In the weeds …

Now what is this we have going on here? What your looking at is the growing pile of muck the boy and I have been pulling out of the lake. We're trying to clear the weeds to make a nice sandy swimming area. The pile was already started when we moved into the house — it looked eerily like a fresh grave. Eh. Not knowing where else we could put the stuff, we just started adding to it.

It was also our designated compost area for a brief period, until we decided we didn't like looking at it from the deck and moved it around the side of the house. So most recently we've just been adding what is some of the finest, most fertile soil around … 

Tomatoes! Our weeds and muck and more have sprouted a healthy, hearty tomato plant with lots of fruit and buds. Hooray for fertile grounds!

A flower for Friday

A flower for you late on this Friday afternoon… have a wonderful weekend! Maybe I'll see you at the People's Arts Festival in Detroit? If not… let's chat Monday.

Oasis in the city: County Farm Park

The last couple of weeks I was in a bit of a funk — I just couldn't seem to get out of it. When our hot, muggy, humid weather finally broke on Monday, I started to feel a bit brighter. That afternoon I went for a walk in a park that a kind little bird told me about (thank you, little bird). It helped put the spring back in my step. It's the County Farm Park in Ann Arbor and I thought I would show a little bit of what cheered me up. I hope it brightens your day, too.

Most of these are from the Project Grow community garden plots located there, but the park has so much more to explore. I didn't even get a chance to walk through the perennial gardens or into the Briton Woods nature trails… I can't wait to go back!

Fritillaria Friday

Happy weekend! It's been a long week and I'm off to Cincinnati for the Crafty Supermarket this Saturday. I'm leaving you with these flowers to enjoy. Both are Fritillaria which is from the Lily family. Aren't they cool looking? I bought them last fall because they're deer-resistant but had never seen one. Wow!

Gardening on the cheap: Save those seeds!

At the end of the growing season last year, we let a number of plants, including radishes, snap peas, dill and cilantro, grow like crazy without harvesting them. We wanted them to go to seed so we could collect them to grow this year. I had only done this once before — with a mallow plant from my mom — and it worked out really well. We also saved the seeds from our jalapenos. Now, a year later, it's time to plant the harvested seeds. I'm really interested to see how they do compared to the store-bought seeds. We had some left over from those we bought last year, so I've planted those, too and plan to take notes and compare their progress!

I had read online that radish seeds were really hard to gather — not so. They put out huge stalks if you let them keep growing and then pods form on the ends. We just pulled out the stalks, plopped them in the vase you see above and admired them all winter. They sat on a bookcase next to a vase filled with corn tassels the boy saved, too. Two nights ago I cracked open the pods, picked out the perfectly preserved seeds and planted them. They are already sprouting — yay!

Are you growing anything this year? Why not save some of the seeds for next year or to share with a friend?

P.S. Thanks to everyone who commented over at Bloesem Kids yesterday — I'm so happy to have been awarded second place for my design. Yippee!

Balcony garden update…

As promised, here is a brief balcony garden update:

Basil. It grows leaps and bounds every hour. The boy has found his calling: basil farmer. Acres and acres of basil. Imagine the amazing smell wafting in the breeze. We've harvested several large colanders full so far with no end in sight.
We have corn people. Yes, it has emerged, and again, growing like gangbusters. We planted two bushel baskets of silver queen and one is thriving, the other got beat down by the wind, I think, and is drooping like crazy. But several of them have the beginning of buds… yippee! One day we will have at least two wee little balcony-grown corn cobs. Can't wait.

Zinnias are my favorite, so we did some mini ones and they are up and blooming like mad. Had bountiful bibb lettuce, but that's about done. Carrots… haven't done so well. Radishes were a hti, though they are about finished up, too. Mint. Can't get enough of the mojitos we've been having. Next year, an even bigger pot for it, I'd say. Several more snap peas showed up unexpectedly. All in all, great success in the garden. May do some spinach plantings for fall… but now, I'm off to water. Ciao!

Salad by the handful

The boy did a great job of tending the balcony solo in my absence and I returned home to happy, healthy garden. Given the nature of balcony gardening, our yields have been by the handful.

The radishes are literally bursting out of the soil. I think because I couldn't bear to thin things out enough, the plants are all fighting each other — so instead of yanking the young seedlings, I am making them suffer in their teen years, hah! Many of the little radish tops are above the soil and none of them have gotten very large. I suppose that's to be expected of a root vegetable planted in a window box. That said, they are spicy and delicious. Yesterday I made a salad with tuna and Bibb lettuce, radishes and parsley straight from the garden:

In the space where I pulled the lettuces, we have spread out our basil collection in the hopes that they will grow even bigger than they already are. Our snap peas have been growing tall, though with only four plants, the harvest was small:

Yes, very small. Eight pods, in fact. (Seven shown above, one eaten straight from the vine.) The boy doesn't eat these, so thankfully we didn't have to split them down to four a piece — these beauties were all mine!

The one area where the growth has been booming — surprise, surprise — mint. We whipped up frozen mojitos as part of our Fourth of July celebration:

These things are addictive. My brother made this recipe for us a few years back and with all the mint growing and hot weather, it is the perfect summer drink. I don't know where the recipe came from, but try it!

Frozen Mojitos
Makes 2.

4 shots light rum
1/2 can frozen limeade
1/4 cup mint
1/2 tray of ice cubes

Whir it all together in the blender and serve.

Balcony harvest

This was one of the first things to be harvested out of the balcony garden. Bibb lettuce enjoyed immensely in a lunch time salad. So tender and tasty! The herbs have been going like gangbusters, so we've enjoyed lots of fresh oregano, parsley, chives, thyme and cilantro.

This little guy is a sunflower seed making it's way out into the world. Unfortunately, three others like it got nipped off by something yesterday. I thought it was a bird, or squirrel possibly, but then this morning I watched our neighbors' dog scarf down the one strawberry, so that makes me wonder… hmm, sunflower-eating dog, yes? On that note, have a great weekend and feel free to tell others about the giveaway: 7 more days…

Balcony garden update

Our little apartment garden experiment is coming along nicely. The radishes are within days of being ready. Little carrot tops are peaking up all over — the seeds are so small that I ended up sowing them quite thickly. I don't know about you, but there is something about thinning little seedlings that makes me feel so mean. These little guys did their best and everybody came bursting out of the soil — as directed — and then, in one fell swoop, plucked out to be discarded. With the radishes, I tried to replant them, but the carrots are so thin and wispy… am I crazy? anyone else?

Our Ikea basil (I bought one of those little seed kits that includes the soil at Ikea last fall)is blue ribbon worthy — I can't wait for Ikea pesto!

Brought to you by the letter P

I just can't get enough of peonies and poppies. Both are in bloom right now, along with the rhododendrons, allium, columbine, clematis, wisteria, irises… the neighborhood is just bursting with color and sweet scents.

The Nichols Arboretum in town has a peony garden with 27 beds of glorious peonies that I'm dying to see — I'm just trying to time it perfectly so I don't miss them!

I just can't seem to capture the red of the poppies. They look so orange-y in my photos, but really they are a much softer, more appealing red.

I will be busy this weekend getting ready for MICE at the Ann Arbor Artisan Market next Sunday… and getting out to see the flowers! Have a wonderful weekend!

Computer break…

With the weather turning so nice and warm and sunny this week, I've abandoned the computer for a couple of days — sorry for the silence! This trend is carrying over into my art, too. I've been feeling like it's missing more of my own hand in it — too much reliance on the computer. So I have a few projects planned that will be done by hand start to finish, but they will have to wait a little bit longer… I am busy planning for my first craft show — the Ann Arbor Artisan Market on Sunday, June 7. I was incredibly inspired by Danielle's Storque post over at Etsy on prepping for a show — especially the opening photo from Something's Hiding in Here — gorgeous! I want that display!

In other news, we've got about half of the garden boxes planted and installed along the balcony for our grand apartment garden experiment. I hope I have enough room for some flowers! The plants we already had took up more space than expected. But I am so pleased!

Yes, you CAN grow corn here

The boy and I are about to embark on the Grand Apartment Garden experiment. We both dream of a large garden (i.e. farm) on our multi-acre property of woods and fields and streams and dappled sunlight… aaahhh… but alas, we currently live in a second-floor apartment with a large balcony-type area (it runs along the front of the building motel-style).

Our experiment involves no less than eight three-foot long planters to be dangled from our railings. We started a few things from seed, including jalapeno peppers, chives, parsley, basil and a couple of other herbs that didn't do so well. We then went to the Ann Arbor Farmers' market last weekend and picked up a full range of other little plantlings: cilantro, mint, two kinds of thyme, rosemary, dill, snap peas, bibb lettuce, lavender, strawberries. And some corn. That's right, we will be attempting to grow corn right here on our little balcony with a big old overhang. Or at least somewhere on the property. I also have some carrot and radish and zinnia seeds to get going. The boy is on a sunflower mission. That said, with eight boxes to fill, as well as a few miscellaneous planters here and there, we've got some more planting and planning to do.

Welcome signs of spring

This is a very happy post quite suitable for a Friday. The apartment complex we moved into in the fall is not a fancy place and has very little in the way of landscaping. So as the fall turned colder, I did some last-minute guerrilla bulb planting knowing that the Michigan winter would be long and I would need a healthy dose of spring when the time came. I put in about twenty daffodils and tulips in the shared courtyard space. I began looking for signs of them a week or two ago because we had had a bit of a warm spell and I was afraid I hadn't really planted them deep enough. I wasn't really expecting to see anything since it is only February, but today, what did I spy…


Yes, that's right. Some very early signs that there will in fact be a spring here. I do hope it isn't too early and they don't shrivel up and freeze away. But I was reassured and delighted to find that there were already some bulbs around and they, too, are peaking out, so all should be okay. We should have some spring color before too much longer. Yippee!