delight in life

tiny harvests

I've been able to pick a few fruits from my plants already, and let me tell you it is the best feeling! This beautiful strawberry was actually already on the plant when I bought it, in the form of a tiny fruit bud, so I got to watch it grow and grow. It was early, and now more and more of its brothers are showing up on the plant. The first one tasted great; I am very excited about the impending strawberry bounty!

And here are my very first tomatoes! The plant is laden down with clusters of green tomatoes right now, and I have been checking every day waiting for a hint of red. Yesterday I noticed a couple yellow fruits way in the back, so I double-checked the tag, and surprise! It's a yellow tomato plant! (Specifically, the Sweet'n'Neat tomato plant. A tiny little thing, but bears tons of fruit! No staking required! I am a fan!)

I also clipped a couple sprigs of dill and mint, not so muh because I planned to use them, but more in interest of encouraging growth. I laughed as I carried my tiny little harvest inside in one hand. I often see big garden baskets for sale, always with photographs of the basket completely full of eggplants and tomatoes and lettuce leaves and bell peppers. I'm not exactly there yet.

And then Oscar kept trying to grab the herbs for himself! He sat and watched steadily as I took a few pictures, occasionally trying to sneak a paw in to grab them.  

Then I turned my back for five seconds, and the little turd immediately swiped the dill! He chowed down on one clipping and I thought surely he wouldn't like it, but apparently he did because he quickly moved on to the other two.

He also likes cream cheese and biscuits. Cats are weird.

backyards and string lights

White string lights, the kind with big round bulbs, have long been a favorite of mine. They were the best detail of my wedding reception, the part that was most perfectly translated from the picture in my brain to real life. This is the picture of my parents' backyard a few weeks before the wedding, the picture that had me practically levitating with excitement:

Last weekend, we got to put them up in our own backyard. As I've mentioned about a million times, our backyard is a long way from good-looking, but these lights make everything so much better. We had a party on Sunday and with the lights up, I wasn't embarrassed about the state of the rest of the yard. I just need a few more years and some careful planning and then maybe ours will look just as rad as my parents'. Maybe.

around the yard

Every night after Joey goes to sleep there's about 30 minutes of good outside light left, and lately I've been spending those 30 minutes in my yard. Armed with my shears, a pair of gloves, and a pretty clippings bin, I'm slowly tackling nearly a year of neglect and overgrowth.

I'm cutting back dead things, trimming up overgrown alive things, and pulling up endless weeds. It is fun.

I'm marveling at the surprises popping out of the ground constantly. I hardly know what anything is, but luckily I've got practically an army of experienced plant identifiers in my family, so I'm slowly learning, one text message at a time.

There's so much to do before this yard starts to look even vaguely impressive, which some days is really overwhelming to me. But during those thirty minutes every evening, I'm only excited and inspired. When I'm out there, I'm forced to focus on only one small section of the yard at a time, and making that spot look gorgeous feels totally doable.

Going around the yard with my camera and looking for the pretty bits that are already here helps, too.

(ps: that gorgeous, humongous azalea in the first picture? my neighbor's. so not mine. but I'm so happy to share the view with her!)

wherein i attempt (again) to become a gardener

If you've been around this blog a while, you might recall that around this time every year I write a post about my garden plans. They usually involve grand ambition and dreams of meals entirely from my container garden all summer long. However, if you read through my history of garden posts, you'll notice that never comes to fruition. What actually happens is that I get overwhelmed by my plans of container beans and tomatoes and lettuce, I plant a few pots with doomed seedlings, and I grow a fantastic crop of basil. Every. Year.

This year, this year will be different. (She says, just like she says every year.) No but really. To be honest, I was pretty overwhelmed by our new, huge space and with the time demands of a baby, I figured I just wouldn't mess with a garden at all this year. Pretty sad, huh?

But then I went to Lowe's to buy a closet shelf and it was the first day of spring and it's been so cold and the garden center beckoned. And I couldn't resist buying 5 small plants. And 2 houseplants. (That's how you know it's spring, right? Go to the hardware store for a shelf, leave with a pile of plants and a shovel.)

I decided that to keep from being overwhelmed, I would keep the focus small. There is a tiny garden plot in the corner of our front yard by the driveway, and this year, that is all I will care about. There used to be a massive ugly mound of liriope there, but as of last week, it is gone. (PS, that stuff is really hard to dig up.) And as of this morning, my five little plants are there. (Lavender, 2 phlox plants, saxifraga, and dianthus, for the curious.) It's almost embarrassing right now, how sparse and meager it is.

I also have some seeds to sow there (zinnias! daisies! marigolds!), and I did buy a handful of herb seeds for a small herb garden. (I haven't decided whether it'll be in the ground or in containers. Also, I bought lettuce seeds as a test for our shady backyard, and I randomly got carrot seeds at Target yesterday. I don't know where they'll go yet. You see why I usually get overwhelmed quickly: even when I say I'm keeping my focus small, I end up with plants for 4 different spaces in our yard. But really: herb gardens are kind of low stress anyway (I'm such a pro at basil by now), and the lettuce and carrots will be really fun if they work out, but the little spot by the driveway is my main deal for the year.

I was going to say that the herbs and lettuce and carrots are just little side experiments, but for me right now, it's all an experiment. I've never had a yard. I've never planted things in the ground. I've never had full sun. I've never grown anything successfully except for basil and a few mint plants. Like a proper experimenter, I'll be taking copious notes and carefully tracking progress along the way. Hopefully I have good things to share!

a blank slate

One of the few disappointments about our new house is the backyard. Before we began house hunting, I had grand dreams of a big, sunny backyard where I would grow bushels of veggies every summer. This house does not have that. It had a weedy, overgrown, shady mess of a yard (below a fantastic deck) and I knew my veggies were not going to be coming from there.

But I do love having so many mature trees, and the house is so great in every other way. You can't have everything, right? But still. I am determined to turn that mess into something beautiful. We started by hiring a guy to clean. it. up. He came out and worked some major lawn magic. It's by no means a beautiful back yard, but it's a fresh start. Where before all I could see was a jungle, now we have a blank slate and ideas and possiblities are starting to creep into my head.

(ps: if you live in the area and are want our (handy, affordable) lawn guy's info, let me know!)

the failed shelf

Blogland has a lot of perfect DIY tutorials out there. If you believe everything you read, no one ever tries anything and doesn't end up with a perfectly fashionable and stylish result. I am here to cure you of those thoughts.

Our apartment, as great as it is, gets almost no sunlight on the balcony. I attempted a small herb garden last summer, but it didn't do well. I had a brainstorm last month, though, when I realized that our bedroom window does get a ton of light. The only problem is to keep the cats away from whatever burgeoning greens I might have on the sill. I came up the idea to build a hanging shelf that would hold a few pots. Not a lot, but enough to keep me stocked in basil and mint all summer.

My dad sketched out a blueprint for me (I wanted it to hang but not swing, and I didn't know how to do that) and off Chris and I went to Home Depot. I realized I still didn't know what I was doing, so Dad provided some expert advice. (My favorite part was when I asked if the bolts I was using were going to be ok for ceiling mounting. Dad answered, "probably." I said, I'm only asking because it's going to be over our heads while we sleep, and he belly laughed.)

Got my supplies, came home, and started staining the pretty piece of oak I picked out. Over the course of a week I got the wood stained, sealed, and drilled—all set. I bought seeds and potting soil. I went to drill the holes in the ceiling, and surprise! It turns out that under the quarter inch of plaster, our ceiling is made of steel. Behold: a terrible photo of the steel:

So this summer, no basil for me after all. What a disappointment. And what am I going to do with this piece of wood, anyway?

bits and pieces

Yesterday, my gardening hero Gayla Trail's newest book was released, and thanks to Amazon, I have a shiny copy on my desk, and so starts my annual garden mania. Last year was pretty much a failure, but this year, I have an idea that will REVOLUTIONIZE the complicated light + cat situation in this apartment. It involves minor construction work, but somehow I already got Chris on board! We'll see how it pans out. For at least a few more weeks, it's all just dreams.

My job is going well so far and I feel good about it. Boy I feel busy, though. I've got a few website projects I'm working on for friends, and between work and those, I am working a pretty full day during the week. I sort of miss my brief period of unemployment, but I don't see myself going back anytime soon. ;) I was used to saving my crafts and sewing for the weekends before, I can get used to it again.

Have you guys seen the show My Cat From Hell? Unless you're also a crazy cat person, you probably haven't. But we love it. People with cats that are completely out of control go on the show to get help from this wacky cat behaviorist named Jackson Galaxy. We really like to watch to get tips on how to deal with our very own cat from hell; although, after seeing some of the insane cats on the show, Battlecat doesn't seem so bad! 

ps, guys, if you're having behavior problems with your pet and he or she isn't fixed? TAKE HER TO THE VET AND GET HER FIXED. There—no need to call in a fancy specialist. You're welcome!

Anyway, all of these cats are crazy, but the best part is that Jackson makes all of them better! It's really pretty amazing to watch him.

Today, I think I'm going to give Ali's "Day in the Life" documentation a try. It might be a little boring, but it also might be kind of fun! If I like the results, I'll find a way to include it in this week's Project Life somehow.

Ok, this brain dump needs to end. Happy Wednesday!

early success!

To my delight, my basil seedlings went crazy only two days after I planted them. The lavender came along two days later! I'm still not holding my breath that I'll have a flourishing crop of lovely lavender, but I'm fairly certain I'm going to have piles of basil. I'm wishing I'd split those seeds up among three or four pots.

The chives, which I did use 2 pots for, have only 4 wee seedlings. But I found some cilantro seeds today so I threw them in a pot as well. My gardening philosophy could be classified as "why the heck not?" with a little dash of "oooh! that's so prettyy!" tossed in for good measure.

gardening (again)

When I found out we'd be moving in June, I decided not to bother this year with anything beyond a few windowsill pots of basil and mint. Made no sense to get all excited and invested when I'd just have to throw it all away two months in. But I unpacked the very last of the moving boxes the other day, and in it were my pots and a bunch of seed packets. I couldn't resist a quick trip to Home Depot for some soil and a late night session on the balcony. 

I planted lemon basil, purple opal basil, chives, lavender, and cat grass (Oscar's favorite treat!). I don't have super high hopes for any of it due to the age of the seeds, the lack of full sun, and the time of year I'm planting, so anything that comes up will be a delight! I've never grown any of these things before (except the grass) so I'm really looking forward to see how things work out!

In a pinch, crochet hooks and washi tape make great plant markers. :)

thinning the basil

Today I finally bit the bullet and thinned out my basil seedlings. I hate thinning seedlings! It seems so cruel. Last year, I grew micro greens, which is just a mix of lettuces that you harvest when they are still tiny and use as a garnish on salads or whatever. I never ate them and they turned into giant greens because I couldn't bear to cut those baby little plants! It's absurd, I know.

ANYWAY. So I had to thin the basil because I had probably about 50 seedlings in one 8" pot. It was hard for me. I apologized to the plants as I did it, and I'm probably going to have to do it again soon because I am pretty sure I did not do enough. But this little guy did not share my regrets about the thinning. He mostly experienced joy about snack time.

I am very grateful for our south-facing window that has allowed me to start growing plants so early! I think I will be eating homegrown basil in less than a month, and if I wanted I could be drinking 3 minty mojitos per day. I mean, I'm not. But my mint crop would support that kind of habit. If I wanted to. That's all I'm sayin.