Tag: gardening

Who Minds the Mint?

I don’t have much luck growing mint. I can grow buckets of basil and Vietnamese coriander. I had a lemongrass plant in my former office. However, successful mint cultivation escapes me. It never winters over well. I have to buy new plants every year. It gets leggy and doesn’t taste as strong as the supermarket …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/09/10/who-minds-the-mint/

Farm Girls Gotta Farm

Farming is the ultimate faith-based pursuit. Last year’s debacle (documented here) should have deterred me from further efforts. Nevertheless, I persist. Last week we went to Sky Nursery in search of herbs and other plants. It’s still a bit early to put peppers, basil, and such outside, so I restrained myself to hardier crops. I …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/03/28/farm-girls-gotta-farm/

Requiem for Summer

Autumn arrived with a deluge right on the equinox. It rained most of the week. The Sun finally peeked out late on Friday. The plants on the upper deck are waterlogged. I think I’ve harvested the last padron peppers of the season. The tomatillo and golden berry plants did nothing. I should probably finish off …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/09/27/requiem-for-summer/

My Little Farm

It took a while, but this year’s upper deck farm is coming into shape. Two weeks ago I bought a hanging pot of mini tomatoes. Miracle of miracles, I have 3 tiny green tomatoes on the plant. As I’ve mentioned before, growing tomatoes is a faith-based venture here. My next door neighbor planted some tomatoes …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/05/25/my-little-farm/

A Plethora of Pepperoncini

I have four varieties of pepper plants on the upper deck this summer: One hot (mirasol), the other three less so. The two padron plants are doing well. The mirasol is slow, but steady. It has two peppers that are nearly ready to pick. I started the Japanese variety from seed late, and they haven’t …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/08/07/a-plethora-of-pepperoncini/

Our Garden, 2019 Edition

It was a brutal winter, with two weeks of snow and ice. Most of the ferns and ajugas in the planter boxes were pretty beaten up. The surviving ferns were planted on a bare strip of ground near the entry, along with three new ferns. One ajuga is barely holding on; the others were dispatched …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/05/27/our-garden-2019-edition/

Sunset for the Garden

The padron peppers have pooped out. The basil was becoming brown, as was the red shiso. It was time for these plants to go the way of all things – the compostable can. I’m having to do the composting in installments, since our can needs to hold yard waste and kitchen scraps. One pot of …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/10/20/sunset-for-the-garden/

Confused Plants

Our garden is going gangbusters. Even the ferns, sedums, and ajugas in the shade are running wild. One of the fuchsias may be an exception. I rotated the pot to give the other side some more light. One side looked a little peaked. Julian claimed that the plant was “confused”. He claimed that rotating the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/06/25/confused-plants/

This Year’s Garden

I was late in getting the seeds planted for the herb garden this year. I’ve currently got parsley, garlic chives, thyme, cilantro, basil, and oregano seeds in Jiffy Pots thinking about germinating. (Jiffy Pots are compressed peat pucks that expand when wet into baby planters. I’ve used these before to get a head start on …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/04/23/this-years-garden-2/

Garden Postmortem

The Italian basil is history. The shiso plants have gone to flower, as has the Thai basil. The padrón pepper plants are soldiering on, but it won’t be long before they need to meet the compost bin. The peppermint plant is thriving, but the spearmint plant is DOA. The survivors are all waterlogged with the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/10/21/garden-postmortem/

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