Patio Container Garden

As some of you know, I'm currently living in an apartment. At one time, my family was given the okay to plant whatever we want in the garden bed next to our apartment as long as we maintain so last year we grew lots of cucumbers, some tomatoes that didn't do well because of the hot, dry weather.. lettuce, mint, wheat, and flowers. This year we wanted to plant more stuff so we made the bed bigger and started lots of seeds really early. Things were looking good until the management hired an outside landscaper who had no idea what anything was so he hoed up many of our plants. Goodbye lettuce and elderberry bush! A few lovely plants made it through the ransacking, but this made me think twice about planting veggies in the bed. I have resorted to primarily using containers on the patio...

And it's a struggle.

Please excuse my nighttime iPhone photography (no flash). These tomato plants are doing GREAT. On the right we have Chocolate Cherry and the left is a Goliath.

Besides the tomatoes though, most things are having a hard time. I'm very new to container gardening and I definitely did not use the right mix of soil. To start, I used straight COW MANURE and nothing else... it seems I was a little off my rocker that day. Since then I have amended many things with sand so they are 50/50 sand/cow manure. Yet most plants still look a little down. The only fertilizers I like to use are those that come from real sources like bone meal, kelp, etc. I haven't invested in any yet, but I have inquired at my local feed store. Should check back in with them. I have made one revelation and it is seaweed :

Above you will see my jar of seaweed! At night I put a handful of seaweed in the jar, let it steep like a tea overnight and in the morning I have nutrient dense seaweed water to feed my plants with! I feel like this is definitely helping, but I still need to amend the soil a bit.

Anyone have experience with container gardening and want to share some tips??

Love - Desiree

Screaming Sardine - support a blogger!

I have been featured in a super cool blog dedicated to supporting handmade artists! The motto "Buy Handmade! Support a person, not a corporation."

Check out her blog at:
www.screamingsardine.net

Thanks Tracy!!!

ReGrow Roots - my etsy shop

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Since being here in Branson, Missouri and living with my parents, I have been able to craft my heart out. Before this, I was traveling from state to state with my boyfriend, no money, and a backpack. It was incredible. We saw amazing places like Multnomah Falls, hitch hiked the Columbia River Gorge, spent time in artsy towns like Olympia Washington, Eugene Oregon, and Sebastapol California. We lived at communes and in forests, took part in a tree sit, and played music everywhere west of the Mississippi. Now we are here, taking a break and spending time with family. Missouri is beautiful and we are keeping busy. This is where etsy comes in...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/100149523/crochet-hood-hat-elf-hood-unisex-ooak?ref=v1_other_1

I call it Re-Grow Roots, my small business. The name describes my mission in life and the reason for all the random crafts that I do. My mission is to become self sufficient and learn how to create a life for myself in harmony with the earth and without the government. Walking this path has taught me to grow food, catch rainwater, make my clothes, process squirrel meat, preserve food, recycle materials into improved items, and  always spend time creating, painting, inventing. Another mission is to share my work with folks that are interested!

I just made tons of crafts for a recent craft show, the first show I've done around here. Plumb Nellie Days, they call it, and it didn't go so well. It was very expensive for a booth and as far as I heard, many people didn't even make enough money to cover their expenses. BUT I gained some new clients and filled custom orders, met fellow artists and heard about some really cool local stuff that goes on in Branson. It was super nice to just get out and meet the locals, since I'm still pretty new in this place. Plus I got loads of positive feedback! :)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/99501017/funky-owl-painting-on-raw-wood-bright

The owl was a favorite amongst passerby, no one bought it, but no one seemed to be buying much at the craft fair. So I need to reach the right potential clients that have the desire to purchase my products... I'll get started on that today. Maybe reach out on other blogs that are "earth friendly" or something like that. Promoting is not my strongest asset, but I'm working on it!

Have a beautiful day!

Pickled Green Tomatoes

A couple weeks ago, Carlos and I played our first show at the new Farmers Market of the Ozarks in Springfield. It was a very rainy day amongst many new farmer friends. After the show, we got a big basket of donations from many generous farmers. In the basket was 5 juicy, slightly sour green tomatoes. We fried one, baked one into a casserole, and the rest I decided to pickle this morning. :) 

 

Supplies & Ingredients

two green tomatoes

two cloves garlic

three parsley stems

four chive leaves

1/4 onion (last minute decision, not pictured above)

freshly ground pepper

heaping tablespoon sea salt

apple cider vinegar

olive oil

water

knife, cutting board, quart mason jar

Slice and chop the ingredients. Since the jar will sit and maturate for a couple of weeks, it's not necessary to chop things very small. The ingredients will all absorb one another. Many people even like keeping their tomatoes whole.

 

When I pickle things, I always like to do it in layers. This is how I did it - tomatoes, pepper, herbs, tomatoes, pepper, herbs. It's like a pickle casserole in a jar! 

After all the ingredients are layered in the jar, I mix my pickling juice. I normally abstain from using specific measurements, but instead use a general method. In this case, here is my method:

A heaping tablespoon (ish) of sea salt per quart jar of pickles.

I fill my jars with 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water leaving room at the top.

 Since I still had loads of room after adding my pickling juice, I decided to add onions! Yuuuummy. :) I threw them in the jar and shook it up. Shake SHAKE Shake

To ensure that unwanted bacterias don't penetrate the jar, I top it off with olive oil and make sure everything is completely submerged. 

... And that's all there is to it!!!

You can use this recipe to pickle many vegetables, even fruits!

Gardens can grow anywhere!!!

{Gardening in Branson, Missouri}

I am very inspired to share with everyone the progress of our garden here in Branson, Missouri... Yes, I'm back in Branson with my loving life partner Carlos! We arrived a couple weeks ago from San Diego and are living with my parents in their little Bee Creek apartment. I haven't seen too many bees yet, but that's what they call it. :) Our space is limited here, but we intend to use every inch of space we can to grow many diverse plants including enough produce to stuff ourselves this summer and fall!

The first step to starting a garden in our apartment complex was talking to maintenance guys and the gals in the office. My dad took care of that business, since he and my mom are the ones on the lease. It's great to have a good relationship with these people and be open about your intentions and the general day to day of the place you are living so you can help eachother and develop a sense of community. My dad was already on good terms with Hugh, the head maintenance guy. When he spoke with the office, the ladies there said as long as it's cool with Hugh, it's cool with them and we just have to keep it neat. Hugh doesn't do the landscaping himself, but he hires the people that do. Next my dad talked to Hugh about it and he told him he doesn't mind at all, as long as the maintenance and landscaping folks don't have to work on it and we handle all the plants ourselves. His other criteria was that we keep it weeded and nice looking. Easy peasy! We got the okay so I came out last year and got started.

We are living in the Missouri Ozarks and they are quite hilly and rocky. They call this topography "karst", topsoil that sits on layers of limestone. It's a very beautiful place, incredibly scenic, green, and teaming with life. The problem lies with the present day methods that industry uses in developing land - they blow off the hilltops to create a flat surface to build on, quick and easy. So all of the topsoil is gone and you're left with rock to plant your crops in. It makes for a very difficult soil to dig in. Lucky for me, I haven't been into digging for years! This saved me from many aches and pains I'm sure. I much prefer building up the soil rather than altering what is already there. Some folks call this "no-till gardening" or "lasagna gardening," referring to laying compost or manure and newspaper, cardboard, etc. Others refer to as "raised beds". Refer to this post for more detailed directions: http://ddtheadventurer.blogspot.com/2010/07/raised-no-till-garden.html

My friend Stephen and I took his truck to a horse ranch in the country and picked up a truckload of manure for a few bucks and got to work. We borrowed a wheelbarrow from a neighbor and hauled the manure from his truck in the parking to the corner of the building we live in and set up our garden bed! The next day I lined it with beautiful limestone rocks from the side of the hill and voila!

 

Most of the plants pictured here are the leftovers and volunteers from last year. There are three landscaping plants that were there already, the bush by the window and two chunks of grass. I am tempted to remove them and use them as mulch, but in keeping that good relationship with the apartment folks I haven't done it yet. :) In the front there is a massive clump of spearmint that I planted last spring from a tiny started and it got wild. Next to the mint is a big parsley that is going to seed, also planted last spring. There are lettuces that I planted last fall and they made it through the winter and are taking off now in the spring. That's a lettuce in the bottom left corner too! In the back left is our carrot and radish section, just planted seeds a week ago and seeing random sprouts.. not sure what they are yet. 

 Last year Carlos and I spent three weeks on a farm in the tiny town of Foil, Missouri. It's a few hours northeast of us in Branson, the closest populated town with stores and such is Ava. If you ever make it to Ava, check out the local drugstore - they sell a scoop of ice cream for 5 cents! No joke. The farm we stayed at is our friend Pearl's little homestead, a beautiful place where we learned lots about native plants, simple gardening techniques, milking goats, and slaughtering chickens! It was incredible. We left with some native Elderberry bushes and Wild Cherry trees and when we got back to Branson we stuck them all in our garden to overwinter. Now that it's Spring they are taking off and must be moved somewhere before the grow huge and take over. We are leaving this one Elderberry bush, pictured left. The rest of these amazing plants are being moved to their new home in the forest.

Wild Cherry Tree with our Winter Wheat and Rye Grass

This is our patio garden! :) The hanging planters were given to us by our upstairs neighbor Susan. She's such a sweetheart. She also gave us that tiny little wooden chair in the bottom right corner. It's holding our pot of oregano, with two brand new baby sprouts!

Left: Chives and Mint; Right: Cress; Center: More Mint

Lots of BABIES!! Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, kale, etc...

Flowers - A California Poppy, Blue Hyssop, and Dwarf Morning Glory and Kale on the left

Little Basil Sprouts! I love the curvy leaves, so cute.

I decided to set up a second garden bed since we have so much growing and there was plenty of space next to the first bed. This time we didn't have a truck to pick up manure and my mom wasn't keen on the idea of throwing poo in the back of her trailblazer...

So we talked mom into letting us put the manure in bucket and trash cans and transported it that way!

The buckets for poo!

Woodland Nicotiana, a ceremonial smoking tobacco with beautiful flowers.

Aztec Marigolds - they're LOVING this hot Spring

It's amazing how many plants we can fit onto a patio and just the corner of our apartment building. Hopefully we can find a place for everyone when it's time to transplant! I'm sure we can make it happen. I will make updates as the season progresses.

Happy planting!!!

Love. Peace. Growth.