Apartment Growing

For those of you that REALLY know me you know I love plants and growing things. I must have inherited this from my parents who live in a relative jungle, inside and outside their home.

Being that we now live in Brooklyn without any yard space it has been hard at times to nurture this side of my desires. Last year we tried to use our front window as a hot house for cherry tomatoes which was a disaster. We only got about 20 tomatoes off of twenty feet of tomato vines that were taking over the living room. This year has been much better.

I aimed my sights a little lower and stuck with herbs and flowering plants. I have propagated around 20 basil plants from seed which Theo and I harvest in late July to make our first batch of homemade pesto and have been picking them intermittently for recipes as needed. They are still thriving and growing stronger and with any luck they'll be able to continue through the winter! (Does anyone have experience with this?) At the same time I sowed some chives which were being strangled by the almighty basil until a couple of weeks ago when I put them in their own container and seem to be enjoying their new found freedom.

I have also been trying my luck with a gardenia since March which are known to be one of the most picky plants ever - especially when grown indoors. I have been combatting some spidermites with them which at one point were threatening my other plants. They are also very particular when it comes to watering and temperature. None the less I have successfully had a few rounds of the amazing flowers blossom for me. My last blossom was right before we went to Seattle for a week and a half during which time our landlord was watching them for me. I came home to a very badly burned and dehydrated gardenia which is so sad! The good news is that after soaking it well and trimming the dead sections out it has shown some pluck and is re-sprouting pretty little green leaves on most of the branches, so maybe for Christmas we will have some new blossoms again. Here's hoping!

When we moved here we scored some free plants from the woman we bought our bed from. One is a Croton plant (tropical with large dark green foliage that turns red and yellow in the sun) which bloomed last year. I didn't even know that kind of plant bloomed! And after being a single stalk for years looks have seven new buds along the stalk in hopes of "branching out". We also received an Easter Lily from the same woman which I have been dividing liberally for the last couple years and just bloomed for the first time! I am so excited!

Finally, last year for a graduation present Theo's mom bought me a small spiky begonia varietal. It is like a plant I had in Seattle before we moved and I had always loved. It looked very sad in the store when we got it but I knew what it was and with the care and love that I give it it now is at least twice the original size and has beautiful small salmon colored flowers that seem to continually bloom. It always makes me smile; It is my little crowning jewel.