Paint It What I Tell You

Life is busy, guys.

I’ll get back to blogging soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this rainbow-esque photo of my radishes (and a few tiny tomatoes). These turned out much better than the puny first ones I harvested!

I’ll be back at it soon…but for now, I have lots of wonderful clients to tend to!

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

I think I bit off a little more than I can chew.  But the plus side is that the constant clippings I’m having to do are filling up vases nicely.

This will be the extent of pretty decorating pictures in this post. The numbered vase is from Trohv in the Takoma neighborhood of DC,  the crate is from Anthropologie, and the mirror is vintage in the sense that it’s actually vintage AND in the sense that I’ve had it so long I don’t recall where I got it.

I probably have 150 little tomatoes growing and dozens of peppers.  Everything is really thriving except the cilantro, which had an unfortunate incident with over-watering and has been replanted; I got two good batches of guacamole out of it and my husband made me a “special” greek salad, which he lovingly and misguidedly infused with copious amounts of cilantro leaves. Being the horticulturalist he is, he told me this week that I have so many tomatoes I should be watering the plants twice a day — twice a day! This is exciting to me. I’ve started using empty milk jugs to water them, because my little watering can requires about 20 trips back to the sink and the ugly plastic jugs only require two. Keep in mind that this is all happening on a balcony: four gallons of water a day, for BALCONY PLANTS. Needless to say I can’t walk out there, and I just contort myself into various positions when I’m tending to my garden.

The cages we used are proving to be too small for my plants, which are taller than I am now, and I’ve resorted to using twine to tie them to stakes, railings, and anything else nearby and stationary.  I may have used some dinner forks as stakes.  It’s working so far, and I spend about 20 minutes every day in my tiny garden alternating between counting tomato flowers, tying new supports for the growing limbs, and yelling at my son to “DON’T TOUCH MOMMY’S PLANTS, I’M SERIOUS!” Don’t worry, I’m not keeping him from nature: I give him cuttings all the time to play with and inspect, and a few times a week I let him water them with his tiny watering can (though I prefer to take him outside to water the flowers downstairs).  He’s even eaten two whole green peppers. I spent so much focused time outside one morning last week that my son locked me out for about a minute, and once I realized I couldn’t get back in I pounded my fists on the glass like a crazy lady until he undid the latch. This is the jungle where I was being held captive:

Hopefully I’ll have some images of beautiful purple and yellow tomatoes to show you in a few weeks. Until then, think of me and my hulking plants, and hope for lots of rain (water!) but not too much wind (because it would knock down my makeshift fork-stakes).

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

I know you’ve all been waiting patiently to see how my garden is doing, so I’ll give you a quick update. The bad news is that all the seeds I started back in the early spring succumbed to both my black thumb and/or the “let’s see what happens if I dump this out” impulse of my toddler. I gave three herbs that had started pretty nicely to my mom; she killed those, too, but I take 85% of the blame for that. So I shook off  off my bruised gardening ego, picked up my planting tools (which, as a condo dweller three and four stories off the ground, include not actual gardening tools but instead forks and spoons and tupperware) and made a few trips to the nursery/farmer’s market/hardware store.  A few days and about $150 later, I was the proud planter of these beautiful veggies and herbs:

This summer I’ll have little red cherry tomatoes, tiny sungold tomatoes, purple tomatoes, italian sweet peppers, mild cherry peppers, basil, chives, dill, parsley, cilantro, and arugula. Wow!  Hopefully I’ll produce enough to make up for the $150 spent on gardening stuff.

The arugula was the first to be harvested (I harvested something!) and it was fantastic.  I gave my mom a ton of it, to make up for the sad herbs I gifted her, and we ate the rest of the first batch in salads and on sandwiches.  The heat got the best of the remainder this week, so I’ve planted my second batch which should be ready in a few weeks! (Can you refer to plantings as “batches?”) The other herbs are coming in strong, and I’ve used all of them so far. The biggest surprise has been the dill, which I was hesitant to plant because I hardly use it, but it’s been a great addition to couscous, pasta salads, tuna, and even salad dressings.  Yum.

The biggest surprise of all is my planter-of-choice. I needed a few extra vessels for my peppers and was not about to spend another $50 on planters. I found myself at IKEA and when entering checkout, I was confronted with these cute containers and immediately snatched up two for my garden. It’s not a planter…it’s a TRASHCAN. And it’s $2. I just drilled a hole in it (very easy) for drainage, and set it out on a tray to catch the drips. I only wish I would have gotten five of these to use them for all of my plants.

A wastebasket, a planter, a really big drinking glass - whatever. Fniss from IKEA. $2. (image via IKEA)

So there you go: my “short” garden update for late spring 2011. I can’t wait for the tomatoes!!

 Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.