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 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 Food World Building Part 2: Of Humans and Plants

Happy Earth Day!

Spring seems to have finally shown up in my area. Trees are in bloom, robins are bouncing about, and hikers are soaking up the sun. We’ve had such weird weather lately that the plants around here don’t seem to know what to do.

Pick a season!

It does worry me though. March and April are usually the first months to start planting crops. The odd weather could cause problems for the growing season in my area.

Thankfully, my area isn’t completely dependent on the local farmers (though I highly recommend you support your local farmer). We’re able to import food from all over the world. I can get cheese from New Zealand, avocados from Mexico, and tea from India.

Crop failure is still something that can happen. The many people during the Great Depression of the 1930s were hit even harder when a dust bowl struck the main area of the United States where wheat is grown. A lot of people had to relocate because they could no longer feed themselves nor their families.

There are many reasons crops might fail. Locust swarms, volcanic eruptions, wild fires, droughts, floods, and erosion can all contribute to the loss of food sources. Many ancient civilizations built their culture around agriculture and blamed angry gods for the natural disasters that could destroy their crops. Demeter, Freyr, and Xipe Totec are examples of gods and goddesses who presided over agriculture or relate to the changing seasons.

Today, crop failure isn’t as likely as it once was in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that natural disasters and climate change don’t still pose a threat, though they aren’t caused by angry gods. There are still places where crop failure does happen and to devistating effects on the people in the area. Scientists have worked tirelessly to monitor these places that are most affected by disasters and climate change. Pesticides and even modifying plant genetics have been used to help prevent loss of crops.

Genetically modifying our food isn’t exactly a new practice.

When I was still in college, I took a class on agriculture and how it has evolved over time. There was an entire section on how humans have been selectively modifying our food science the beginning of agricultural practice. Evidence suggests that tomato plants were once very tiny, about the size of peas, but because humans liked having larger fruit to eat, evolved to become much larger. Corn has a green husk wrapped around its seeds. This doesn’t really benefit the plant as it needs the wind to spread the seeds to create the next generation, but it does benefit humans trying to keep birds and insects away from a staple food source.

This isn’t to say that I necessary agree with all modern practices surrounding genetically modified food. There’s a lot of controversy that I don’t want to get into, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing if scientists are able to help create a nutritious sweet potato that also doesn’t require a lot of water to grow, especially in areas prone to droughts. But the belief that the food we eat has always looked or tasted the way we think it does today, isn’t accurate.

Humans learned to cultivate plants through trial and error. Some plants that were once poisonous to us, such as almonds and apples, have become edible. We figured out how to irrigate crops even if it doesn’t rain everyday.

Apples were a later addition to the human diet.

So, if you are doing some world building in fantasy, science fiction, or historical fiction, don’t forget to include some information about the plant life. Which crops are staples of the culture’s diet? It’s usually some type of grain or starch like rice, wheat, corn, or potatoes. Are there any plants people have superstitions about? Does the culture have a god or goddess they worship specifically for agriculture or the changing seasons? Was there once a great disaster that caused major crop failure and led to a mass migration?

It might not seem that important, but small touches like that can really bring a fictional world to life. After all, much of human civilization centers around agriculture and our relationship with the plants that we eat. It’s fascinating how much we rely on plants for our society to function.

I hope you all were able to go outside and spend some time in nature today. Earth Day helps me remember that I’m thankful for the planet we live on and the wonders I find here. Please go out if you can and enjoy what our world has to offer.

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.