Renewal

Renewal - the word brings to mind fresh starts, new ideas, creativity, reinventing one's self. For me, it's time to renew this blog.

Where have I been? Well, for the past few years I've been planning a wedding, working to save money for said wedding and struggling with unemployment. Time to write has been a scarce commodity.

My new husband and I also moved into a new place. Our apartment is in a lovely old building complete with dark wood features and a faux fireplace that came with an electric heater and simulated flames left behind by the previous tenant. I have always wanted a working fireplace, and this is the closest I'll probably find in the city.

Our home also faces a park, another scarce commodity in the city! Windows let in traffic noise from the busy street below but we have a lovely view of grass and trees and sunsets. And a farmer's market during the summer.

We also have south facing window boxes. Last year was too hectic to do anything with them, though I did enjoy the weeds(?) that sprouted spontaneously in them! This year I have plans for marigolds and herbs, including oregano, rosemary and sage.

Happy spring, everybody!

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!!

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!

How Does My Indoor Garden Grow?

Well, well! The plants are coming along just fine. The tomato plants are about six inches high with well-developed leaves. I need to transplant two of them badly. They would be done already but I ran out of potting soil and haven't had a chance to buy some more. One of the plants was already transplanted and is enjoying its new home on the windowsill. I gave up on the basil seeds and bought a plant from the grocery store. It was about 4 inches high when I bought it and now is about 8-9 inches high and is growing into quite a bush! Basil always seems to grow well, though it does need a lot of water. I also planted lavender and marigold seeds. The lavender never sprouted (sigh) but the marigold is up and has adult leaves, so it will be moving to a new pot soon. The pineapple mint is also growing very happily, especially when I moved it out of direct sunlight. I read somewhere that they actually will thrive in partial shade. I'll retry the lavender and basil seeds again, but I don't have much hope for them. Unfortunately, the strawberry seeds that came with the planter didn't sprout either. Too bad. Pictures will be coming soon.

It is so much fun to grow food indoors. It makes me feel so self-sufficient!

Starting My Garden

My little garden is finally in progress. I made a trip to K-mart which had a sale on seeds, and chose tomato, basil, marigold (I just like them, plus they have some insecticidal properties) and lavender to be used for aromatherapy purposes. After doing some research on the Web, I decided to put the planted seed flats on a heating pad kept on low. I planted some tomato and basil seeds only, due to not having a lot of seed flats, then managed to mix them up before labeling! However, doing a quick Google search, I just found a fantastic website, www.reneesgarden.com, which has some great tips and photos on growing tomatoes. So, it looks like my tomatoes (Brandywine) are growing wonderfully (three out of four have sprouted) and my basil seeds flopped, literally. One sprouted up and then fell over. Another sprouted but doesn't seem to be growing. I'm trying to decide if I should give up on the basil seeds and buy a plant at the local grocery store or try again. I want to get the flowers started. My strawberry planter has been seeded, but according to the information on the package it will take quite a while for those seeds to germinate. I check it often and keep the soil moist. I also have a store bought pineapple mint which desperately needs to be transplanted to a larger pot. Maybe tomorrow.

My little sunroom seems to be just the trick for growing plants. At least, the tomatoes and mint think so. It is getting full sun for a large part of the day - well, when it's sunny. I live in Chicago and snow is predicted for this weekend! Aaarrrggh. I like cool weather, but this has been one long winter. (We broke a record a while ago of the longest expanse between 70 degree weather days.)

While searching for writing jobs, I found a couple of good sites for us urban gardeners, with a wealth of information on growing food. The first one is www.urbangardencasual.com and the second, which has a more intensive approach is www.pathtofreedom.com. Both are worth checking out and have multiple links to sites about many different subjects. I even found out how to make a very simple food dryer (www.backwoodshome.com/articles/shaffer58.html).

Growing food indoors, or on a rooftop or patio -what can bring you back to the country more than that?