container gardening

These are tomato plants (with nasturtium) from last summer, nothing illegal.

This Garden Rant post about marijuana made me chuckle.

As did this article from Australia about a cannabis hedge.

It also reminded me of two things:
1) I live in an apartment and have no access to soil. My garden is made up of plants in containers (pots). This prompted a family member to refer to me as a “pot gardener.”
2) Last summer I had three rather healthy and hearty tomato plants. These plants are at the back of the apartment, on a balcony. You could see them from the street, but just barely.

We noticed a police car across the street for a few days, and assumed that he was visiting someone (or had moved in). This was great news: The normally-very-fast drivers slowed way down when they saw his car.

It was about day three that I noticed that the police car was inhabited. The officer was sitting in his car…and his car was positioned precisely so that he was directly in view of our balcony. I figured this was random coincidence (it likely was).

Then the tomato plants started to bear little green fruit. And the officer disappeared.

I do realize that he was probably positioned where he was for some unrelated reason. But I did laugh a bit about my possibly-suspicious-looking plants.

A little gardening, a little baking, and a little hoping for warmer weather.

(photo of three-leaf zinnia by B)

This is a coconut swirl brownie from the Martha Stewart’s Cookies book.

These are almond macaroons, from the same book.

Plant a seed and wait for growth: Sounds hopeful to me.

Starting seeds is a new project (I’ve mostly bought seedlings from nurseries). I am using this kit from Gardener’s Supply.

To give me the best chance at little sprouts, I re-read my gardening books. I came across some phrases that stuck with me. The phrase ‘bucket farmer’ comes from a book called Movable Harvests. I liked it (rather than ‘container gardener’ or ‘urban food grower,’ etc.).

The phrase ‘grow food at home’ is my take on a quote I saw in another good container gardening book. The original phrase was “eat what you grow where you live.”

A rather sweet man whipped together a bucket/plant design for me (with me sitting next to him saying helpful things like, “can you make it look like it’s an old pail?”). Thanks, B. You were unreasonably patient.

We had a t-shirt printed via Cafe Press.

I chose the fonts.

Yesterday was the first day of Spring for the Northern Hemisphere. This morning we had new snow.

There is balance in all things: Our awaited composter arrived today. I am crossing my fingers that it is going to work well and be generally perfect.
Update: Composter was taken from the box, examined, and is now being shipped back.

I ordered some seeds and am amazed at the lovely drawings on the packet. I love that someone would go to so much work to make something transient, beautiful.

This print (found inside The Potted Garden: New Plants and New Approaches for Container Gardens) caught my attention.

As did this bookplate (inside the same book).

And to top it all off, I found a book that answered a few very specific questions I had. I was browsing in the container garden section of our favorite local bookseller…lots of books about flowers, herbs…not quite what I wanted. And then there it was: The Edible Container Garden: Growing Fresh Food in Small Spaces.

All these little blessings are almost too much to bear. I hope you’re similarly swamped.

The strawberries I planted have fruited (that doesn’t sound right). I got the plants from Seeds of Change.

Here’s B examining them (nice slippers, eh?).

I tried some embroidery (might end up as pouches, we’ll see). I was inspired by some Paper Source rubber stamps. There are some variations, obviously. Some are intentional, and some were…surprises.

The name of each one is a link to the Paper Source rubber stamp that inspired it.

Peony

Dandelion

Branch

Wateroak

Flower