more and more droop in their step because of the stupid coming winter. I'm either going to have to invest in some kind of plant light for the poor things or there must be some other way to convince them its not time to die. I will not give in!!!

Anyway this morning, after dealing with a prolonged sore throat (bleh!), I finally got around to sitting down with my ever enthusiastic sister to jar the dry basil. I must say, it was certainly a better location to dry them in the cool, dark closet rather than in the living room on my lamp. Sometimes I wonder just what I was thinking, but then again this is my less than green thumb we are talking about and its basically useless when it comes to the facts of tending to basil. And ever MORE ambitious me, actually got around to finally hanging the basil plant that had been reduced to a stand for the morning glory that never REALLY did anything bit wrap itself like a python around the poor thing. Distracting. So I finally hung that basil and chucked the morning glory and its awful clay pot into the dumpster in my parking lot. About time! I'm finally rid of clay pots. I think I have finally learned my lesson about them, they are only good for smashing.

I also, was inspired by my mother of all people, the one who complains that 'my yard' has gotten too big, asked me to plant some more basil. As you can tell, this is a house of basil. Its the one plant I have managed to never REALLY mess up despite my green thumb flaws. I'm still monitoring the cress and savory with a bit of zeal. I am really hoping they work, but I think that this cress is summer cress and its under the impression that I am trying to hoodwink it. The savory I bought was winter savory, so they take forever to grow, but they can deal with the winter weather as long as they are indoors. At least that's the impression I get from its name. Perhaps I should do some more reading in the great big book of herbs.

Oh and so that everyone knows the update on the flowers! The sunflower buds are actually getting on rather well. They are about the size of a nickel now and they still haven't opened yet. I have never grown the kind with traditional sunflower seeds, so this experience is new for me. The Teddy Bear Sunflowers, fuzzy and cute as they were, had not real seeds and their blooms never got bigger than about half the size of my palm, which I believe for sunflowers is rather small. These new sunnies are suppose to get full sized heads on their shoulders, so I'm waiting and measuring in anticipation.

Mystery plant is growing quite well. I spoke with my greener half the other day (Nicky, my cousin with the garden of greatness), and she was talking about how she also would like to attempt sunflowers and I narrowly talked her into Mammoth Russians. Though she has decided that she would like to try, instead, something smaller first, and might attempt the Autumn Beauty variety that I was attempting earlier this year. They were far too big for my window. Speaking of! I had a Autumn Beauty, growing in the Dwarf Incredible pot that I had been working on so I had to pull it. I have discovered though, thanks to curiosity, that my rabbit, Pebble, thinks that are fairly tasty sprouts and she was snuffling about for more of them after I'd given her a small bowlful. Sometimes sprouts are just meant for a bunny mouth.

Alright, time for some relaxing yoga and a compress for my chest so that I can maybe breath later on today. Stupid cold!

Compost

So today was composting day. I finally took the long passed Baby Blue Eyes to the dirt bag to let their roots free, as well as the remaining dirt from the basil pot that we recently cut and hung. It reminded me that I need to check on the basil to see how it was drying. Its doing quite well. I mean its not quite dry yet, but the leaves have mostly all begun to droop and the use of my closet, dark and cool as it is, has kept the scent and flavor of the herb well contained within the leaves, just like the book said to do.

It was a very inactive day today for the plants, but they did get their necessary sunlight. I discovered the reason the Blue Eyes didn't make it is because the pot wasn't properly draining and indeed drowned the poor things. We should try again with them later, but I think we might wait until the nasturtiums have passed so that there aren't too many flowering plants in the house. I think I need a new method instead of using the pebbles in the pot to keep it from flooding, if anyone else has any suggestions I might be able to use?

Anyway I thought I might pass this on since I was reading last night and came across a particularly interesting and very useful tip for those of you like me. If anyone else has read "Romancing the Ordinary," their section for September is quite revealing about sleeping issues cured easily by herb packets! Sounds perfect for me and I think this weekend I might go about gathering some lavender for just the job. Make a pouch and hang it over your bed is suppose to help you stay asleep at night and always relaxes muscles enough to relieve leg cramps that you might have in the night. Very useful tip. And one I will be using shortly as I wander off to bed.

Basil Tea

When life gives you lemons... go out to walmart at 2 in the morning and buy some fresh basil. Yeah, I know, not really a great catchy term, but I figure that since life has decided that for not one evening can I get along with my family, that I should return here to my happy place. It seems that every time you try to branch out, there's a weed pulling you back down. That's alright though, I have fresh basil, and what could be better?

Anyway, I'm not always the most intelligent person, and for the most part can't always remember what it is that I have said or done, but! I hung the last of the first basil plants that I planted last night and thus leaving me with only baby plants to work with in the terms of fresh and undried basil. So I went about googling, looking for a nice basil tea since I've heard such great things about it. To speak plainly, I don't really know if its working because I just finished stirring in half a teaspoon of honey since without it it just doesn't taste like tea to me. I will say though, next time I'll follow a recipe, since this time around all I did was read a few and take the general idea from all of them. It's certainly different, but its suppose to to settle my stomach after that round I went with the weeds not too long ago. Hopefully it works out, if it does I'll try again and jot down the recipe for all. It looks nice if that's any conciliation, and in THREE, TWO, ONE!

Tastes pretty darn good. I mean I love the smell of basil to begin with, though some people tend to compare it to a certain illicit herb. To be honest I don't smell the similarities they are talking about, but it doesn't matter, this basil infused with honey tastes great as a tea. And should settle my stomach without the aid of some other random pharmaceutical. This gardener has never done well with those kinds of remedies, so its nice to actually try something from my own garden to save me from the battle of belly way. I wonder if savory can be turned into a tea...

Oh well. Now on to the reasons behind this wonderful tea. I mean the reasons that everyone else should try it. I myself started looking into it since I read a stint in my giant book of herbs that it does the following: sedate gastric spasms, expectorant, and can allay mental fatigue. Three very good things for my currently sick Sunflower. See, Sunflower is sick with an autoimmune disease known as Henoch Schonlein Purpura and let me tell you his stomach is not always the easiest to settle, but there is no harm in trying the easy little home remedies. Anyway when I started reading my herb book, The Complete Herb Book by: Jekka McVicar and noting all these medicinal properties, it was fascinating. My sister's of the litter's mate for life also has a pretty bad stomach problem which finds him unable to eat as well as she'd like and they've been trying what they can to fix his problems, so it'd be nice if anyone has any suggestions for the tea so that I can try them out on the pain of Sunflower's belly problems.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

A Little Something New

Alright everyone. I suppose that its time that I did something different than sitting around and trying to make things change by simply complaining about them, so I've decided that first I am starting here. This first step is one in the right direction. Its not healthy to try being something you aren't and its certainly not the way to go about things by saying absolutely nothing at all, so! I'm here to take a healthy step in the right direction. Yeah my life is hectic, but who's insist in their own way, so why dwell on that when you can use those experiences that attack you like a fierce lion to move on and grow stronger. Better yet, just find your happy place and let that help you towards moving to better places. So I am going to make this my happy place numero uno!

My unconventional garden. Sure I'm living in a tiny little apartment, but that isn't stopping me from the one that thing that keeps my sanity from the evil clutches of what I will now simply call, WEEDS! I mean my garden is indoors, so its hard for there to be weeds except for those people that live outside my tiny little four walled bedroom and attempt to drain my nutrients.

I'm not that green thumbed, in fact, its more like a pasty white since I never see daylight, but its getting there as I slowly get further with my plants. All my friends, they have their own individual names, and for a little anonymity, they are referred to as different kinds of bunny rabbits. But! of course the one that matters most in my life, is my sunflower! He's someone special and amazing, despite my random obsessions he still supports me in everything that I do. So to him a salute *SALUTES* and I dedicate my love. All of that of course which is not going into my tiny little apartment garden.

But now onto the most important part. The garden!! The thing that makes me happy here. Its a small garden right now, consisting primarily of several pots of rather lush looking basil, newly planted savory, and a few flowers such as 6 dwarf incredible sunflowers, and dwarf nasturtiums. Yeah, you guessed it, I'm an herb gardener. Or at very least its something I enjoy doing. Herbs smell good, simple as that. There is nothing better than a good smell: basil, thyme, or something even more simple, the smell of a good cologne. Which by the way I am still to remember just what my sunflower's favorite happens to be. He seems to like the smell of basil, or at least I think he does, but I am really excited about getting a chance to smell those wonderful things I've heard about from my herb book.

I'm also interested in the medicinal properties of my herbs too. I've heard great things and can't wait to try them out myself. Tonight I hung the last of my first season of growing basil. They were a bountiful crop and I hung them just as it says, in a dark cool place in order to keep the flavor in. I've been looking for several different things to do with them. I've kept dried leaves in an air tight container and they are perfect! I've used them in sauces and its truly liberating to use something I grew in the food that I am cooking. Makes you feel much more at ease when you don't need to ask for other people's help, but of course the fact that I like people for the most part keeps me from actually limiting my contact with others, but as far as the food and planting goes, this is my kingdom!
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Anyway, this is the reason I'm doing this, its a very nice and relaxing passion of mine and obviously I can chatter about it for a while. But step one is to begin and I am very ready. Thanks for those that have kept up and thanks even more to those that might be watching because I love the input and even more I like the idea that I've made someone else think better.

The Baggy Bunny,
The Unconventional Gardener