my mama's garden

Although those photographs might all look similar, there is actually very little overlap in the contents of each image.  I took all the images standing in one spot in the middle of my parents' backyard, rotating clockwise about 25 degrees each photo.  My mama's garden is a container garden full of more than 30 10-gallon pots.  Plus, a fig tree (far left) and some smaller pots for herbs (pictured separately, below).

Houston is very lucky to have such a long growing season.  Actually, the weather reasonably permits two whole growing seasons-- time to grow a whole set of plants and start over in the middle of the summer with a whole new set of plants.  In DC, we hadn't even begun our seeds yet (although we could have), and my mama's already eating zucchini she grew in the backyard.

tomatoes 

eggplant

aren't eggplant blossoms the prettiest?  and those dark purple stalks!

My mama's growing all my favorites.  She has over ten tomato plants, bell peppers, zucchini, squash, eggplant... if I were home, I would eat from her garden all summer (and spring and fall) long.

pepper blossoms

more tomatoes.  tomatoes are my favorite to grow, too.

zucchini

yellow squash

Although I have successfully regenerated green onions in our apartment before, and I tried to start a pineapple plant, I'm amazed by the plants my family has cultivated from pits of food purchased at the grocery store.  Mangoes, avocados and I think my mama might've mentioned a guava?

incredible avocado plant grown from a pit

mango tree grown from a pit

all the herbs: cilantro, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and basil

even lemongrass!

Definitely makes me want to get my hands in the dirt!  Even though it's getting a bit late to start our plants from seed this year, we will definitely be doing our own container garden again.  I can't wait!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

. . . . . . . .

{this moment} ritual from Soulemama

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

. . . . . . . .

{this moment} ritual from Soulemama

damn the deer!

sun gold cherry tomatoes

Last night I did a garden check to make sure the plants are doing okay.  The plants that have been replanted into containers are all doing very well and looking lovely (with the exception of the watermelon which I still cannot tell will make it).  Those guys have also been secured behind chicken wire.  The plants that we've run out of containers for, however, have been growing well but left vulnerable to the deer.

cherokee purple flower!

Yesterday, this is what my cherokee purple tomato plant looked like.  A flower!  Finally.  I did a garden check at lunch today, however, and the deer have completely taken off that branch.  No more flower.

the white stuff is epsom salt dissolved in water. I read that the magnesium encourages pepper growth.

Luckily, though they gnawed on my blushing pepper plant, they did not get the pepper.  I was hoping that there was some adverse affect for those that ate leaves of a nightshade family plant, but no such luck.  It's funny-- when I first moved here and saw deer in the city, my concern was for them: being driven out of wherever they live to seek food, and the danger that they might be hit by a car.  No longer.  Now, I understand why people call deer pests.

eggplant flowers

Though the deer have done some damage, they haven't touched my happy pot eggplant.  Those purple flowers are so beautiful-- and this plant is breaking out with them everywhere.  Hopefully that means many eggplant are coming!

Cucumber flowers

The pride and joy of my garden these days, however, are the tomatillos.  I am hopeful that my two plants are cross-fertilizing, but never having grown tomatillos before I do not know if these lanterns will be fruit or are somehow red herrings!  In any case, allow me to regale you with photos of what I hope to be some of the first tomatillo fruits of the garden!

Hopefully, more to come!

determined to grow

There is going to be construction soon, near our community garden.  This news has been extremely disappointing for us as we have learned that the construction will essentially prohibit us from getting to our garden right at the peak of the growing season!  Well I cried about it at first. Then I did a lot of complaining about it.  And this weekend, Mark and I bought some big cheap plastic buckets so that we can do something about it.  We're transferring our plants to containers and we're going to try our hand at container gardening.  This is going to be new and I'm worried about transplanting some of the bigger plants, but we're going to keep on growing things no matter what.

I think that the garden is essential to my happiness in the summer months.  Last summer, there wasn't much gardening because the deer ate our plants before we could get them all in the ground, and with our wedding planning and long distance between us, there was really no time or energy to redirect into gardening.  The two years before that I had a small back yard garden each summer and the harvest of basil and sun gold cherry tomatoes kept me going!

I'm determined that this year is going to be the best gardening year yet.  We've got six varieties of tomatoes (Brandywine, sun gold cherry, black cherry, Poseidon Pink, Purple Cherokee, Green Zebra), four varieties of basil (sweet, African blue, Thai, and purple ruffles basil), lavender, chives, cilantro, lemon balm, two tomatillo plants (you need two plants in order to have fruit), two eggplant varieties (one white, one purple), two squash varieties, blushing beauty and chocolate bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, a jalapeno pepper, and a small, but hopeful yellow watermelon plant (we had rosemary, too, but it died).

I've successfully transplanted two varieties of basil and the two tomatillo plants so far.  We're going to need more containers to finish the job-- and then we will most likely be transporting water as the new location for the containers is not close to a spigot for watering.  One thing is certain, however: gardening is the way to get me out in the heat of summer!

this is going to be a blushing beauty bell pepper.

eggplant flower!

re-potted plants, clockwise from left: two tomatillos (in the same pot), African blue basil, sweet basil.

the tomatillos must be happy in their container-- this flower is new since it's been re-potted!

a peek in Aunt Sarah's garden

Last weekend, Mark and I headed up to Binghamton for a family visit.  Mark had concert tickets to see Ani DiFranco and Martin Sexton with his dad.  I opted not to go to the concert, since I had seen both artists in the last year or so and thought Mark might enjoy the time with just his dad.  I ended up the lucky one, however, because while they were at the concert, I got to go to a garden party!

Mark's Aunt Sarah and her husband Keefe live near the New York/Pennsylvania border and have a beautiful home and property there.  Mark has told me they built the house themselves, after they were married on the land (which I think is a beautiful story-and talk about 'handmade something'!).  The house itself is also beautiful and customized to their needs.  The kitchen counter tops are 4" taller than standard to accommodate their tall height!  I felt a little like a dwarf in the kitchen.  But, the best part is their back patio. Raised high on stilts with stairs to the side, their patio allows them to look over an enormous back yard and eight (8!) gardens that Aunt Sarah has planted around the property.  It was an incredible view!

Leslie, Ashlinn, Josh and I got to tour each one.  The variety and beauty of all of her flowers is astounding.  I've never seen such colors before!  None of my photographs have been edited.  I metered for light and snapped and what you see is a depiction of the what I saw with my eyes.

It's clear that these gardens are Aunt Sarah's peace.  A literal piece of land and a tangible peace felt amidst them.  The largest of the gardens is gated and has a grape arbor, too!

 

Sarah and Keefe have started a considerable garden.  They've got 24 tomato plants growing in a raised bed and more strawberry plants than you can count!  We got to sample the strawberries, mounded atop Keefe's homemade ice cream.  That was a real treat!  I'm so mad I didn't snap a picture... I was too busy eating.

Seeing so much growth was very encouraging for me to get out in my garden and do.  It's been awhile since Mark and I did any weeding in our own veggie plot.  I appreciate the lives Sarah and Keefe have carved for themselves, out in the country, away from the city.  I feel that I could live that way. With internet everywhere these days, there's no need to feel remote or disconnected (although if you wanted that, you could have it in the country!).  Since Indonesia, I feel like I've been on a quest to discover how things are done; how tortillas and tomato sauce are made instead of bought, how veggies and herbs are grown, how clothing and housewares are sewn.  Indonesia would be an entirely different experience for me than it was six years ago.
 

The more I learn and experience a handmade life, the more I want to get away from the commercial life where handmade things are passed over in favor of those that are commercially produced.  I much prefer Aunt Sarah's rambling flower garden than the strategically spaced pansies planted in the parking lots of office buildings.  I'm trying to do a little of this where I am, right in the city.  I guess this is the major appeal of urban homesteading.  My garden will grow this summer, but it's got nothing on Aunt Sarah's garden!

a fresh start for spring

starts are acquired and ready to be planted!

The interspersed cooler weather and rain remind me that while my Texas roots make me think it should be summer already, in the land of four seasons, we are still experiencing spring.  And a good thing, too, because Spring is all about new life and fresh starts after the death of winter.

african blue basil

regular reliable sweet basil

purple ruffles basil

Although it now feels like late spring, it's never too late for a fresh start, so I'm going to be giving myself a month-long fresh start through the fruits of my kitchen!  I am participating in Heather Brueggeman's 30 Day Vegan workshop which begins today.  While I can't claim to be adhering to a vegan diet perfectly, I am trying!  And, I fully anticipate that I will not only learn a lot about redesigning our dinner plate through this workshop, but also that the emphasis on whole foods and plants will help me reset my palate.  The sweets have been a little much for me these past few weeks (although I am happy to report that while I have not made any further progress on my weight loss, I have also maintained the weight I had already lost)!

Today's diet consisted of homemade granola and fresh fruit/veggie juice from the juicer for breakfast, Italian Pane bread from Trader Joe's with some mashed avocado and homemade pesto for lunch, snacks of pistachios and pear sauce, and an awesome version of skinny Thai eggplant curry with jasmine rice.  My vegan slips include honey in the granola (although the next time I make it I will substitute agave nectar), a little parmesan in the pesto, and fish sauce in the curry.  It's not perfect, but it's a much modified diet for a regular meat-eater!  The granola and the pesto were made before the workshop and so we are finishing those up (the pesto was homemade and frozen late last summer- this is the last of it).  The fish sauce was a choice, because I really feel like it makes this curry what it is.

we made this over the weekend from this recipe.  we modified the recipe - no chicken, and a few other things. we did leave in the parmesan :)

I suppose I have high hopes for these 30 days, particularly because I am also still counting my WW points.  Heather's blog has been a delight to follow over the past several years, and I have long admired and been curious about her way of life.  I'm excited to insert a little introspection and further consideration not only in what we eat but how we live our days.  This pairs well with the start of our summer garden-- we've got so many good things going in the ground it deserves it's own post.  We are planting at least three types of basil (so far. I'm still looking for Thai basil).  Here's to the vegan challenge and focusing on sustenance from the ground!

vegan lunch: avocado on bread, sauteed mushrooms, broiled tomatoes and roasted green beans with garlic tahini dressing.

do you know the value of avocado on toast with kosher salt and fresh black pepper? yum. yum.