Cheryl's Square Foot Garden in the City

I can honestly say this year I have enjoyed gardening more than any other time I've gardened with the exception of the couple summers we had a whole city lot to work with.  I've thoroughly enjoyed gardening in my raised beds and my homemade self-watering containers, two firsts for me. 

I can even say I've grown as a person because of gardening this year.  I've become more conscious of the environment and attempt to do my part to reduce my carbon footprint.  I'm more conscious of how animals are treated before they become breakfast, lunch or dinner...and I still haven't bought any beef or pork except for a package of hotdogs, and I only ate one.  We did have corned beef for Christmas...and, ooooh, was it good.  But I get a pass on that one because my daughter bought it.  I just cooked it...and ate it.

I discovered blogging this year.  It's so nice to peak in on the lives of people who are passionate about the things that turn you on.  And as crazy as it may sound to a non-gardener, playing in the dirt kind of grounds me (no pun intended) and makes me feel one with nature.  My tag line (I think that's what it's called) says "Gardening is my Therapist."  It's so true.  If I get upset or stressed out, playing in the dirt makes me feel better instantly.  Turning my itty-bitty pile of compost makes me feel better.  Picking a few ripe tomatoes and popping them in my mouth makes me feel better.  Even looking at pictures of other folks' gardens on the internet make me feel good.

I've "met" nice fellow gardeners through blogging.  There's EG, who's still posting every day about his garden; Annie's Grannie, who's been giving us guided tours of her excursions in Arizona for the last couple months;  Sinfonian, whose enthusiasm that shows in his blog made me want to start my own blog; The Frugal Girl who makes me feel guilty every time I throw spoiled food from the fridge into the garbage.  These are just a few of the places I visit on a fairly regular basis.

The other day, just for the heck of it, I typed my blog name into a search window just to see what would come up (yeah, too much time on the computer).  I was flattered to see my blog honorably mentioned at The Door Garden. 

This year I discovered Free Cycle too.  I gave away some pepper plants a while ago through Free Cycle, and through a recent post I made contact with the person I gave the peppers to.  He's a community gardener, and he used the pepper plants for a container gardening exhibition.  He told me they named the pepper plants after me and that they're still growing under hoop covers. I mentioned that I was looking into the Master Gardener program (sparked by EG who's signed up already), and he told me that he might be able to get me a scholarship for the program through his association with the program.

How about that.  I hadn't given anything away through Free Cycle for a while, but because I recently picked up a few things I felt karma dictated that I give away something to balance things out.  Not only did things balance out, the scales tipped in my favor.

There were a few events that weighed on me this year.  My youngest hit a few bumps in the road of life.  I miss the relationship we used to have, but hopefully he's on the right track now. 

My dad's passing came as a big surprise to me.  I just didn't see that coming.

A good friend had surgery.  I wish him a full and speedy recovery. (Ditto)

May all your seeds germinate and all your plants grow strong.

Spring and summer will be here before too very long .

It's time to plan our rows, look at the garden shows,

come up with plans of attack for our little garden foes.

In just a few more months winter will be gone

Then we can get back out there and start having fun.

Happy New Years, Everybody!!!

The lettuce is growing fine in the basement.  The only problem is that gnats and/or white flies have found the leaves.

I'm going to have to figure out a non-pesticide way to get rid of them.  The little buggers really had a population explosion over this last week.

Last time I picked the lettuce I got two gallon bags full. This time I got one.

We'll see how long it takes until the next picking.  I gave the plants a pretty good leaf cropping.

It's probably a good idea to start a new batch of seeds because technically these are about three or four months old already.

Tomato seeds are resilient little things.  Here's a volunteer, and I can't figure out where it came from because I used bagged container mix in these planters. 

Everybody's talking about the weather.  We had a minus 30 wind chill yesterday and another snow storm is predicted for tomorrow.   I REALLY DISLIKE WINTER.  I guess the only upside is we'll have a white Christmas.

Anyway..

Happy Gardening!!!

I just love seeing things grow, that's why I haven't picked any leaves off the lettuce I transplanted and brought in the house back in late October.

Here is one of the three trays I planted.  I gave one to my mother-in-law.

Some of the leaves have gotten pretty big.

This was a lettuce mix I got at Jewel Foods and there are a few different varieties  There's the one above, which seems to be the fastest grower and these...

I'm also, as an experiment, trying to over-winter the herbs.

parsley...

sage...

rosemary...

and thyme...

Nah.  I didn't really grow thyme, but it would have been musical.  Remember that Simon & Garfunkle song?

"Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme"

I did grow  parsley, sage, rosemary and chives, though, and that has a musical ring to it.

The sage and the parsley look a little droopy, and you can see I haven't even properly potted two of them.  My goal is to keep the roots going even if the top growth suffers.  I want to see if they'll perk up when they get back outside in the ground. 

I took cuttings from the rosemary and sage (they're too sad looking for pictures right now).  If they root I'll post pics later.

I even broke down and bought a package of that expensive pre-packaged organic mint from Jewel Foods because I learned of the joy of Mojitos.

My Mojito didn't look quite as pretty as the photo, but it tasted pretty good.

**caution - excessive consumption of Mojitos can lead to prolonged feelings of euphoria.

Just as another experiment, I'm trying to root some of the stems.

In the summer I'll just use some of the runners from my neighbor's yard that find their way onto my side of the fence.  Free plants...always a good thing.

Happy Gardening!!!

Just kidding.  I'm storing the bulbs from this year's elephant ear plant.  I dug the plant up a month or so ago and let it sit in the garage until the leaves dried.

You see the one in the middle?  That's the Siamese mama bulb...it's the main bulb I planted, and the other six are the babies.  The first year I planted one bulb and at the end of the season I had the same Siamese-type mother bulb and about eight side bulbs.  Those funny looking knots on the lower part of the mama bulb will grow into side shoots next year when I plant the mama bulb.  I've never tried cutting the bottom part off, I just plant the whole thing. The pink growth at the top of the bulb is part of the leaf stalk.  It will eventually dry up and I'll peel it off.  They'll get stored in a container with peat in the basement (the bulbs will die if they freeze) and replanted next spring.

Here are a few factoids about Elephant Ears a/k/a Taro

• Easy to grow
• Heavy feeders
• Needs lots of water
• Can be grown in containers
• Parts of the plant are edible
• Can be used as a bog plant
• Is a perennial in non-frost zones
• Does not transplant well once it's actively growing
• Multiplies freely - can be invasive in non-frost zones
• Can be started indoors in pots and moved outdoors once frost threat has passed.

Happy Gardening!!