Gardening Update

Well hello, woefully neglected blog. Can I just say that learning stuff and writing about learning stuff are two totally different things? I have what I call "Birthday Candle Syndrome", which I've just now made up and defined thusly: it is the tendency to equate putting on the finishing touches with completing all of the work that should precede them. Example: you're making a birthday cake, but didn't have time to frost it, but you slap some birthday candles on it anyway, and voila! You're done. The finishing touches are there, so you must be done. You're done, right? So instead of carefully documenting all of my new exploits for the blog and posterity, I'm rushing through to the finished project, because that's always more interesting.

I'm considering a "What I Learned Today" series to try and counteract that. For example, today's entry would include:

1. How to insert a title into an Adobe Premiere sequence.
2. How to (start to) add a SATA port to a ten-year-old Windows XP machine.
3. How to do frame-hold cross fades between separate video clips in Premiere.
4. How to make sure that when you water your potted plants after shamefully forgetting to do so for three days, that the water actually gets absorbed by the soil and doesn't just run over the sides.
5. How to make strawberry mango paletas (ok, this one wasn't today).
6. What ECC memory is. 

Since five of those require screen captures and/or more photos than I'm willing to take, I'll go with the gardening one, maybe a bit embellished. 

Gardening Tips from an Amateur Windowsill Gardener

1. If you've forgotten to water your plants for a few days, don't just dump water in when you actually do go to water them. Dig a little trench in the middle of the pot/planter so the water pools in it before the dry soil starts to absorb it. The top layer of soil can't absorb water that fast, so if you just pour water in, it'll all run down the sides (and into your guinea pig's cage, if you're me). 
2. Don't be afraid of thinning out. Let your seeds sprout, then when it looks like they're not going to die from the tiniest breeze, choose your favorites (pick a number that you'll keep based on how much space you really have), and ruthlessly pluck the rest. Crowded plants don't grow well.
3. Consider an un-manicured look. A windowsill herb garden that's a little overgrown and bushy not only provides more herbs, it looks pretty darn good, too.
4. Remember to pinch back your plants to make them bushier. It feels cruel, but pick off those little leaf sprouts every once in a while, and your plant will pick a new (less dangerous) place to put its new leaves.
5. Seedling pots are just that - for seedlings. Your average vegetable will not enjoy being grown in a 4" pot. (I'm looking at you, alliums!)*
6. Be realistic with yourself regarding how much space you have to grow. My eggplants will wait til next year because I can only handle one indeterminate plant in my apartment at a time.

What are your windowsill gardening tips?

* I will say that my indoor tomato plants (six in the planter that you see above, three - three! - in a 4" seedling pot) are doing just as well or better than the one I have outdoors in a five-gallon bucket. Go figure.

Gardening on a Whim

One of my always-on-the-back-burner project ideas that never really comes to pass is to grow a proper garden. I have dreams of fresh eggplant, fresh tomatoes, and fresh herbs all waiting to be picked, right in my front yard. I guess that in my dream of the idyllic garden, I can waltz through my patch of home-grown vegetables, fruits, and herbs, clipping at will, and eating fresher-than-thou produce all summer long.

Thanks, Wikimedia Commons user Srl!

Obviously, some education is in order.

For starters, I have no yard to speak of (well, I do, but I also have a landlord), so it'll have to be container gardening, probably indoors, although I could potentially co-opt the landing just outside my window, which is really the landing for the third-floor neighbors' stairs. Placement will definitely be an issue. Two points for an indoor garden, though: I have very large, south-facing windows, so sun will not be terribly difficult to come by, and two: I live in hardiness zone 6-ish, so plantng indoors will alleviate some of the "oh god, when's the last frost??" stress.

Secondly, I have never grown a garden. I have had some success with herbs - that is, last year I grew far too many basil plants, a lonely oregano plant, and I have never once gotten a rosemary plant past its third week. My basil made it through the winter indoors (hallelujah!), but I let it flower (bad!) in order to start over this year  (yay!). I would post pictures of the plants I have, but I'm far too lazy to get out of bed. I used Urban Garden Solutions' garden planner-majiggy to pick some plants I think I'd be happy to see in September/October: 

From the top left, in rows: basil, tomatoes, eggplant, flower x (type to be determined), lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, flower y, oregano, edamame, spinach, flower z. 

Obviously I can't go dig up the front lawn and put plants there in that configuration, but I'm planning on buying 12 approximately-1-sq-ft pots and arranging them on the porch (landlord permitting), on the neighbors' landing (neighbors permitting) or inside (boyfriend permitting). I'm also planning on doing plenty of research, because I've grown exactly two of these plants before. My first call will be to my lovely and knowledgeable grandma, green thumb extraordinaire, who has been gardening probably twice as long as I've been alive. 


I complained last night that it took me hours to make eggplant parmesan and roasted asparagus. Now here I am planning dinner for September. Bring it on, garden!