Category: Articles

When I hear about a cook book or gardening book, I feed the title into my local library search page and reserve the book. Last week, I had three books that all came in on the same day. They were, Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte, In The Green Kitchen by Alice Waters, and Edible A Celebration of Local Foods by Tracey Rider and Carole Topalian Interestingly there was a showing of the movie Fresh on the same day the books came in and I meet my gardening girl friends at the library.

Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening is a great little book that every back yard gardener needs to check out. Because of space constraints, I need to know what plants go better than others. A lot of the information was stuff that I already knew, but there was some new information. Like Spinach and Strawberries grow well together. Which I find interesting since I’ve seen on a lot of menus spring salads with spinach and strawberries. Could there be a possibility that flavor profiles can follow what is in season at the time.

Alice Water did a very nice, well explained cook book. It’s a collection of lots of different chefs, farmers, writers’ recipes and how to cook them. I had heard about the Thomas Keller Roast Chicken which is included in In The Green Kitchen and is just a good basic recipe. However I like to keep the wishbones and pull them out after roasting the bird. Call it morbid, but I have a collect of wishbones hanging in my kitchen.

Edible is a guide book to good local food providers with beautiful pictures. The recipes listed in the book were good. There is a nice mention of the Chicago Green Market. Even though this is a newer book, there are so many more providers which I think could be mentioned.

My local library sent me a nice email reminder to get In The Green Kitchen and Edible back since they are newer books. Check out books at your local library. If you want to buy the book, after checking them out, hit your local book store.

Garden Report 6/04/2010

Eric and Mike had talked about seeding some stuff early and I fully agreed with them. Chicago had an early spring and then a nasty frost. I got excited and planted Carrots, Radishes, Beets on March 30th. Well. At least seeds are cheap. There was little activity until the middle of May and the only thing I’ve harvested are some radishes. The beets are fairly leafy, but the carrots are itty bitty. I think the ground was too cold for the seeds to germinate and should have tried to be patient and waited to plant.

Gardening is about experimenting. In the five years that we’ve lived in our house, I’ve found that containers and raised beds work best for me. Along with lots of fencing to keep the dogs out. The hardest thing to learn is that less is more, sometimes. With containers and fast growing plants like beans, you can crowd the pot a bit. In a 24 inch pot, I have four petite peas, three scarlet runners, and three fava beans. They need to be in full sun, so I have to water often. Which is why we have 3 rain barrels. The cucumbers, which I also grow in a 24 inch pot, did not like being crowded by romaine lettuce. I had to resow some cuke seeds, harvested and ate the lettuce, but the new plants look good.

In the open spaces of our yard, we have lots of flowers. Mike learned that boy dogs like to have a target to pee on at the park, well Max does like to pee on things. We don’t plant edibles where the dog may pee. I really crowded a bulb bed this year with tulips, allium, and lilies. So far, the spacing and timing of the bulbs has been good. The tulips came first and as they died back, the allium bloomed. I’m concerned that the allium may be crowding out the lilies. We just have to wait and see. The bulb bed is framed by a small leafy shrub that looks japanese maple ish and a super tall thick grass. The grass is allowed to go to seed and dry out in the winter. I’ve also planted two kinds of lemon verbena with in the shrub and grass. More for possible mosquito rep-lent properties than edible, but I will harvest some leaves outside of Max’s aim zone.

The side garden, well was going to be more formal. That’s not happening. This is a 20 foot by 18 inch space between the walk way and the neighbor’s fence and is full sun. Last fall, I split up the major clumps of peonies, phlox, and yarrow and evenly spaced them. Between those flowers, I planted lots of sunflowers, quiona, for the birds, and bachelor buttons. Originally, I wanted a space that was filled with big blooms and I may still get that next year when the peonies are more settled in their spaces. Now we have a bird feeder paradise. I put a feeder near the garden and the birds just love it. Max and Kora have very little interest in the birds and the birds have learned that.

We need some serious help in the front. It’s very neglected. We have some overgrown shrubs and a beautiful ginkgo tree, but the grass on the parkway is just dead. The space under the shrubs is dark and even though we’ve had some good rains, it’s so covered that it says dry. One major bright spot it that a lavender bush returns to the corner of our lot ever year. It’s small and scraggly, but it’s mine. I’ve also had sages, thyme, fennel, tarragon, and of course mint, return. Radicchio returned, but was eaten by rabbits.

What I’ve been most impressed with is the lettuce table. The lettuces that I planted haven’t suffered in the heat like the lettuces in pots have. The radishes have been very nice. I need to replant the rosemary because it needs a drier environment. We’re even having good luck with basil started from seed.

The only thing I’m partly disappointed in is the pepper patch. Marigolds and amaranth are growing well around the patch, but the four types of pepper seeds I’ve planted haven’t come it and it’s been warm and wet. I’m thinking that I’m going to have to buy some plants and toss them in the bed. I do have two very nice tomato plants growing.

In general, so far I’m super happy. Jim and I got the green house up last week and he’s pushing me to do all edibles in there so I don’t have to fight the elements. I’m partly for that. The containers work really well at keeping the dogs, bunnies, raccoons, what ever, out of some of the edibles. Last summer we had a real scare with Kora and a virus transmitted from “wild” animal urine. Kora was vaccinated for the virus, but still caught a random strain.

Hope all of your gardens are doing well too!

Green Roofs are a great thing. They shade the roof a house, thus lowering the cooling bill, and add greenery to the city. But they are a lot of work to install and can be costly.

So here is my low tech green roof project.

The idea is to place large planters around my flat roof in Brooklyn, drill holes in the bottom of the planters, and plant vine vegetable plants in the holes. I have a water timer and soaker hose system that will water the containers. Then plants will sprawl over the roof and shade the roof while lowering our cooling bill. And we get food from our roof at the same time. neat. Here are some photos to demonstrate the low tech green roof idea.

My step mom and sisters were in Washington DC on Mother’s day and we went to the Botanical Gardens. It was just perfect! From what I hear, Chicago was a little cold and damp.Not the bright and beautiful day DC had.

Those arch ways made with coir baskets were in the front of the building. They had sprinkler units through out, but no plant yet. So I don’t know if they will be filled with flowers or food.

There was a beautiful display of orchids. One room was dedicated to orchids which had a small fountain and faux fallen tree. There were so many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Some had smooth petals and some ruffled. It was just amazing.

There was a children’s garden where kids could water some Gerber Daises and run through a small bamboo grove. It was very sweet for the kids.

Oh Roses. We have a wild rose that I pull out all the time. All the thorns and fickleness just don’t do it for me. But when I see a Rose Garden that is well put together, I just mush. I love them. These pink pretties smelled just what you would expect from a rose.

What we did not see was a vegetable garden. There was a section of medicinal plants that consisted of mostly herbs and edibles. Like this little pineapple.

I did expect to see a vegetable garden. Especially for kids. At least there was a display for kids and it wasn’t all formal gardens. There was plenty of places to rest and reflect on Mom! I really enjoyed it.

how cool is this? a big thank you to the iTunes podcast crew!