Bird + Seed

Good Earth Day Vibes

While hordes of people in green shirts, toting garbage bags and disposable plastic water bottles [irony?] were cleaning up the Charles for Earth Day, we went for a bike ride to some of the more hidden parts of our City River's edges for some foraging.  Mostly we spied plenty of Garlic Mustard, a super invasive plant.  Damon & I cut a big reusable grocery bag's worth to make pesto.  We noshed on some just tonight for dinner:  barley risotto with garlic mustard pesto.

Friends Alissa & Stu came away with another invasive, Japanese knotweed [it's stalks are a rhubarb stand-in] and some stinging nettle [for tea, or as a spinach stand-in].  We also spied Burdock, but without a trowel, we wouldn't be able to harvest their tasty roots.  

We also potted a few plants [like the above hosta, a hand-me-down from my grandmother], dried our clothes on the line and started a compost pile.  I also spent a good deal of Friday and Saturday combating aphids that have attached themselves to our Viburnum, right outside the kitchen window.  I swear, that plant was dying last year... I fertilized it, cut off the dead bits... and now...aphids.  But a spritz of Peppermint Dr. Bronner's castile soap seems to kill all aphids on contact.  It's just the ones that hide that have me worried.  

I think we had a pretty Earth-Friendly weekend.  

Hot enough?

I came home today to discover this unique candle configuration.  It's a bit toasty in here you see and the sun was in just the right spot to melt the candle.  And now it's stuck like that.  Or at least, until tomorrow's heat softens it and I'll try to reshape it back.

And this will pretty much be the story of the summer.  Heat and melting.  I am a profuse melter.  And by melting I mean sweating.  And by sweating I mean I am a really gross person in the summer.  I can't help it- it's genetic.  Plus, increased exercise actually speeds up sweat production as you body learns to recognize exertion and what to do to keep you cool.  But it really is mostly genetic.  Damon and I will ride our bikes ~1.5 miles to the Farmer's Market.  He will have a glisten on his brow.  I will have drips down my face and will continue to do so for 10 minutes.  Yeah, I'm a generally gross person.  I feel bad for people when I run past them.  Especially when they are groomed and nice for work and I'm all melty.

And yet I saw so many people in pants today.  How do people walk around- even bike- in this heat in pants?  Just the idea of pants makes me sweat.  But at least I don't burn.  Not like my poor airplants, that were also caught in a sunbeam and got fried.

I'm trying to revive them.  We'll see.  I guess I'd rather melt than burn.  Melting is gross.  Burning is painful- and in the case of my poor plant- permanent.  

How does the garden grow?

Fairly.  I'd say it's fair.  Our sun has been very limited.  But now it's about time for my herbs babies to meet some pots or larger window boxes.  We've added a few purchased herbs to our garden family.  I think it will take forever for the homegrown basil to be edible.  It was a real bummer to us that we didn't get a community garden plot this year.  And while I love all my baby plants, nothing compares to actually having a square of earth.

Our lettuce babies are just a crazy jumble.  They look like salad already.  Just pour the dressing right on them and dig in.  Mmmm.

If only my herbs grew as fast as my succulents.  These guys just took off.  I'm going to start trimming them too.  Which only means more and more pots of succulents.  Or succulent presents for everyone.  

New Baby Succulents

I bought a grab bag of baby succlents last week.  Which is way better than succulent babies.  That sounds illegal.  

Despite the very Pokemon-like quality of succulents [gotta catch 'em all] I have resolved to NOT fill all our windowsills with pots of succulents.  Just 1 1/2.  

So I guess it's good that they're all so little and fit well together into small pots.  

DIY Chalkboard Herb Markers

Has the chalkboard paint fad passed us by yet?  Good.  That means I can fully embrace it.  I swear I was the last hold out against leggings.  [but I will be forever a hold out against leggings as pants]  But now I'm seeing the new world of possibilities with chalkboard paint.  Cue plant markers.  And cue me being cheap.  I dipped tongue depressors into the paint and let dry overnight on wax paper.  That's it.  And the tongue depressors came from lab [we use them to scoop out powdered chemicals from jars- very technical I know]  

But I do like how they turned out.  And as I have a few baby sprouts popping up now, I am fully aware of who they are.  Grow my babies, grow!

You can't even grow mold [or] My green thumb is just too good

I couldn't settle on a title- so you get both today.  

Have you seen these contraptions?  Mushroom growing boxes.  We picked one up at Whole Foods a while back, but there are a ton out there.  Inside each shoe-box sized package is a brick of old coffee grounds and black oyster mushroom spores shrunk-wrapped in plastic.  Just slice open the plastic, mist with water two times a day and within 10-15 days there should be harvestable mushrooms.  

Of course ours took 10-15 days just to see sprouts.  And they didn't come out of the middle of the box like all the pictures, they were coming down from the top.  So we opend the plastic a bit more so they wouldn't get smooshed.  And hey- they might be a little wonky, but like any parent we were just proud to have our mushrooms.

But then, this thing happened.  They started to dry out.  Or something.  All of my previous interactions with mushrooms always had them on the losing end anyway- I was ripping them out of the garden or shoving them into my mouth.  I don't know how to nurture mushrooms.  Nor do I know what to do when they look 'sick'.  So that first little batch died.  But no fear, there were more coming out.  And we read the instructions very carefully.  And they too kicked the bucket.  Which is when I soaked the whole brick in water [which they recommended if you were having trouble getting sprouts] and put into an old plastic salad container box with holes punched in that we were planning to use to start seedlings anyway.  And within 2 days the whole thing was covered in fuzzy mold.  A relative of my black oyster mushrooms no doubt, but not what we were going for.

So there, I can't grow mushrooms.  Yet.  I refuse to think that this is because I am somewhat deficient in gardening skills.  My green thumb is just too good that non-leafy things are overpowered by it.  Or on the flipside, I'm just too hapless that nothing grows.  I mean, were you all around for this?  The fly infestation of last summer that ate all my herbs.  And the fact that I had 2 airplants and they BOTH died.  What?!  No, I have prevailed before.  It's just this apartment, with it's mold and flies, that is cursed.

Window Gardening #5

I heard that if you plant a leaf from a succulent, there is a good chance it will root.  Mine did, and look at that cutie!  Not just a root, but a baby plant popping out.  Very cute.

And here are some alfalfa sprouts greening up.  I bought a sprouting jar.  I thought sprouting would be simple, but turns out the jar [which has a vented lid] is a great sprouting accessory.  It allows proper ventilation and drainage.  After the evil fungus gnats that grew from my potting soil destroyed most of my plants, I'm left with just a few house plants, chives, sage and sprouting.

I'm off to the South Jersey Shore [not to be confused in any way with the people or region epitomized in the show, Jersey Shore.]  Where I am going it is clean and family friendly with wide white sand beaches, beautiful beach houses and gardens, intact dunes and wildlife areas and best of all, my family.  See you next week.  

Window Garden Week 4

This post is a little late.  The heat wave and my full-west facing apartment are not conducive to sitting at my hot little computer.  But my story must be told.  For June my goal was to nurture my green thumb.  I have one- I really do.  But forces outside my realm of control have thwarted me.  All thanks to a stoooopid defective product.  You see, my window garden was thriving... chard, 3 types of basil, chives, sage, oregano growing like mad, thyme, rosemary and 5 house plants.  But Miracle Grow Organic Choice potting soil is defective- they did not properly heat-kill their soil and the heat and my watering the plants have unleashed a swarm of fungus gnats.  Their little grubby worm-babies chewed apart the roots while the adults ate the greens.  I tried to use a natural remedy to fight them off [hot hot pepper in vinegar] but the infestation was too much- plus the super hot pepper burned holes in my plants!  If I had everything growing outside, other bugs and birds might have been able to keep the gnat problem down, but inside the gnats were allowed free reign.  After three parsley plants bit the dust I bought insect killer.  Which did not work.  Today I repotted everything in new soil, threw out the old as well as many of my plants [the gnats did not like the rosemary, chives or Italian basil- even though they loved the 2 fancy basils] I harvested all my chard as the bug babies seemed to love gnawing on their tender roots the most.  So sad.  My windowsills are quite bare now.  The farmer's markets are still selling herbs, so after I am sure that my bug problem is gone I might buy a few more.  So much for my green thumb.

Window Garden Week 2

I ate a dinner with my first windowsill garden harvest this week.  I snipped a few leaves from my rainbow chard and added to a soy ginger soba noodle dish I made.  I love how the little baby leaves spring up- they first look like ugly green worms, but soon give rise to cute chard leaves- in a rainbow of colors.  But this week's garden update is not going to focus on the edibles, despite their stellar performance of late.  I want to showcase my decorative plants: the succulents.  Catching the morning sun is Pokey, two new succulents, and Seedum baby.  Pokey is a Hatiora salicornioides [I think].  He is from a cutting of a plant left by someone in lab.  He is very happy of the sun he gets now and I'm hoping he'll grow a little woody base, or start spilling over the pot.  Or flower!  The one in lab, his mommy, flowered once- but we haven't seen any flowers since.

I also recently received three succulent cuttings from this Etsy seller-  two pachyveria and an echeveria.  I love the pointed scallop-shaped leaves of the echeveria.  I only recently began to appreciate how serene succulents can be.  Finally, baby seedum, a cutting I swiped from a garden is planted and doing well.  Now if only this rainy week would end- there have been no new buds this week due to these grey cold days.

Farmer's Market Haul

 

I chose not to renew my CSA for the summer.  The farmer's market is such a better option for me.  Especially since with summer travel there would be plenty of weeks where my CSA would go unclaimed and thus, wasted money.  I chose to walk to the farmer's market instead of bike as the spells of rain and prospect of strapping baby plants to my basket made walking the safer bet. [there is a closer one on Monday, but it ends at 6 and I'm never home at 6].  It was already hot and humid and I was pretty sweaty after the 3 mile round trip.  But there were lots of people walking around in jeans and light sweaters.  Please, can someone explain to me how they do it?  How do people wear jeans when its 85 and humid out?  I don't understand it.  Ok, sorry

The local produce is slim pickin's this time of year.  Plenty of greens for sure.  I picked up garlic scrapes, cilantro & chives.  And lots of baby herbs.  Two types of basil [lovely decorative sorts], chives, rosemary and thyme.  ...whoa, since writing the above a wicked storm blew in and I had to run around closing my windows.  It took me 30 seconds to reach my bedroom window and the bed and floor were already soaked!  The trees are no longer blowing sideways and I can see across the street again [it was that much rain!] but wow, it's still coming down something fierce.  Good thing I'm safe inside.  Ok sorry... that's real-time blogging...

 

And how could I possibly pass up these peonies?  I felt like someone out of a movie carrying these lovelies home in my reusable bag with all the other greenery poking out.  So cute.

And speaking of cute, how about this bike?  With built in front and back racks?  And brown leather seat?  Love it.  My friends call it bike porn... as in, beautifully made bicycles.  [I wonder if my sight it going to pop up in any odd Google searches now...]  But seriously, a well made bike makes me do a double take, stop & stare way more than any handsome dude could.  Except my boyfriend [tho I say that because he reads this...hehehe]