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

Fury!

Can you believe it!? All those days of tending to those basil vigilantly and they produced flowers right out from under my nose! How am I suppose to turn them into basil oil if the basil can't be used because it was flowering! I'm so made I could just.... BAH! My fury will be unleashed!

Oh and for the record, those gorgeous sunflowers, despite my best effort, wouldn't pollinate and thus have come to the end of their road. The insides have dried up and the pretty yellow petals didn't last too long after. But they were beautiful while they lasted and I will cherish them just like I did the teddy bear sunflowers even after death. The savories didn't make it either and the lack of sun from the oncoming fall days and winter on the verge has sent them into a downward spiral. The baby basils are the only ones left of the babies. The savory didn't survive and nor did the baby sunflowers, but perhaps ts for the best. I don't want to have to force them into thinking they aren't in the warmth and happiness where they belong.

Oh well, if anyone has any basil oil recipes, lemme know!

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!

Buds of joy!!!

First of all lets all give a big round of applause, the plants did indeed make it to the window yesterday despite me forgetting them on the counter. Secondly, today is simply an update on my plants which have me in a fantastic mood this fine and amorous morning. The shortest of the Dwarf Incredible Sunflowers has officially made its very first bud! At 8 inches tall this sunflower is the most stocky and sturdy I have ever produced. It doesn't even need support! But its enjoying a wonderful tiny bud atop its mound of leaves, resembling what I think is a palm tree. Kind of hilarious looking but all the more amazing.

As for my other plants! I have found that the first pot of savory I planted is coming in nice and strong, 5 in one pot, which means I'll be thinning them over the next week, and the second pot of savory is still yet to come in. I am a bit concerned about that pot because I placed only two seeds in it and for the most part I always over sow my seeds, but wind up with tons of plants, so this time around I attempted just two of them. Hopefully the sun brings them out of their dirt this afternoon. The cress I planted almost two weeks ago is finally coming back from being thinned and now has four leaves on each which to me is impressive because I was under the impression that they were a bit like chives and needed to be planted with tons in a tiny space, but it doesn't appear that way on the seed package. Anyway both pots are doing fairly well now and I'll wait another week before thinning them again like the book indicates.

My basil plants, two of the three, have managed to do quite well so far, but the third one is looking as though it might not make it. I'm hoping it manages because we've had this issue before and well... they came out looking like the best plants that there were, so this time around we are hoping for a little bit of a pick me up, slowly but surely. I'm still not sure on the nasturtiums, but I never really liked that plant to begin with so I'm not too interested in what its about to do or not do for that matter, its too wily for my sill and makes a habit of wrapping around whatever poor little plant happens to be in its way. Oh well.

In regards to the Baby Blue Eyes... may they rest in peace. They started out quite promising, but it seems a forced year round garden doesn't always work out for some plants. They had their attempt, it was good to see the sprouts before the end of their time. Alls fair in gardening though, I hope that the next set of plants potted will have a better run. But have no fear, these buds of glory will pick up where you guys couldn't make it... all the best wishes in my compost heap.

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