High Winds and High Stress

Ah, transplanting. The last 36 hours or so have been a bit of a roller coaster for the plants and I. The beans transplanted successfully, with the exception of three, which are being kept in safe keeping for mi madre. I tried to transplant the chives, which was apparently a terribly bad plan, as their little roots were not up to the transition. So I had to replant the chives...this time we're trying to for outdoors all the way. I'm fairly confident that they'll make it, as now it is a bit warmer at nights. I trimmed back the romaine and most of the sprouts are doing well, but a few are showing signs of fatigue. Ok, that's putting it lightly. They are laying down and straight out napping. So I'm crossing my fingers for them and giving them just a little extra warmth and light tonight. Their counterparts, the basil and broccoli are doing splendidly, which is a relief.
I feel very much like I should be worried about some plant abuse authorities coming to pick me up, as today, which was the beans first full day outdoors, was WINDY. Yes, winds in excess of 40 to 50 miles an hour at times beat up my poor little newly planted beans. And they are worse for the wear. Some damaged leaves and a few bent stalks. It was pretty bad to come home to. So, their trellis set up has been abandoned for something less invasive. We'll see how they do.

Sigh. I hope my babies pull through.

Time WArP

So, it isn't Tuesday, and I have failed you all. But, since there are little to none of you actually "following" me at this point

(yes. I am the only follower I have listed.

I didn't want to discuss it, but now that its been said and aired and laid out for everyone to see all over the internet I guess I can't avoid it any longer and we'll just have to grin and bear it and face the facts.

My blog is lame and unloved.

Except I love it...
kind of...

so I suppose that's the important part, being as I have to be the one on here every day.

Oh, but I'm not, you say?

Well, yes, technically speaking I suppose I wasn't on yesterday...

but I DID have the best intentions...it just well...life got in the way. Tavi brought home beer and he and Andrew and I ate potato chips and watched The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnasus, which, by the by, is quite compelling.

In any case, I'm here now, nearly before doing anything else with my day [with the exception of eating and other such necessities], so I'm counting this post as Tuesday, and there is very little all of you non-followers can do about it!)


...it's ok.





(these are for you, Andrew)


Moving on. Today is the day of transplants! Woohoo! (or tomorrow, assuming this is Tuesday, but really, today, since its not) The beans are growing like they are being chased by large and in charge ogres, out for their little leaves. I'm so proud! AND, they are working together...I currently don't have a trellis or support system for them in their little jiffy pots, so they are holding each other up by wrapping their vines about. I'm pretty impressed by this actually, as to be honest I thought they may attempt to choke out each other's light. But no, symbiosis was the chosen route. Clearly this says something about human vs. plant attitudes, but I'll leave all of those implications to a preachier sort of day. Right now I'm just happy to report that all is going well and I'm excited for the big transition.








Meanwhile, Tav is nearly finished with school and although its been pretty batty making, I'm super proud of him as well. Just over two weeks left and he will join me in the ranks of the gradgebatated. Yes, it is good to have an edgebacation! Cheers to Tavi!

It's been a pretty strange road this past year or so, and as I'm just about to mark a year's employment at the lovely Geneva Spice House, I'm pretty contemplative about the whole ordeal. Not at all where I expected to be, but I'm incredibly grateful. And as to the future, well that's a bit hard to predict, but I'm hoping I'll figure it out when the time comes (and not a few weeks after). Or at least enough so that I can get myself where and how I need to be.


Here are a few more pics while I'm at it...



(Andrew's little Venus Fly Trap)



(the rose bush Tavi gave me...which has rather curiously turned orange instead of red)





Well, I think that's all for now. I'll let you know how transplantathon goes.

Ciao

p.s.

the plants are doing well. romaine is going to have a tough night because she was trimmed, but I have faith.

now that is all.

good. night.

The Seasonal Curse

Oh, dear lord, my head is a muffin. An uncomfortable muffin filled with nothing delicious, floating far far above the rest of my body.

Allergies have done me in and I am going to bed.

Glad we could chat.

After the Cut...

Last night trimmings seem to have been successful! Everyone is doing fine, and perhaps even stronger, as was the plan. So in that respect, I'm pretty satisfied. In others perhaps not.

To those of you who know me will know that this blog is undoubtedly also doubling up as a vehicle through which to drive my writing. I don't mean a place to plug myself or any such bs. No, I mean its a place to write. Regularly. Constantly. (yes, Tavi, daily) Because apparently, to make it as a writer it is essential to write. And I have what is known as a constant case of the blockpox. Ok, maybe nobody knows what I have as the blockpox, but that's kind of how I think of it. I have writers block in the way that I had chicken pox as a young child.

Backstory:

When I was just a wee little girl, I had chicken pox a whopping THREE times. Once was a small outbreak (and, dear parents, please correct me if I have these occurrences out of order, and forgive me, because my recall much before the age of 10 is fuzzy at best), followed by a rather large outbreak just after my birthday. I was miserable! Oatmeal baths are the most disgustingly comfortable practice that I have yet to experience. I felt like a little raisin, posed to be scooped out by some giant spoon and eaten by the god of discomfort and childhood trauma. Granted, that's because I was young, and everything is excruciatingly dramatic when you're young and have the type of imagination that I do. Luckily for me, I healed, and it was a full year before I caught chicken pox again. The last time I believe I was also blessed in that I slept nearly through the ordeal.


Long and short:

I get writers block in bursts. I will be happily typing along, loving the feel and flow of a story and then BAM. Nothing. nada.


And I put it down.



And there it sits.

WAITING.

Probably forlorn and a little put out by the fact that I've abandoned it to come to fruition of its own accord. Which, of course, it doesn't.




SO, I am attempting to keep this constant flow of words streaming from my fingers, hoping that maybe then writing will become constant. And despite the form, I will have compositions to call my own.

Time to die?

Unfortunately, in every gardener's experience comes the sad moment in which it is imperative to pass judgment on your lovingly nurtured seeds. That moment is upon me, and yes, sentimental as it may seem, I am a little bit sad. Tonight I have the task of thinning out my baby broccoli plants, as, they are growing too well and if left to their own devices, would crowd out each others little root systems. Its rough to choose favorites at this point, but in order to ensure the overall health of a few of my heartiest plants, its time to make the cut (no pun intended...ok, maybe a little bit intended). So, wish me luck.


Also, last night I finished my blanket for Project Linus. Project Linus is a fantastic non-profit group that collects blankets for ill and traumatized children, and they will be at the shop tomorrow (Geneva Spice House) with treats from their cookbook, so if you are in the area, by all means, stop in. Customers with blanket or yarn donations will receive 15% off of in store purchases.

There's my little plug for the night. Anywho, the blanket is sweet. Its small and blue with fringes and a baseball theme. I have another small piece of fleece to be dedicated to a blanket, but time was my enemy in the past 48 hours, so it didn't make the cut either. Phew. Between plants and blankets, writing (blog and short stories), and a rather large oil painting, I think I've been a rather busy bee. No wonder the combination of little sleep and Benadryl (yay, allergies!) has my energy running low. Hopefully tonight will be good sleeps.

Cheerio for now!

Growth!

Growth seems to be happening left and right here in the St. Charles/Geneva, IL area. Consequently, I've found myself on many occasions of late reminiscing of life in Wisconsin (where I grew up and spent much of my high school and middle school careers), only because it seems that the seasonal changes here are about two months in advance. Now, I've been living here in Illinois, about 4-5 hours south of my previous home in Wisconsin, for just about six years, and in all of that time I have yet to notice such a drastic difference in the seasonal changes. I'm sure you'd guess that I'm gonna imply global warming or some other such culprit at this point, but in all honesty, I know what the reason is. I simply spent far too much time living in more urbanized areas than my current stomping grounds. Schaumburg is primarily a land of copious cement structures, at least in the midst of the city, and although I spent a lot of time out in the local parks, again, the seasons didn't seem that different. Elgin was somewhat the same story. So, somewhere in the combination of my own busy schedules and living on the go in cityscapes, the climate difference really quite escaped me. Here I am, mid-April, and I am absolutely floored by this area's already lush spring growth.

Here's to lilacs outside!

My own garden is doing quite well also.


(romaine)




(beans)



(and guess who finally popped up!? Chives!)

Lattuga?

Lattuga the Great (romaine)

17. April 2010 by admin.

Your new lord and master will now be Lattuga.

Andrew wanted you to know.

So, the really funny part of all this is that I meant to attach this blog to my website, but somehow in the process overwrote my entire website. Brilliant, you say? Well, maybe. But after some tweaking there will hopefully be a resolution. So look for that. In the mean time…

My plants are growing like gangbusters! They are mutants! Even the BEANS are coming up! Only the chives have been left behind. They are lagging. I still have confidence. You should too.

(broccoli-soon to look like a cartoon fart-see link below)

Dear Carbs,

I thought about you last night. I couldn’t even sleep!

If you haven’t seen the liamshow yet, check it out on youtube. Its glorious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kGvtne2zfo

who wants to eat a parsnip? Nobody!!!

The System Is Down!

15. April 2010 by admin.

. Cheers to the Illinois state tax website. It is ever so efficient. But that’s another story.

So, the big news to report is that all of my lovely plants are in soil and on their way to germination nation. The makeshift grow lab is in the kitchen on a side table, and admittedly, probably looks a bit suspicious if seen from outside on the porch. Big photography lights that are on 24-7, perched over fifty or so little planters. It was pretty funny setting everything up, because Sven and Tavi were sitting at the kitchen table, playing magic, and sort of casually observing the whole event. Little by little they would become more and more enthused about it and sneak in questions here and there about everything I was doing. I couldn’t tell if it was because they thought I was crazy and entertaining the impression that I was getting ready to set us all ablaze in the middle of the night with all of the cords and lights or if they enjoy the thought of our little garden. Ok…that’s not entirely true. I know they’re excited. They’re foodies too. But it was funny to see them watching my every move.

Shortly after the entire growing apparatus was set up (which really was pretty rough and tumble; table, cardboard box, jiffy pots, large serving plates, and photography lighting with plant bulbs), the guys decided we needed to name the plants. Here’s what we came up with:

Basil - Stella (1-10, as there are technically 10 little potential Stella’s at this point)

Romaine - Lattuga (1-10)

Broccoli - Frans-wah (1-10)

Chives –Bob (a bunch!)

Beans – good god, I’m a bad mother, I don’t remember…

Peas – Mastadon (1-8)

Obviously, the names may not stick, seeing as I can’t really remember them and I’m just down the road using internet right now, so that’s probably not a good sign.

Pictures are on the way…I’ve taken quite a few. Nothing too interesting at this point…just a lot of starter soil…but SOON!

here they are!

(the beginning...now everyone is a LOT closer to the warm grow lights above)

(the very first little babies peeking up above the soil!)

Watch My Garden Grow

15. April 2010

The experiment is as stands…the experience of growing a small, or humble, let’s say, crop of vegetables to supplement the dietary needs of me, my love, and my roommates. This year, we begin humbly because our current home is of the apartment persuasion and offers absolutely nothing in the way of a yard, much less a plot of cultivatable land. So, pots, planters, and baskets it is. Our deck, which is facing east, and thus gets about six or seven hours of good morning sunlight (after about 1pm the sun is far out of reach due to our overhang), is at this point primarily minimal in its decor. We have a lovely wind chime; recently brought back from Eureka Springs, AR, a set of chairs, complete with drink cozies, and of course, the standard wooden deck table. A happy little grill keeps the stairs company, and with Mike’s (my roommate and co-worker at the Spice House) help, keeps us full of tasty BBQ and other such yummies. I tell you all this now, because I hope to be posting pictures of a lush mini jungle out there in just a few months…and I think it’s important to have a feel for our location in order to fully grasp the weight of our growing limitations. Despite how cliché and grandiose the notion may sound, I would like to attempt to make a point with this experiment (in addition to returning to the joys of growing things beyond my indoor assortment of potted plants). I would like to prove that even with limited space, as so many of us suffer from in this day and age of rental living for the middle class, it is entirely possible to cultivate a viable crop from which to derive necessary nutrients essential to human life (fooooooood!). Maybe, just maybe, it’s possible to return to a more grassroots way of life here in the United States, functioning less in the brass knuckles hold of the gods of capitalism and reconciling with the symbiotic way of life that our predecessors here once embraced. I propose that step one in that transition is food. If we can learn to remember that food can be as freely grown as the weeds in our finely manicured lawns, even in limited space and less than optimal conditions, then perhaps we can break free of big business’ hold on our existence in at least on aspect of our lives, and maybe that small shift will open doors to countless others. Well, in any case, I’m gonna give it a try and see what happens. :) Plus, I just miss having a garden.

So here is the lowdown…

I will be planting vegetables. They are relatively accommodating, forgiving, and best of all, delicious. Yes, they fit the healthy living style I’m aiming for. And, I should probably mention now that broccoli was my first word, so anyone who does not know me personally can gather a lot about my tastes based on that alone.

Anywho, the following is the list of my chosen crop for this year:

-Genovese Basil

A standard, full leaf basil. Very classic.

-Romaine Lettuce (Bionda Lentissima)

A hearty romaine, able to withstand some summer heat, so I will be planting in the spring with hopes of maintaining production as long as possible.

-Broccoli (Calabria)

Traditional, full flavored delicious awesome I am so super excited for it broccoli.

-Pole Bean (Garrafal Oro)

A somewhat rare (in the US) but apparently fantastic green pole bean.

-Chives (Cippolina)

The ever plentiful and oh so useful little green onion like chive…yay! And it will come back next year (fingers crossed)!

-Sweet Peas (Mangiatutto Carouby)

A sweet, flat pea, glad to have cool weather, and will be a refreshing treat come summer. This type is supposed to be a great producer.

This year I am starting all of my seeds. The peas are going in their 24” planter right away, as again, they don’t mind the cold. Everyone else is being started indoors, via small square jiffy pots. For anyone interested, all of my seeds were from www.growitalian.com, as referred by a good friend at work. They have a great wealth of information on their site, very quick delivery (even across the country), and I hear pretty fantastic customer service.

Here we go…wish me luck!

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