Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tomatoes - Not For Me

Well, unfortunately, my indoor tomato plants have failed again. :( Two out of three have died, and the remaining one has no blossoms. Sigh. I think I may have goofed when I put in a fertilizer stick into the pots. They did not react well. Next time I'm breaking one of those sticks into thirds before I try it again!

On the brighter side, I have had a bumper crop of mint, some good turnout of basil from a plant that is on its second year, and parsley and some lettuce. I need to sow some more lettuce seeds soon, so I can actually have enough for salad!

I also bought a chocolate geranium plant which seems to be fairly happy. I can't find my camera, so no pictures for now.

In spite of no-show tomatoes, it is very satisfying to be able to eat some food from my own indoor garden. What a great feeling!!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Spring Is Here!

"Spring has sprung, da grass is riz, I wonder where da birdies iz?" This is a little poem that my father used to recite. I tried to do research on it, and could only find that other people's parents also told it to them, and nobody can find any information on it! Oh, well.

I've cleared out my sunroom (well, it's a lot clearer than before), hung pictures and have my plants in the windowsill. Soon I'll post a picture. It's a bright, pretty room and should make a wonderful retreat, though it does get very hot in the direct sunlight!

I'm growing lettuce, basil, parsley, mint, marigolds, one golden pothos plant and some English ivy, which is trailing wonderfully. I will get a plant hanger soon so it can trail down to the floor and elsewhere. It is so much fun to grow food! There's nothing like having a salad and knowing that part of it came from your own garden. I'm going to try tomatoes again this year and see if I can get them to bloom and produce fruit. Perhaps some fertilizer will encourage them. Everything else seems to be quite happy, even though they are growing indoors. Perhaps some flowering annuals will be good to get, too, just to brighten up the room more. And another pot of marigolds.

It's fun to read the garden section of our local Sunday newspaper, though most of the advice is for people with backyards. I'm hoping that eventually more and more city people and apartment dwellers will be interested in growing plants indoors and more attention will be given to that endeavor. Why should people with houses have all of the fun?

Happy gardening to all!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Winter Wonderland

Well, it has been a while, hasn't it? Oh, dear, life just got sooooo busy. I am now working two part-time jobs, as well as trying to create an indoor garden!

This Chicago winter is living up fully to its reputation. For the past few years, we've had a decent amount of snow in December, only to have a ridiculously mild January. Well, that pattern seems to be over! This past weekend we ended up with a 10-inch snowfall in 24 hours, with only 1-3 inches predicted. Take that, weathermen!! Today we are under a winter weather advisory and blizzard warning, with a few more inches of snow predicted. It's beautiful, but hard to drive. My car has been stuck several times. This week we will have subzero temperatures, which will ensure several days at home for a while.

So far this winter, I've bought rock salt, two snow scrapers, a snow shovel to keep in my car, and a de-icer for my door locks. I've used everything but the de-icer.

Living in the city, I do not have a fireplace, something which belongs in every country cabin, right? But I do have a video of a log burning - no music, no sound other than the crackling of the fire. It's wonderful to watch, or just to have for background scenery. Fireplaces used to be a source not only of heat, and a cooking fire, but also entertainment. After a hard day's work, people would sit and stare at the fire, letting their thoughts unwind from the day's events. It must have been a calming way to end the day, much better than our current stimuli of TV and computers.

And now, the garden . . .

My tomato plants, which I grew from seed, grew strong and tall with blossoms, but the blossoms never opened. I eventually threw them out. A friend suggested that perhaps they needed a bit of fertilizer, which I think I will try next year.

I have been growing lettuce, which grows like a weed! Also, mint, basil, marigolds, and a new parsley plant which I bought from the store and a golden pothos from cuttings from a friendly woman on Freecycle. My basil is not quite dormant, but when all of its green leaves are gone, I will cut it down to about 6 inches (it's presently about 18 inches tall) and let it rest.

Well, time to go. Among my other activities planned for today, I need to transplant my lettuce and marigolds, and go dig out my car, which I'm sure has been blocked in by the city snowplows.

Keep warm and don't forget the hot chocolate!