Welcome to Building Up the Garden

For many years, I had small containers on my apartment balcony filled with flowers, herbs, and vegetables. They didn't always produce a lot - it didn't help that my balcony faced North and didn't get the intense six hours of sun most of the plants required - but I was still able to grow something.

Last year (around this time), I moved into my first house. Part of my excitement in having a house was creating a garden. I had once growing up. My parents always planted tons of kitchen herbs, tomatoes, and flowers. My dad always insisted on having tomatoes in the garden.

Part of my chores growing up was weeding the garden. By my late teens, I finally decided to add my own plants to take care of. I planted carrots, bush beans, and peppers. I don't know why I picked bush beans as I didn't like them (at the time), but they were so easy and fun to grow. I ended up giving them away to my coworkers at the cafe I worked at over the summer. The carrots always ended up looking hilarious - Virginia's soil is heavy with clay which isn't as forgiving as other soil compositions for straight carrots. The peppers and tomatoes were fine.

Since then, I've always had some kind of plant with me. My first indoor plant was a gifted Christmas cactus (that finally died on it's trip from New Jersey back to Virginia), followed by a rosemary plant - that died a lot sooner (rosemary doesn't do well in pots). Then I ended up with a King Tut papyrus and spider plant. These two are still going strong.

I started trying to seriously grow herbs and vegetables again when I moved back to Virginia and had a balcony (my places in New Jersey didn't have outdoor space) and Maryland's apartment was very shady. The results of a north facing balcony garden was mixed. I have a sage plant that's lasted almost six years now.

Last year, as a house warming, I was gifted several large planters I could have on my deck. As I wasn't prepared to start a garden in my yard (and there were already plants in the sectioned off areas that I didn't want to mess with), I chose to container garden on my deck. 

Results, again, were mixed.

My backyard is north facing with lots of trees - specifically a beautiful Japanese maple that takes up a good quarter of the yard. The sun it gets is okay on part of the deck, but not perfect. Also the weather was horrendous last year and I lost a good chunk of my plants to extreme weather conditions. 

However, I was able to get some peas, bush beans, tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs. So far the strawberries have returned this year (I have to fight the birds for them) and my thyme was able to overwinter without a problem. I did lose the parsley, though, and the jury is out on my rosemary and lavender in the front bed. 

This year, I added a raised bed outside my shed. I've planted a larger tomato plant, a banana pepper plant, and a "lunch box sweet" pepper plant. As companions, I added marigolds, cucumbers, and a row of carrots. 

So far the weather has been okay. We did have a late frost (after it being in the freaking 90s in early April). However, the plants I recently purchased at the Leesburg Plant and Flower Festival have been doing well. 

For those of you not in the Northern Virginia area (and for those who are, but aren't aware), Leesburg has an annual Plant and Flower Festival in mid-April. It takes up the main historic part of the town with tons of venders and activities. They even have a spot for where kids can do crafts. I like going because I can often find plants that are specifically cultivated for the Virginia climate and find some native plants. 

However, the native plant garden is a future AJ project. 

With Earth Day being on a Wednesday this year, the Leesburg Plant and Flower Festival was the weekend prior, while the Fairfax County Earth Day celebration was this past Saturday. I finally went to the Earth Day celebration as it was advertised on Meetup by my local chapter of the Sierra Club. They had a nice booth set up. 

Fairfax County seems to have fun with their Earth Day celebrations. There were tons of trucks and busses to touch - the usual fire engines and farm vehicles along with a city bus and garbage truck. The kids were having a blast climbing all over. They also had a rock wall, animals from the Fairfax County farm on Frying Pan Road, and lots of educational booths. I learned a few things about native insects and invasive clams and crayfish. 

There were also a lot of fun food trucks. 

Some of the booths were giving out seed "bombs" for people to plant at home. I picked up a milkweed plant after verifying that it was a native milkweed - non-natives will happily take over everything if given the change. I hope to plant it soon and see some monarch butterflies this year (if not future years). It'll be the start of my native garden.

Well now you've read an entire blog post where I gush about plants. I still have several indoor only plants and a few I keep indoors in the winter and outside during the summer, but some of that is changing.

See, some plants are toxic to our furry friends and I just adopted a cat. I'm currently moving these plants to places she isn't allowed and will either rehome them or find better places for them to stay away from her little claws. My house is also a lily free zone since they are especially dangerous to cats. I didn't have to worry about these plants with my last cat as she was completely uninterested in anything that was the color green (including catnip), but I'm taking no chances with my new kitty.

I'll give you an update on her in one of my future posts. 

Until next week. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you all like hearing from me.

Welcome to False Spring

 Last week was the solar equinox. 

Spring has "officially" begun in the Northern Hemisphere.

I celebrated the changing of the seasons by spending time outside and planting my balcony garden. I'm hoping to have some tiny tomatoes, lots of herbs, green beans, lettuce, and strawberries. I also included flowers to attract pollinators like butterflies and bees. 

And this weekend I had to bring everything in because Mother Nature decided it needed to go below freezing most of this weekend.

Thanks climate change.

Yes, changing climate is part of this annoyingly inconsistent weather patterns we've been experiencing. It's more of a thorn in my side than a tried and true problem. 

To save my garden from a late frost, all I had to do was move all of the pots inside my apartment. Sure they get less light, but they'll stay warm and eventually go back outside without any problems. It's an inconvenience to move everything, but it's not that difficult of a thing for me to do.

I have a solution for this last hold out of winter. 

But what if I couldn't move my garden? What if I had already planted it right into the ground instead of pots?

Well, a quick Google search would help me find tips to protect my garden from the late frost. There are loads of tips and tricks to protect plants from a sudden frost as it's become an issue to have a short warm spell followed by a cold snap. At worst, I have to replant my garden.

But what if it wasn't a garden? What if I had planted a whole field of crops that I depended on to harvest at the end of the season and I couldn't replant the crops? What if it wasn't just cold snaps I needed to worry about, but extreme heat or droughts? What if there was a biblical event that wiped out everything my livelihood depends on?

Why am I even thinking about these things if all I have going for me is a tiny balcony garden?

My garden is a hobby. I don't depend on it for financial needs or food. It's something nice to have that occupies my time and occasionally lets me add some extra flares to my meals. 

However, the food that I don't personally grow, I get at the store or farmer's market. If I buy my food from the store, that food might come from anywhere in the world. The food's journey from it's origin point to my dinner plate is long and has a lot of points of interest that can add to the costs I spend at checkout. These added points might be customs fees, fuel for transportation, storage costs, and enough money to pay every person who's labor went into growing, packaging, and transporting the food. Each point adds an extra layer to the price you pay at checkout...and then tax is added.

Of course, I might be able to cut out some of the costs and points of interest by getting my food directly from the farmers. Especially since each step in the process to get the food from the grocery store from other countries contributes to higher inflation. There's also less risk of food spoiling on a long journey than to buy it locally.

Except, I'm not hear to argue the virtues of where to buy your apples. 

And boy don't these apples look good!

I'm more pointing out how a cold snap might affect my ability to buy apples from my local farmer. Depending on the circumstances, the price of apples may go up, there might be shortages, or both scenarios might occur. The worst case is that there are no apples and the farm has to close down because they can't pay their bills. That adds to the overall decrease supply of apples that can be bought overall which further drives up price if demand doesn't change.

But importing food should help with supply right? Surely if we can't grow our food locally, we can still find sources to help with supply?

Yes, but there are risks. 

We've seen during the pandemic the problems associated with supply chain issues. Ports were overflowing with cargo that wasn't being unloaded because people weren't able to work. This lead to shortages at the grocery store and eventual higher prices. We're also dealing with higher fuel costs which is also going to drive up prices.

Oh, and now there's a war going on in one of the highest grain producing countries in the world.

All of these things are going to cause food shortages. Add in our good friend climate change and suddenly crops that were once easy to grow in a specific location, can't anymore. In my home state of Virginia, we've been having issues growing tomatoes since the early 2010s because of the changing climate. Will states famous for their tomatoes like New Jersey start having these same issues in the 2020s? 2030s?

The simple solution might be to have farmers change to crops that better suit the new climate.

Except that's not really that simple. We're seeing weather events that are unprecedented, heat waves and droughts that can take out the hardiest of plants - even the ones we're genetically modifying to account for these climate changes (humans have been messing with plant and animal genetics since we started farming - why do you think corn has a husk). 

If crops fail, people starve because demand for food doesn't go away. People need to eat to survive. 

This leads into many other topics (such as human migration, new diseases, and other catastrophes) that I don't have the time (or mental capacity) to get into. 

Needless to say, climate change is here. We have to adapt. I might be annoyed that I had to move all my plants inside because of a sudden cold snap (that are coming later and later into what should be considered Spring), but this annoyance is also tied to a deep fear that one day we might not be able to keep up the food supply with demand.

What will we eat then?

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week. 

Welcome to the Summer Garden Heat

2020 has been an incredibly stressful year, full of change and one unfortunate incident after another for the world at large and my personal life. It’s been tough to find time to relax and allow myself time to mentally decompress.

One of my few great distractions is looking after my little balcony garden.

It’s been a few months since I first mentioned my garden in this blog (click here for details), but I’m still working on it and there have been a lot of ups and downs. Some days it feels like there are more downs than ups.

Here are a few highlights of the things I learned:

During the first few weeks of my gardening, I lost the lemon balm I planted. It took patients and a few more seeds, but eventually the lemon balm grew nicely to the point I made a pesto with some of the leaves-basil was in there too). However, I eventually had to go away a few days during a heat wave and the lack of water did a number on the herb. Thankfully it’s slowly coming back. It’s my favorite to use for water infusions with some lemons or strawberries.

My two lettuce plants were taken out in May. One from over watering and the other from aphids. The overwatering was totally my fault. The aphids...well, let’s just say that aphids have become the bane of my garden.

My fight against aphids was at its peak with my pea plants. Peas are stubborn, yet delicate in general, which makes caring for them hilarious at best and an exasperation at worst. The June aphid attacks took out several of my pea vines. The July heat was the final death stroke for my first crop. Thankfully, I did managed to harvest several pea pods before their inevitable demise - they were quite tasty. I’ve planted an autumn crop which should show up mid August. Hopefully this time I’ll have more ladybugs around to help me with the evil aphids.

Speaking of unwanted insects, I think a small colony of ants have taken up residence in my camomile. They don’t seem to be hurting the little flowers, but occasionally see them dragging around an aphid or two. No ants have infiltrated the apartment. Cayenne helps keep them out.

Cilantro seems to do really well during the spring. By the end of June, it had started to bloom and I lost the leafy green part that is eaten. I’m hoping to get some seeds out of this travesty.

I’m not sure if my lavender is dead or very slowly coming back. Every day I check and there are little green growths on some of the stems. Only time will tell. My cousin also struggles with her lavender plant. It definitely needs more water than it lets on...and a lot less heat.

I was utterly convinced that I had killed one of my tomato plants until a few days ago I went out and found two new stems growing out of it. Though neither are tall, flowers have started to bloom and I have a small green tomato growing on the healthier plant.

Bachelor buttons are some of my favorite flowers and I am happy they are doing relatively well. I’m not sure why they lean (probably to get more sunlight), but they are lovely. I remove the deadheads once the flowers have begun to dull.

I know I didn’t really talk about the King Tut Papyrus plant. I’ve had him a few years now. He’s doing alright outside, but will again be brought in for winter.

The sage is doing just fine, while the basil seems to be thriving and is by far the easiest herb to work with at the moment. The rosemary is just kind of there. No carrots have yet to shoulder their way through the soil yet. The jalapeño plant is new.

Nothing kills mint...and even when you think it’s dead, it’s not. It will come back. It’ll even find new ways to spread, even when confined to a pot.

It’s not just plants that are a part of my garden, but also bees and other insects come to visit (along with one very stupid wasp). Spiders have found their way around the pots and shelves. They don’t bother me except when they make a giant web on the furniture and I have to evict them. There’s even a beautiful goldfinch who likes to perch on my yellow camomile pot. One day I might get a picture of him.

Gardening, even on a balcony, is a time consuming process that involves a lot of delicate balance. I have to make sure each plant has enough water, but not too much water as I learned with one of my lettuce plants. They need plenty of sunlight, but too much heat is also bad. Some plants might look dead, but are really just figuring things out. Other plants just hate being told what to do. And mint is nearly impossible to kill.

You’ll see a wide variety of wildlife in you plant a garden...some of it will not be welcome. Bees and spiders are your friends, while aphids are the devil’s spawn. Occasionally, you’ll see a creature you weren’t expecting at all.

If you are interested in planting a garden, it’s not too late to start. There are a number of plants that are best planted in the summer for a fall harvest like pumpkins and winter squash. It’s tough and you will likely lose a plant or two (unless it’s mint), but it’s wonderful munching on peas I grew myself or sprinkling Freshly cut basil onto pasta.

Gardening requires a delicate balance of nature and nurture. There’s only so much a person can do if luck isn’t on their side. But it’s a worthwhile hobby.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to a Balcony Garden

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the start of spring and how I had fallen back on one of my favorite hobbies: gardening. In the past two weeks, my little garden has grown a little more...in more ways than one?

I went to one of the few gardening centers still open and picked up some Boston lettuce, tomatoes, lavender, camomile, and bachelor buttons (my favorite are the blue ones. I’m having a hard time stopping myself from buying all the plants and pretty pots, but I just have to remember how much space I have.

I admit, going out and being near people right now is very stressful. I’m much happier surrounded by plants and watching the birds fly around while the squirrels play a game of chicken with the local dogs. Occasion a bumblebee will pass by - I’m glad for that because they’re becoming a rarity and we need them for the plants and flowers.

When I get a free chance, I’m outside squatting down looking into the container with carrots and peas that I’m growing from seeds. I probably look a lot like Mei from My Neighbor Totoro while waiting for signs that the plants are growing.

I knew it would take more than a week, but I’ve finally started seeing little pea shoots and the first thin stems of lemon balm. I’m hoping the carrots are soon to follow. The camomile and bachelor buttons were just planted, so it’ll be a little while yet before I start seeing them come up.

I don’t like to think that there will be a shortage of fresh food, nor do I like to think that that fear is what’s driving my plant choices. However, those thoughts do swim around my mind from time to time. It’s a lot easier plucking a couple of leaves of romaine than going out to the store for a full packet.

I’ve seen other people mention that they’re starting a garden. I hope the practice catches on. Gardening is relaxing. The planting, tending, and harvesting of plants makes me feel closer to nature in a way that I haven’t in a long time - even when I go hiking.

I know gardening isn’t for everyone. First time I killed a plant (it was a rosemary bush), I thought I’d never get another plant again. Then I got a papyrus plant and a spired plant, and I suddenly wanted to grow more.

It’s tough, it rewarding.

My garden is mostly herbs right now. I’m looking forward to having fresh mint tea and adding rosemary to my soups.

One day I hope to have a house with a decent size yard to grow a large garden. It’ll have a lot more vegetables and maybe a fruit tree or two.

That’s likely way in the future.

Until then, I’ve got a small balcony facing north - south would be better, but I take what I can. I’ve got some veggies and a lot of herbs. Soon there’ll be some flowers with cute little bees flitting between them all. I’ll likely have to chase the squirrels away.

I’ll keep y’all updated on the garden... because right now, it’s what I got.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I like hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Spring 2020

It’s finally spring!

It also might snow in a couple days...thanks climate change.

This year is a lot different than years past. We’re in the midst of a global crisis and mostly confined to indoor activities. Thankfully I can still go for walks in the woods, but going anywhere that might attract a large crowed is a solid “no”. That means I can’t visit the Cherry Blossoms that have just hit peak bloom.

I’ve decided instead to fall back on to one of my favorite hobbies: gardening.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to have a garden - though I’ve been a plant parent for a few years and have volunteered at the New Jersey Botanical Gardens at Ringwood. Growing up, my parents had cultivated a small garden against the east side of our house. By the time I got to high school, I had taken over the vegetable part of the garden (mom ruled the herbs, while dad always made certain we had his favorite flowers). My favorite thing to grow: green beans. Though I hated eating them, they were super fun to cultivate and I’d give them away to anyone who wanted some.

Once I got to college and started working when I wasn’t studying, I wasn’t able to maintain my part of the garden. After graduation, there was never a right time or location to start a small garden. I was living in apartments and all but one had a patio to put plants outside (sadly the patio was too shady for vegetables). I probably could have started a small garden at my previous apartment, but I was so busy, it never occurred to me.

Recently I moved across several states to a new place and it’s perfect for a small container garden. Add in me mostly staying at home and it’s the right time for me to enjoy one of my old hobbies again. Thankfully my new balcony has a lot of light.

I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal and that a lot of other apartment dwellers might not have the same opportunity, but starting an apartment garden is a great way to have some extra herbs and veggies around. I’m not sure it really saves money, but it does make me feel like I won’t have to constantly run to the store to have some fresh food around.

I recently spoke to one of my cousins currently locked down in San Francisco and they also want to start an apartment garden. Unfortunately, the climate in San Francisco isn’t ideal for the plants they want to grow. My cousin is adapting by looking into getting a greenhouse and working with plants that will do well in the limited environment available.

This is how we’re coping with social distancing, the anxiety of going out, and the scary times we live in.

If you can, I recommend starting a garden. Start small, only a few plants that are fairly easy to cultivate (I find peas and green beans are fairly easy veggies, while mint and rosemary are tough to kill herbs - though I have sadly killed a rosemary plant before). Look into plants that attract pollinators like butterflies and humming birds or provide protection against mosquitoes and flies.

If you can’t start your own garden, that’s okay too. Some areas have volunteer programs (where you can work solo or at least keep a good distance from other people) to help out with gardens. And gardens take a lot of work from planting, to watering, to weeding. Some community gardens work with food banks and help struggling families (a plus at any time).

This is a stressful, anxious, and scary time. Part of me still can’t believe I’m living through it. Gardening is one way for me to focus my energy and keep me sane. It’s not for everyone, but for those of us who enjoy it, it can be a wonderful experience.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome To Gardening

I might have mentioned this in previous posts around this time of year, but I love Earth Day. This year I was in New York City and, though I didn't participate, I did get to witness the March for Science. There were a lot of creative signs. It was fun to see, but I much prefer to spend Earth Day out of the city.

Governor's Palace Gardens in Winter - Colonial Williamsburg VA

Since I was busy last weekend, this weekend I volunteered to help plant a butter fly garden at the New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands Ringwood. It was my first visit to the Botanical Garden and it was beautiful. The flowers were all in bloom and it smells wonderful right now.

If you don't know about the New Jersey State Botanical Garden, it's a large outdoor state park in Ringwood New Jersey. The grounds are huge with plenty of gardens to walk through. They also host events that occur throughout the year and can include bird watching, hiking, and tours. You can click here to visit their website. I look forward to going back and exploring the grounds more.

The actual planting part of my trip was a ton of fun. A lot of people had shown up and we had everything planted in about a just under two hours. I think we even recruited a few of the visitors to help with the planting. I left dirty, sweaty, and excited to come back and see how the garden is doing.

There's something about digging in the dirt that brings out my inner six year old. There's a lot of exploring to do when digging. Earthworms were squirming in the ground (I made sure to gently move it over to the side). Occasionally, I would find a large, odd looking rock. Bumblebees lazily flew by to see what's going on, but thankfully didn't get too close.

I used to do a lot of gardening when I lived with my parents. We had a small vegetable and herb garden on the side of our house that I would work on in the summer. I think my favorite vegetable to grow was green beans, despite the fact that I hate eating them. They were really easy to grow and harvest. Every once and a while I would neglect them for a week or so and find several large green beans, longer than the length of my hand, ready to be eaten.

Gardening is probably the thing I miss most about living in a house. Apartments are nice, but I haven't had a lawn or space for a garden in years. Sure apartment gardens are an option, but it can be hard to get the right lighting and space.

I wish I had grown these myself, but I brought them at the farmer's market.

I also don't have as much time as I used to. When I was in high school, it was easy to maintain a garden during the summer. I had plenty of time to weed and water the plants. Now, I don't know if I would have the time to make sure the plants will be well taken care of, though my Christmas Cactus is somehow still living.

Gardening can be a great hobby if you enjoy getting dirty and being outside. You can have beautiful flowers for any occasion. Herbs are a great addition to any meal. You can watch butterflies and bumblebees dance in the breeze (technically I'm dead scared of bees, but they are important for every ecosystem on land).

Maybe I'm romanticizing. I tend to do that with fond memories. But getting my hands dirty every once and a while was fun, especially when I would come back inside looking like I had just crawled through the mud (mom wasn't as happy with me).

If you are interested in gardening, but don't have the space for one, there are a lot of great resources to help people find the option that's right for them. Community gardens have become popular in recent years, especially in urban areas (I've seen several in New York and Detroit). Some groups on Meetup.com have also specialized in volunteering and outdoors activities which can include gardening. If you find an opportunity and are interested, I definitely recommend gardening.

I'm looking forward to helping out at the Botanical Gardens again. Just because the plants have been planted, there's still work that needs to be done. Weeding is important so that the plants don't choke and die. I want to see what kinds of butterflies visit.

I hope to see some of you guys there too.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week!