Chicago: New growth, found art, & a strawberry plant

The mini garden is thriving this week. I love coming home every day from the hospital and checking to see how the seedlings are growing. Thanks to my tlc these babies are shooting up. I have sprouts for every type of plant except the poblanos. I just put the germinated poblano seeds into their little containers so I should have seedlings soon. My germination method with the wet cloth and plastic bag worked great. I already have red pepper and serrano pepper seedlings growing even though it isn't even near 80 degrees here.

All the seedlings are growing great!

The serrano peppers are just emerging from the soil.

Look how much the zucchini has grown in 1 week! I hope it won't outgrow its little container too soon because it is still a bit chilly here! It is leagues ahead of the other seedlings even though it just sprouted. So neat! I find that I am enjoying starting my seeds indoors this year because you get to see progress so quickly. I'm also hoping that they will be stronger than transplants I would pick up from the garden center. We'll see how they do when they get outside- still a few weeks away from hardening off.

Just 1 week of growth for the zucchini.

I realized I didn't put up a picture of my found art planter last week. Look how pretty it is! Imagine how wonderful it will look with lettuce spilling over the edges. No sprouts of lettuce, spinach, or carrots yet but hopefully they will be popping up soon.

Gift basket container turned gourmet lettuce planter.

I have cheated a little bit because I did purchase a strawberry plant that was already started. Dina suggested I try strawberries this year because I get so much direct sun on the back patio. I'm still afraid it is too cold to put outside right now so I am keeping it in the window with my other seedlings to give it some sun but keep it toasty warm.

The strawberry plant in its neat strawberry pot.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Chicago garden!

Roma tomato seedlings are going strong!

Seattle- The seeds have been planted. (Literally, not in some existensial way)

It's been two weeks now, since Devon (and brother JP and quasi-brother Joe) have left. One of the last days we were all together Devon and I made a pot of tea and sat down to business; planning what should go in the gardens. I realized after checking the Farmer's Almanac that I am in prime-time planting mode for seeds right now!

So, the weekend after they left for Illinois I began hunting for starters.

First off, since all of my pots were still in great condition (thank you, mild-Seattle-winters!) I could use them all again. I also retained the majority of my soil which you can re-use (so I've read) as long as you suppliment new soil as well. Plus, I still have fertilizers and all that jazz. I also went to the Home Depot and instantly got scared of all of the transplants. It's still early in the season. What if it's too cold? Will they wilt? Are these really the healthiest? Maybe I'm jumping the gun? So to save money and to prove to myself (and fiance) that I am awesome I decided to go 95% seeds this year. That saved me a boatload of money!

And now for the list of deliciousness...

Matt had 2 requests: Blueberries for opporunity snacking (after last year?! I retorted. I killed them!) and Cilantro. Lots of cilantro.

Neti the Cat had 1 request: Catnip. Lots of catnip.

I feel I must oblidge them both but wanted to do something new and exciting this year as well as all the old favorites from last year.

I finally settled on The List

Repeats from last year: Blueberries, cilantro, oregano, lettuce, spinach, catnip, mint, basil

New this year: Zucchini, thyme, chives, carrots

In-edibles: Hydrangeas (make them blue!), Geraniums (make them pink!)

So I went to work digging my hands in to the soil. Everything is planted so far except the zucchini and chives as they need another month prior to planting (from seed). I also purchased a healthy, budded blueberry plant (I did my research, apparently I did not do well choosing last year) and a geranium as my only transplants this year. Well, yet. I may have to supplement more cilantro later in the season. I'm excited about doing (almost) everything from seeds this year. There's less instant gratification which makes me feel like it's harder so I'm feeling more accomplished. But of course, I never quite think things thru. In my excitement in getting the seeds in the dirt I rushed and in rushing kept moving the pots around to create some more room. You see where this is going, don't you? I now have all of my pots planted and don't remember what any of them are. I guess I'll just have to wait until they sprout. Go figure.

My mint is doing beautifully and the hydrangeas just keep on trekking!

I won't bore you with pictures of dirt in pots but know that the seeds are there. Waiting. Now I just have to get back in the habit of watering. Yikes, this is where it gets hard.

Chicago: Spring has officially begun!

Welcome back to the garden! I have to admit that although this is the first post of the season (for me), I have actually been a busy bee in preparing for my garden this year. Planning the garden started a couple weeks ago when I was in Seattle visiting the sister. When we get together we always have to get excited about some project or other and as spring was beginning to arrive in her neck of the woods we began to get excited about our gardens. Unfortunately excitement only takes you so far because landing in Chicago to a brisk 30 degrees put a damper on things on my end. But as I am very clever and was a little bit jealous that Dina got to start and I didn't, I figured that this year I would start my garden early...indoors!


I can't completely take credit for the jump start on the season though because it was my dear friend, Kim who gave me a little Italian garden kit as a gift for defending my thesis. It included 3 herb pots and 2 transplant pots for basil, oregano, parsley, Roma tomatoes, and red bell peppers. How delightful! Seeing these wonderful transplant pots that allow you to plant your seeds indoors and then transplant them directly into your containers when the weather turns warm was ingenious and inspired me to start all my seeds indoors this year. It is really a win-win situation because I get a jump start on the season and I end up spending less money because buying the transplants at the store is much more expensive than buying seeds.


I used a Burpee germination kit to start out my seeds. The list is extensive this year: eggplant, large slicer tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, zucchini, red bell peppers, serrano peppers, and poblano peppers. It is so exciting to have the little sprouts start popping up. I also have plans for cilantro and string beans but those can be started directly in the containers outside when the time is right. I was a little worried about starting my pepper seeds because peppers won't germinate unless it is 70-80 degrees. In order to get them started, I went old school and pulled out a trick I learned in kindergarten- starting seeds in Ziploc bags. I just got a damp rag, placed it in a Ziploc bag, put a few seeds inside, and presto! the perfect environment for starting pepper seeds. To help them out even more, I stuck them in the laundry room so they could be warmed when the dryer runs.


Luckily the weather is finally turning! This weekend was beautiful, sunny, and warm. I finally got to get out some of the containers and plant my lettuce (a special heat wave mix that lasts longer in the hot weather), baby spinach, and carrots. I even did some recycling by turning a metal container into a planter! I got this funny metal container in one of those food gift baskets from one of Joe's aunts. I kept the base because I felt like I could re-purpose it somehow. Joe pulled it out of the closet and I realized that it would be perfect for a lettuce planter. I also got this amazing ?tree?-plant for indoor decor. It is so cool with the chunky trunk and spiraling leaves. I love it.


Unrelated to gardening- I did a little craft project today. Joe has been wanting some storage for our tv remotes. He first got the idea from my parents who own this great fabric remote holder that hangs over the arm of a chair or sofa and tucks under the cushion to hold it in place. We were looking around Ikea for something similar when I realized that I could make it! We just went over to Joann Fabrics, found a pretty, coordinating fabric and an afternoon of work later- a great way to store the remotes close at hand!


Well, spring is finally in the air! Stay tuned for updates on how my sprout get going. I can't wait to see what Dina's garden is looking like...

Seattle: Inspiration!!!

We've had some rare, sunny days in Seattle and some low 50's weather. It's been great! I had an evening where I had a lot of energy and not enough patience to sit down and knit (as is the usual outlet). So, I took a look at the patio and realized it was filthy! A fall and winter full of constant rain, city dirt, dust, plus all those dead plants I "forgot" to clean up, like I said I would do. But it seemed like quite a job and there are better things to do with my time, right? Wait... wait. Wait a second, what's that GREEN thing there? In February?!

Needless to say, my hydrangeas have sprouted!!!

So, I felt incredibly inspired and cleaned up the patio.

I re-purposed all the dirt to get it ready for the new growing season, cleaned out all the pots, composted the sticks and twigs leftovers, and swept the patio clean. It looks amazing!! In fact, I feel much less cluttered. And, not only that, I also found a little bud on my mint plant! I'm glad to know that's coming back seeing as my

summer lemonade will be SO much more tasty this way. So I filled up two aquaglobes with water to keep the green growing.

It has totally inspired me to start planning for the new growing year. In fact, when Devon and I first started planning I noticed that February is the month to start for some plants in Seattle, but that's like... potatoes. I called Matt, still in stupid SoCal, and he requested no less than 3 cilantro plants and some blueberries. Blueberries. Remember blueberries? I'll just have to get a healthier plant this time. His want for blueberries is so he can have snacks available while on the patio.

Not a huge update, but just wanted to fill you in on the amazing cleaning spree and the new green-- in FEBRUARY! Can't wait to see them grow.

Winter Comeith!

Hello Supportive Blog-readers,

We suck at blogging. Ha! As I'm sure you're aware it has been forever since Devon or I posted and we are about to re-unite for Christmas festivities. So excited!

I know there are a million excuses on why we have gone dormant, but I wanted to share anyways: I got bored with my garden. There is something so special about watching your garden grow and there is so much life and beauty in it. Plus all that hard work you put in to make it happen. And then, your garden is done. You just have to wait. It's big and green and just not as easy to get excited over. I even got so lazy I stopped using my Aqua Globes because I didn't want to refill them! So they are officially decoration. I knew this would happen, too. My tomatoes took FOREVER to ripen and Matt ate all the cilantro so quickly we ended up killing it, haha. It doesn't grow back like the spinach does. My green beans were lack-luster at best and I just got bored.

Biggest Success: Lettuce. This little plant kept coming back more and more and more delicious. It was the one plant I was always excited to check up on. But then it got aphids! IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE! So, I was officially grossed out and didn't want to eat it anymore. That was the day I turned my back on my garden.

Biggest Letdown: Tomatoes. Seattle is just not the climate. I think I may try once again next year but only with little cherry tomatoes. The big ones just didn't cut it. I had a lot of fried green tomatoes at the end of the season and really didn't get a big harvest. Besides, constantly hearing about the Franken-bush Mom got back in IL and how she didn't know what do with all of these tomatoes was just aggravating! No offense, Mom, super happy for you, but I haven't had a good tomato since leaving the East Coast!!!

The garden now looks sad, I refuse to post any pictures. Especially after revisiting the pictures of sunshine and water. While making my first round of co-worker Christmas cookies this weekend I fully intend on digging all the plants up and housing the soil for next year use. We are getting a lot of wind and rain now and my pots are flying around the patio.

So, we are going to shut down until next year's spring. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! We can't shut down the blog!! Devon and I have talked about it and are hoping that maybe you all would like a say in it. Our favorite option is a cooking blog for the winter. We seemed to be very food oriented anyways (who in this family isn't?) while we had the gardens so we may as well continue. Plus, once Devon started putting up pictures of bruschetta and her cakes I had to run right away and make them. I figured we could start a cool recipe sharing, mouthwatering blog of our Kitchen Escapades. And then see how that goes. What do you all think?

One more thing... Neti's catnip! Also a major success, I harvested the whole plant and dried it. I am officially my cat's catnip dealer. I'll send some pictures when the crushing begins! I have a very happy cat.

Chicago- Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Bruschetta

Last night a few of my intern friends came over to enjoy so good food, knitting, and Twilight (don't judge). Every time we get together we always have the best food. Last night's menu consisted of Primo's pizza with ranch dressing, homemade pretzels, homemade guacamole goat cheese dip, homemade hummus with carrots and cucumbers, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and my own contribution: roasted eggplant and tomato bruschetta with eggplants from the garden! The recipe is an original of Joe's and it was delicious; by far the best bruschetta I have ever had. Way to go Joey!
Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Bruschetta
3 small Japanese eggplants, chopped
3 medium tomatoes
1 French baguette
4 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Salt & pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, minced
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Chop eggplant and tomato. Toss with olive oil and put on baking tray. Roast eggplant and tomato mixture in oven for 25 minutes; cool to room temperature. Slice baguette on the diagonal into rounds. Brush baguette slices with olive oil. Place bread slices on baking tray in oven until brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. While still warm, rub each slice with garlic cloves. Let bread cool. In a bowl, mix eggplant and tomato mixture with balsamic vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, basil. Spoon eggplant mixture onto each bread slice. Top each with Parmesan cheese.

Our garden also has produced the smallest green pepper in the world. Truthfully, it was still growing but it came off the plant prematurely. I'm not mad though because it is too cute.

Fits in the palm of my hand!

Chicago- Chocolate Zucchini Cake

In an effort to use the 3 zucchinis that were picked from the garden, I decided to make a delicious chocolate zucchini cake. I love zucchini bread, but lacked a really good recipe (tried Martha Stewart's and was sorely disappointed). Plus, Joe's grandparents had just gotten back into town from Florida and were going to be at his parent's house last night. As we always have dinner with Joe's parents on Saturday night, I offered to make a dessert. Thus, the chocolate zucchini cake with fresh zucchinis from my garden was created! Needless to say, everyone loved the cake. A great success! Now I have been bitten by the baking bug and want to keep baking things. Unfortunately, school work calls. Perhaps next weekend I can make another treat. Plus, Dina promised to send me her zucchini bread recipe so I can make good zucchini bread with the next couple zucchinis that pop up.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
adapted from Mostly Foodstuffs blog.

Cake:
3 cups grated zucchini
2 1/2 cups all-purpose floour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp strong brewed coffee
1 cup chopped walnuts

Frosting:
4 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
2 tbsp butter, softened at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
squeeze lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour a 10-15 cup bundt pan.
2. Set zucchini in a strainer or colander for at least half an hour to drain out excess liquid.
3. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together. Set aside.
4. Mix together sugar and cocoa with a fork to incorporate cocoa completely and get rid of any clumps.
5. Whisk sugar and cocoa mixture with oil, eggs, vanilla, and coffee.
6. Add flour mixture to oil mixture and gently fold together until just combined.
7. Fold in zucchini and walnuts.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
9. Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then invert and finish cooling on the serving platter.
10. When cake is cool, make the frosting. Blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
11. Add vanilla and lemon juice.
12. Beat powdered sugar into cream cheese mixture gradually until smooth.
13. Mix milk into frosting to thin it out.
14. Drizzle over cooled cake as desired.

Chicago- Day 140: Vegetables!

I have vegetables! Hurray! The eggplant and zucchini are thriving with beans, peppers, and tomatoes on the way. The success of these plants is most likely due to the fact that Joe waters them twice a day because I am a lazy bum. Thanks to his TLC we will be snacking on veggies very soon.

We currently have 5 eggplants growing with one pretty close to harvest.

Look how large the zucchini plant has gotten.

Our first zucchini harvest. I think zucchini bread or zucchini cake may be next on the agenda.

Peppers are on the way. Look how cute.

Day 119: Seattle Jungle

Morning everyone! Just some updates on garden status. Matt has done some re-arranging on the patio as grill season is now in full swing. We also got some new bedside tables so we're feeling Seattle-style and re-purposing our old ones. Patio table!! It gives me some great room out on the patio so I added a few new pots. Speaking of new pots Matt surprised me with two BEAUTIFUL hydrangeas (my ultimate favorite) which I placed in one huge pot to let it grow.

Look how gorgeous!Since my cilantro was used up I re-potted with a beautiful little blueish purple flower. Also, got a new pot for some marigolds to add a little color. And, a coworker of mine overheard me complaining about how my mint didn't have the greatest flavor.

She promptly ripped up a big chunk of her garden and brought it in for me! So, I have an amazing flavored mint transplant that is thriving (as mint commonly does). I've already thrown some in a big pitcher of lemonade. Yummy!

As far as old favorites that have been in the garden since Day 1... the tomatoes have beautiful little yellow flowers so I should have fruit in a month or so.

We have green beans!!! The plant had been flowering for awhile but I pulled back some of the leaves just last night and there's beans! Like, edible green beans!!! They look ready to pick but there's not really enough to make a sidedish for Matt and I so not sure what to do yet. Maybe I'll just incorporate them into a stirfry next week. Any ideas?

Enjoy the pictures, the garden is so beautiful and such a jungle! Neti (the cat) loves sitting out there and now you're just completely surrounded by green. It's almost blocking out the water! But, not quite...

Oh and I promised Matt: Wanna know his favorite part of the garden? His "art piece". It's a 12 mm Bing moped carburetor.

Chicago- Day 105: Starting Anew

As I am sure you have all noticed, I haven't been very good about updating lately. The truth is with the construction on our deck (that lasted way too long), finals, a week in Seattle, and the beginning of clinical rotations, I haven't done much thinking about my garden...or tending to it. Yes, the honest truth is that I basically killed everything that I had. It has gotten really hot here so my spinach and lettuce bolted, my herbs sort of shriveled up, and I never did thin those carrots....oops. I had begun to give up on the idea that I could garden and that I should even attempt to restart. However, Joe in his unending optimism thought that it was a horrible idea to give up. So after a few days we decided that this weekend we would go back to Home Depot, get some new flowers and veggies and really get our garden going.

Now the thing about going to Home Depot is that it is really difficult to get there. The traffic is usually horrible which was another reason I just hadn't gotten around to adding anything to the garden. It was just too much of a hassle. In order to combat this problem, we decided it was best to get there early in the morning (see I do listen to my mom). Obviously, I had no problem getting out of bed at 7am on a Saturday...make that 8am on a Saturday. Well, lo and behold we got to Home Depot in about 5 minutes (minus the time it took us to get some Starbucks into us), a trip that usually takes at least half of an hour.I was a bit nervous that the selection wouldn't very good since the season started quite a while ago. However, there were still some vegetables that looked pretty good and a lot of flowers on sale (hello! geraniums for 79 cents!). In the end, I ended up getting zucchini, japanese eggplant, a cherry tomato plant, red bell pepper plant, lots of geraniums, day lilies, pansies, daisies, and these little pink flowers that I don't really know the name of. All in all, we hit the jackpot. But the adventure doesn't stop there.
Joe also needed to run an errand at GameStop which is located pretty close to the Home Depot. However, we reached the store about 10 minutes before it opened. In order to optimize our shopping time, we decided to head over to the Sports Authority across the street to find a table and chairs for our deck. "To Sports Authority?" you may ask. Why yes, apparently Sports Authority has seasonal outdoor items including outdoor furniture. Who knew! Luckily, we found a nice glass table with 4 chairs and an umbrella that is just perfect. A great addition to the garden!

Now we have a beautiful deck with a place to relax and sit out in the sun! Though it was a lot of work today, it has already begun paying off as I am writing this outdoors right now. A great relaxation spot. Enjoy all the photos.

Day 98- WOWEE! Lots of updates

First off, Devon and Joe came to visit! We had a great time, and it was fun showing off the garden. In fact, while they were here we used the basil for some yummy Washington farm fresh tomatoes and mozzarella and some oregano in burgers! It was all delicious! And it was wonderful having them here. Miss you both!

It's been awhile since posting because we're really just enjoying the growing and tasting of things. I have been doing a lot of propping my feet up with a drink and a good book and just relaxing in the new found sun (yes, it's sunny here! don't tell the tourists) No real big events to report, until recently.

For example, we ate all of the cilantro. Didn't know it was a use-it-or-lose-it plant, but alas, it is. So I need to get a new one of those. Also, we have decimated the lettuce. Which is good, right? But still, we ate it all. So, not sure whether it will regenerate or if I should plant something new. But two empty pots on the patio is sad. Except that everything else is booming! I've eaten many a strawberry...

See how pretty!! They are very tasty, too. Not as tasty as I imagined, especially after the eye-rolling goodness of the spinach, lettuce, and cilantro. But still, the beauty of their color alone is worth it!

And then, my new laziness add-on: Aquaglobes! Yes folks, they actually work! They are gorgeous, first of all, adding a big pop of color to the green of the plants.

And my tomato plants are just taking over. I walked out on the patio the other day and yelled, "Matt, it's a jungle out here!"

My catnip is also taking over, I didn't realize how big it would get.

Speaking of cats, with some new time away from gardening spent bent over my sewing machine I made a quick (and cute) little bed for Neti (the cat). She spends more time out on the patio then I do! She loves to watch the cars and people and birds fly by, so I figured I should make her a little seat so she wouldn't have to sit on the dirty/cold concrete patio. Look how cute!! I quilted it for extra warmth/padding and added ties in to the binding so that I could secure it to the grill so it wouldn't blow away. And little did I know I was adding a bit of a toy for her in doing so, as she likes to bat at the bows it makes. She loves it!

Needless to say, lots of updates. I'll let you know on the tomatoes. I got my first blooms, which Sara (the master gardener) told me to pinch off. Sad, but it should help the plant to bloom stronger and make heartier tomatoes. So, there is still plenty to look forward to. Until next time, blog-watchers!!!