You are here: Home / Archives for gardening

June Gloom Go Away

by // Leave a Comment

Tomato and basil in a container

I don’t care if LA is still under the cloud of June gloom.  I’m ready for summer!  I bought a heirloom black prince tomato yesterday and planted it in a large container with two basil plants.  I hope the three won’t be too crowded.  The two basil plants, originally sitting in smaller pots in my windowbox, were starting to look yellow, which is why I transplanted them outside into this larger container.  After just one day, they already look better.

Home made mango sorbet

Another way to usher in summer: home-made mango sorbet.  I don’t have an icecream maker, so this was more labor intensive than usual.  I made the icecream mix: coconut milk, mangos, freshly squeeze orange juice, and grated ginger, froze it for about 5 hours, stirring with a hand blender every half hour.  It’s a little more solid than I expected, but pretty refreshing and tart after thawing for ten minutes.

Thanks for the plants!

by // Leave a Comment

Our apartment

My apartment is actually the cleanest and neatest it’s ever been! Ironically it was the day after our housewarming party. I’d like to thank all but one of the guests for being clean and not trashing the place.

I didn’t realize what an awesome housewarming gift a plant can be. I’m not usually one who likes receiving flowers, but these flowers in a pot are so pretty sitting in our living room now. I just hope I can keep the plant alive and flowering for many more months.

Another guest brought us a dwarf pink lemon tree! How awesome is that?? I’ve been getting into container gardening now that we have a window box and a small front and back porch. Obviously, the container with the tree can’t fit in window box but it looks fantastic on our front porch. I can’t wait till it’s full of delicious lemons.

Pink Lemon Tree

Herb Planting

by //

Mint Julep

I bought a bunch of herbs from the Farmer’s Market on Sunday in hopes of growing them in containers around the apartment. Usually, when we cook with herbs, we don’t use that much so it gets wasteful buying bunches from the supermarket when we only use a bit. I bought basil, chives, mint (julep), and cilantro (yuck!).

I’ve been looking everywhere for a large narrow metal planter kind of like a metal bucket, but more oval and long, but I haven’t been able to find it. I feel like I see these things around all the time, but can never find them when I need them.

For now, they’re in boring round ceramic pots which are large enough to keep the plants happy.