andchristina: gardening

Saturday

when we were just moving into our house last year ben and patrick shot a few minutes of footage. we forgot about it for almost exactly a year.

Sunday

the rain held off yesterday so patrick and i were able to finally finish up our sidewalk containers and backyard.

i brought home some foxglove, snapdragons, and salvia splendens to put out front and moved some of our english ivy and pothos out along with them.

we deadheaded the forsythia, which had a ton of new growth, so hopefully by next week it will be covered in sunny yellow flowers again.

we staked up the lemon tree, replanted the agave, put up the last of the reed fencing, and set up our new backyard furniture.

i still haven't planted the chinese lanterns and amaranthus yet, but we celebrated with dinner amongst all of our hard work.

perfect day.

Thursday

i'm unbelievably excited that by saturday morning my backyard will be finished and i will be the proud owner of a philadelphia oasis!

all that's left is picking up the patio furniture i picked out, putting up the remaining bamboo fence, and lighting the citronella lamps!

we finally made the move of thirty of our little cacti into the glass box we built out of old windows, planted all of our herbs
and veggies (tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, peppers), moved the agave plant, lemon tree, and blackberry bush into a sunny corner,

and i'm rounding out the rest of the free space with sunflowers, chinese lanterns, and love-lies-bleeding.

we have a few spare glass vessels that i'd like to make into terrariums - one of which i'm going to make into a home for a venus fly trap!

i also bought a mess of wildflowers seeds and 5 lbs. of red clay that i plan on making seedbombs with -

so look out patches of empty dirt in fishtown!

instagram @andchristina

dig into spring

Sunday

yesterday was the perfect day for a trek down to terrain in glen mills.

there were a ton of local vendors giving out samples and demos like beer from twin lakes and victory brewing, cheese from doe run farm,

beekeeping and honey from two gander farm, and plenty of workshops on terrariums, string gardening, and container gardening.

i ended up taking home a dwarf meyer lemon tree, which is something that i've wanted for a while, a small stringed plant

(which i'd like to take care of for a little while before i start string gardening on a larger level), some small succulents and plants

for making terrariums, a shiitake mushroom log (another project i've wanted to try for a while),

and a whole mess of seeds to use in another project i have in the works - a massive amount of seed bombs!

i didn't have time to eat in the cafe, but i'll definitely be back soon because i was eyeing all of the air plants that they had -

i'm considering either using those or making a huge frame for a vertical succulent garden on one of the walls in our house.

but that's way at the bottom of a huge list of projects i have planned for the summer.

these doors were BEAUTIFUL!

little stringed plants!

i can't wait to make some of my own lemonade now that i have a little lemon tree!

desert oasis

once we replanted our cacti into bigger pots, we moved some of them upstairs into a little garden with some of patrick's skulls and rocks. i can't wait until the next one blooms - cactus flowers are so lovely.

cactus flower

Tuesday

i recently ordered three dozen tiny cacti - i was so ecstatic when they arrived! they all made it through shipping but we had to spend a lot of time picking the tiny rocks out of their spines with medical forceps.

amethysts and an update

Sunday

today we brought in the first few fruits and veggies from our garden - a bunch of snap beans and a handful of giant blackberries. i recently transplanted the broccoli, butternut squash, and a few zucchinis into big pots as well and i can't wait for squash in autumn!

we also visited patrick's aunt while she was opening a few boxes of loose amethysts and quartz stones. she had enough to cover the entire table and was nice enough to let us take a few home! they're currently being soaked in a mixture of 1:1 oxalic acid to water to clean the dirt and clear them.

update

Friday

the daisies are blooming and the sunflowers are close behind

the lettuce is growing well in their little vertical pockets

the cucumbers are going crazy - this is one out of about twenty

the blackberries are ripening up

the snap beans are getting big and fat

our first tomato! we also had a surprise of another tomato plant in the flower bed - apparently patrick threw out a rotting tomato before we filled it with soil and it grew into a plant. it hasn't flowered yet but it's pretty big.

we dragged my old ikea dressers into the basement, painted the front with chalkboard paint, and are currently using them to store supplies

ziggy, the most handsome man

"supermarkets have branches, farmer's markets have roots"

Thursday

(via greensgrow)

i've been excited about what we've done with our backyard space - our little shock of green in the city has given me a really great ongoing project...we started a little late in the season but i have high hopes for my little garden. but my backyard is just a tiny drop in a bucket compared to some amazing city gardens - and in fact i live a short bike ride away from one of the leaders in urban sustainable farming, greensgrow farm.

greensgrow is located on e. cumberland street, only a few blocks from the memphis taproom, and for only boasting a single acre in the city, it crams in a farmer's market, nursery, and csa operation into one area. i originally came across greensgrow when researching different csas in the city, but i've decided to put faith in my little garden and decided against buying a share this year. but i did want to stop in and check out the farm, market, and nursery.

(via compostconfidential)

(via greensgrow)

my little garden is still too young to grow anything yet, so we bought a little bit of everything from the farmer's market. they had some gorgeous candy head onions, big portabella mushrooms, crisp butterhead lettuce, and lots of bright yellow zucchinis at the stand. everyone was really friendly - we were encouraged to taste everything and ended up carrying an armful of fruits and veggies back to the truck. they also carry a lot of local dairy and proteins - fresh milk, eggs, cheese, and even seitan and tofu.

greensgrow is still accepting pro-rated csa applications for full and half shares for their saturday pickups. you can also shop at the farmer's market on thursdays from 2pm to 7pm and saturdays from 10am to 3pm at 2501 e. cumberland st. in philadelphia.

(via compostconfidential)

(via greensgrow)

windowsill gardening

Monday

(l-r: parsley and lavender sprouts)

even though i have a pretty decent sized garden going for me, i still like indoor and windowsill gardening - especially herbs for the kitchen. i have about half of my herbs hanging from tomato sauce cans i turned into planters and the other half potted below them so i'm able to utilize the entire window.

even though i cut my chives back the other day, they're growing back faster than ever

my pegboard pot rack

rosemary

(l-r: thyme and basil sprouts)

backyard update

Saturday

our plants are all starting to get super big. the peas are about a foot high and we've had to keep adding nails on the pallet to give them something to grab onto while they climb. the zucchini and squash in the planter are sending out vines so i'm trying to figure out the best way for them to climb around without suffocating the peas or any of the other plants.

the carrots are starting to get little tops and the snap beans are so big that we're trying to decide how to let them grow without shading the carrots from the sun. and, best of all, patrick planted a jade plant into a darth vader head and a spider plant into a millenium falcon toy that he's going to hang from the ceiling in our star wars media room.