It may have snowed two weeks ago, and rained for a week solid, but the sun’s out today, and warm weather has been predicted by the augurs going forward, so I’m doing it. I’m prepping the garden for 2013. Continue reading »

After Bootsy died, I needed something to do – a project.

I’d bought these Fintorp buckets from Ikea back in November, which tells you how long I’ve been sitting on this. They’re intended to be cutlery caddies, but I thought they’d make nice containers for an indoor herb garden.

So, we went to Plant World, my go-to place for edible food as of this year, and I selected some plants. In December, as you can imagine, their selection isn’t as extensive as it would normally be, but I think I made out ok.

On the top row we have mojito mint and peppermint. I’ve never made mojitos, only enjoyed those made by others, but now that I have the appropriate mint, I imagine I’ll soon be looking for recipes.

The middle row is parsley, rosemary and thyme. Sage wouldn’t fit, and, realistically, I don’t use it often enough that it would make sense to grow it, even if it would complete the set outlined in Scarborough Fair.

The bottom row is basil. I’d run out of the home made pesto I’d been enjoying all September and October, and I want to grow these bad boys large enough that I can make more. I am a pesto fiend.

While my garden outside may be dead, and the cat I’ve had since my Grandmother died, who lived with me in my first, second and third apartments, who was with me when we bought our current house, who’s lived with me longer than my husband, is now gone, at least now there’s something new growing in this dead season. And I think it looks cute. The bat makes it work.

Sometimes a zucchini is just a zucchini.

The zucchini is starting. This is the only one I can see so far, but there are a ton of flowers, so it should be a good crop. The flowers look like a terrifying-but-also-kind-of-beautiful species from another galaxy, and while I’ve heard they’re edible, they do not taste delicious raw. Nasturtiums, on the other hand, are quite tasty. And they like to wander.

Entirely of its own accord, the nasturtium somehow crept over or or under the gooseberry bush and found its way to the fence and began to climb. I’m impressed with how far it’s gotten.

Cucumber tendrils are crawling all over the place. I’ve pulled a few off of the tomatoes where they look like they’re starting to choke it. I didn’t realize they’d made it over to the other side of the garden until I found these yellow flowers in my basil. Should I start cutting it back?

The raspberry bush is dropping berries faster than I can gather them. I should have been jamming all this week, but, you know, work. Tomorrow, I’ve decided, is the day. Time to break out Bob.