"Where on earth is this beautiful garden?" you might be asking. Read on to find out!
Hello my fellow plant-loving, propagating, creating, loving humans!
I haven’t posted anything in the hive garden community for two months now, because it has been deep winter in the northeast US. Not a dark winter as our commander-in-chief predicted a few months ago, but a cold one for sure. There were days I did not even open a door, let alone step outside. On those days I would dream about gardening, about the dwarf fruit trees I will plant in my tiny yard, about the asphalt I will reclaim for a flower garden, about the vines I'll get growing on trellises to improve privacy without taking up floor space, about cucumbers surviving this year. The diminutive back yard, currently all flowers but that gets lots of sun, will go instead into food production. Trouble is, what to do about the maple and the viburnum and the junipers that take up 1/3 of that back yard? I believe that to kill a tree is to kill a man. Getting rid of any perennial here is going to be very difficult for me, even the great many useless yews that are taking up precious space.
Leave the dreaming behind woman, it’s time to get some stuff done.
First, my windowsill herb garden.
I know it's not much, but it's all I've got growing at present, beside some alfalfa sprouts.
I still have to polish this so it's not in the photo, but I managed to find a copper windowsill tray for these pots. My mother gave me the tray many years ago, when I first became interested in gardening. I had purchased a plot of land and a brownstone, in Brooklyn NY, with a 900 square foot back yard of cement and grass - my first garden! It wasn't long before I had transformed the yard into a very private cottage garden. I think this will forever be my favorite garden. Perhaps you can see why in the thumbnail image, which was taken in one of the early years, before I got sick of the challenge of keeping the Cistus erect, before I got rid of the cast iron sink-planter in the back right corner, before I put the most beautiful rosa rugosa in its stead. The rest of my photos of this garden have been buried somewhere in my garage since my move here, so I can provide only this one.
On to the seedlings!
Or should I say the rinky dink propagating kit that cost me $40 and was purchased a few days before I moved from my old house to my new one.
I plan to get some spinach going in this one, because good, organic spinach has proven to be nearly impossible to find in these backwoods boondocks. I've ordered a more grown-up light grow light set up for my future seedlings for the outside.
Today I plan to go out and sow some bread seed poppies.
There's so much to do in a new house!!! Even though I am keeping my plans much smaller than most of you are, I wonder how, or if, I will get it all done.
But I am underway!
Much love to you all.
This isn't really a garden selfie, it was taken just last night by my friend Jeff. That's her husband Chris on the guitar. Thank goodness this backwoods boondocks town has a great open mic, and that I encountered Jeff and Chris!
This is my entry to @riverflows monthly Garden Journal Challenge. If you're into gardening of any kind - indoors, outdoors, veggies, flowers, hydroponic, or wild - a visit to @hivegarden community at the beginning of every month would be of value to you. Stop by!
all other images by me
I liked some of the things that you said, like “to kill a tree is to kill a man” I feel that way too on the inside, and it hurts so much whenever I am walking on the streets of the city and I see people bringing down trees or chopping them wildly.
I also like how you remember your old garden with emotion like it meant something beautiful to you, and I bet each plant felt like it was a pet or something, I know I feel that way now. I moved to where I live now 6 months ago, and I have my first backyard/garden now, and it is exciting because I have always been interested in gardening but never had such a space. Now I only lack resources to materialize my visions to space but I have no rush, I go at my own rhythm.
Before you know it, spring would have arrived and with it a new opportunity for you to implement all your ideas, the cucumber, the flowers, and so on. ¡Regards! Wish you the best in your way.
Lovely comment! Thanks so much. Good luck with your garden, gardening enriches life enormously.
I'm not laughing! it's a good set-up, just small. But your garden is small, so there you are. It's very similar to mine, except the dome on mine is much smaller. I take it off once things sprout, so I don't need tall ones. I also hang my lights so I can raise them as the plants grow, preventing stretching.
It will be grand watching you create your new gardens!
oh thank you so much for that kind comment. My fancier set-up arrived a few hours after I posted this. Since my toy propagator doesn't have an apparatus to raise the lights, I will probably only use it to sprout seeds. I can see getting quite a lot done with the two of them, sprouting in one and growing in the other, so they should definitely be enough to produce the relatively few seedlings I need, as long as I don't start my seedlings six weeks too early like I did last year lol.
What a fabulous entry! I love window gardening. So simple and yet so easy - for growing and for cooking purposes! My first home I had windows full of pots of herb.
I have no good windows in this house, not one. This one is probably the best, and it gets no more than one hour a day of sun. My last home had huge south facing windows, and I could start seedlings without extra light, and had huge plants that now reside in my daughter's house.
I have no good windows in this house, not one. This one is probably the best, and it gets no more than one hour a day of sun. My last home had huge south facing windows, and I could start seedlings without extra light, and had huge plants that now reside in my daughter's house.
Perfect for microgreens!
hm... I'm going to do that! Thanks!
Well hello there gardenerowasco! How exciting things are seeding in mind and actuality.. the garden begins. To kill a tree may be to kill a man, but sometimes a tree must go to give way to other plants! Like the big beautiful gum that self seeded outside the bathroom... It's lovely, but threatens to unmoor the house. It'll go and make way for other plants. So I guess you must think where priorities are. Growing food seems a must for these times more than ever!
I used to like being ruthless in my garden, ripping up anything that did not please me in some way. I can't do it anymore! I might have to hire someone else to be ruthless, while I'm away.
you mentioned about “alfafa sprouts” makes me remembered about my dream food long time ago. About brunch menu, poach egg with alfalfa sprouts. :) I never see them in the real my life :)
That’s really valuable I think. you can get fresh herbs on your window :)
They will be much happier outside when the weather gets warmer, but the cilantro will not last that long I think. Maybe not the parsley either. Thank you for stopping by! I hope you have been well.
Hello, wanted to give you a warning that voting for witnesses who "buy" your votes in exchange for hive rewards is not secure for the network, hope you would reconsider.
@acidyo, since you are the only entity I know is associated with ocd, and because you discussed a previous issue with me so kindly, would you please help me with this? Or direct me to someone who can? It is very disturbing that someone like me, who manually upvotes ONLY, and who is upvoted only by entities that support my work, not my allegiances, could even trigger a warning like this one.
You are voting for @earn.hive, a "witness" no one knows who is bribing people to vote for it, no one else is or should attempt to earn witness votes this way nor should people accept it and let themselves be bribed. It doesn't matter how much rewards are at stake, the issue is that given enough witnesses doing this and enough stakeholders thinking it's okay it could eventually jeopardize the security of this chain and all users funds if they were voted in high enough and were in charge of a bad actor wanting to literally destroy the whole blockchain. So please don't encourage such activity with your witness vote.
Um, thank you for the warning, but I don't know what you are talking about. I voted for a witness who buys my votes? I have not knowingly entered any arrangement of this sort. To my knowledge, no one rewards me other than in genuine, hard-earned, upvotes on legitimate content. No witness has bought my votes. I upvote very consciously, based on merit. Please clarify.
It's sending you transactions daily with "Witness vote reward" in the memo so figured it was obvious what I was talking about.
so I see that earn.hive (I have no idea how I voted for an empty account) is sending me a negligible amount every day, totaling about $1 a year. I can assure you this annual dollar was not a motivation for me, but I will probably remove my vote after a bit more consideration of how I happened to vote for it in the first place.
Thank you for the help and explanation. Much appreciated.
Not at all obvious! I saw those rewards, but had no idea why they were coming to me. You give me too much credit! lol
Thanks for the info, I will look into this some more.
Ah okay, I didn't check if you were actually voting for it, considering how much it markets itself with .001 hive memos to people who aren't voting for it yet but of course doesn't post or comment knowing its reputation would instantly get nuked it seems like they know more than the regular users here. Wouldn't be surprised if it's sending people rewards who may not even vote for it in an attempt to lure them in. Anyway, hope you didn't find my tone too aggressive.
no I have somehow voted for it, if I am looking at the chart correctly.
Really? For what it's worth other curators nominated your post, I didn't "reward you" for doing the proper thing and not voting for a witness that bribes people to vote for it.
I love your herbs, I am looking forward also to planting and my herbs too! And if possible I would also love to plant spices. Greetings from the Philippines!
A big oregano fan, it just grows everywhere! Lovely post, I like what you said "kill a tree is to kill a man" haha.
Cheers!
Spring is coming! If slowly, but surely. ;)
We've gotten a big taste of it here this week, but I know it will be a little slower in coming up your way. It is lovely to dream about those longer, warmer days though! It will be so fun to watch how your little space progresses. I think it is fascinating to see how people use whatever space they have to grow!
It is tough to rip out existing plants, especially trees. But as others have said, at least it is for the good of planting many more living things. Is there a way to rehome some of those trees perhaps? I'm always amazing at what people will want to take or even buy off of a person in that regard. My dear BF keeps propagating yucca plants that he occasionally gets a buyer for off of Craigslist.
Reminds me that we are behind with those seedlings... Denmark is as Northern as New Newfoundland and Scotland, so we have less sun, but as I planned to have a lot of chilli and my wife a lot of tomatoes. Things are too stressful for doing the plant bit, even though doing the plant bit is anti-stress.
It really is! When I haven't done any gardening for a while, it seems like it will be a chore. But then I get out there and don't want to come back in. I'm going to rely on my emptying a house strategy - do just one thing a day. If I plan to keep that thing small, I will do it, and probably a few more things too.
Funny how such clever cheating-myself strategies work :) I have a whole collection of rules for how to not waste your time as an artist, some of them I have heard from others, some I have invented myself.
This was an amazing read! You are doing great and I hope for you and those in your vicinity that the weather improves - not that it's doing anything wrong but you get the hunch - soon enough.
I am happy to have reconnected to you ( I remember you from Nat Med in the old days ) thanks to my planting post from days ago.
A hug from Portugal,
Vincent aka Hypersensitivosaurus aka Hermit the Crab ;<)
Ah yes! I remember the name now. Did you take a break from blogging? I'm slowing down. Less is more when it comes to blogging for me.
It's lovely to reconnect.
I never really took a break, I merely focused on my book writing and when Natural Medicine changed course, I became pretty inactive in there due to my content being 'creative' and not plant based. It's hard to keep up with so many people, right, but I have a good memory for names ( especially online haha )
Um abraço
P.S. Less is more with most things, indeed, but this place is and has been pretty addictive for me, since mid to late 2017 ;<)
I had the same experience with natural medicine - it's content requirements became too stringent for me to satisfy, and I got performance anxiety. Those requirements seem to have relaxed some. I sure wish creative writing that features natural medicine would be accepted, but I don't think it is.
Exactly that. I felt like an outcast there, as I have felt in many places for most of my life, no matter how much I love @riverflows ;<)
Room for creative writing would be awesome and I'll try to wriggle my creativity and dino stories in my future planting/ gardening stories.
It's the only way for me to keep things fun :<)
Very good content. Sometimes we have to remove some tree for the sake of other species.