gardening in the boroughs of nyc

A Foodie's Paradise

2013-05-18T23:20:00.001-04:00

Last night, I stayed up until 1:00 am making a batch of strawberry jam. I'm not usually this "last minute" with things, but work has me ccccrazy! The reason for the lack of sleep was well worth it though. I had a coveted ticket. A ticket to BK Swappers! I've written about BK Swappers before, I can't believe it's been 2 years since I've been to one! It's this ah-MAZ-ing event in Brooklyn where you bring food you've made to swap with other foodies. Jams, chutneys, hot sauces, granola, extracts, liquers, chocolate sauces, baked items, you name it! I made 6 jars of my favorite strawberry jam.

I walked into the space, and my heart was already pounding. Ooohhhh look at all those goodies ready to be bartered for.

The swap works like this. There are little pieces of paper next to your swap item and people walk around the table and write their names and food item for what they would like to swap you for.

Going around from table to table is fun. You get to meet the people who created the yummy treats. I am so impressed with what people bring to this event!

Like this chocolate sauce with Chambord! She had a sample jar out for you to try, and WOW, holy cow, is it delicious. I put my name down to trade with her.

At the event, I also ran into a fellow garden blogger. The Revel Gardener was there with her family. They brought some of their amazing Big Brown Sugar Vanilla ice cream for the pot luck table. I met the Revel Gardener 2 years ago at a plant swap she hosted. She gave us ice cream at that event, and I was so excited that they brought it again! Wow, is this stuff good! One of the other attendees, Kendra mentioned that the chocolate sauce above would go amazing drizzled over this! I have to agree! Outstanding! The Revel Gardener told me that they currently make small batches and sell the ice cream and oat bars online here on their website Brooklyn Bell.

For swapping, they brought an array of goodies! Among them their oat bars, chocolate covered pretzels and a Hawaiian salt caramel. I traded one of my strawberry jams for a jar of this sauce. It is incredible!! I can't wait to try it on some desserts!

Some swappers brought an assortment of canned goodies. Can you believe this is one person! Wow, their swap haul must have been incredible!

This was my haul. I ended up only trading 5 out of my 6 jars. There was apparently a boat load of people bringing jams, so there was lots of that going around. Since I was pretty slow to swap with people, I missed out on getting rid of my last jar. However, I did score a bunch of cool stuff. Like a box of dark chocolate truffles, a jar of the chocolate Chambord sauce, a jar a spiced pumpkin seeds, the Hawaiian salt caramel and a big jar of hard apple cider.

I have to show you a photo of these truffles! I was in awe of them! Like, wow Brooklyn peeps. Wow! I can't wait to eat every single one. I am so impressed with what everyone made! I have to soooo up my game at the next swap! I need to come up with something extra special to swap! Ohhhh, yeah.

Ha-bee Mother's Day

2013-05-12T19:04:00.000-04:00

Today was a gorgeous day to do this!! 62F, sunny, perfection!

I saw my mom yesterday for Mother's day and I gave her this card. hahaha. I giggle everytime I see it. I had to photoshop myself into the pop up card. It's just hilarious! Happy Mother's Day to all you moms!

Last Bee Installation

2013-05-05T17:03:00.001-04:00

Finally, the day has come. Our final bee installation of the season. Third and final beehive! Woot, woot! Here we are getting ready to install the newest addition to our Brooklyn "apiary". This is the hive we ordered this year, and painted a bright, bright green!

Here is James, one of our beehosts, taking out the Queen and getting ready to place her in her new home!

Here he is pouring the rest of the package into the hive. You can see Paul's hand on the left spray down the package with sugar water. The purpose of the sugar water spray is to calm down the bees, and to distract them while we pour them in. Pouring 10,000 bees into a hive can get a little overwhelming of the bees, they get agitated, so the sugar water helps a lot.

All the bees in, welcome to your new home ladies! We'll check on them in 3 days to ensure that the Queen has left her cage. Can't wait!

New Beehive Location

2013-05-04T00:01:00.004-04:00

Last year, we had one of our beehives atop a rooftop in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the beehive did not do well in that location. Therefore we decided to move it to a garden location instead. Luckily, we found another beehost with a backyard. We picked up our package of bees early one morning here, and we put them in a shopping bag and taxied over to Brooklyn.

This location is just perfect. There is a large Magnolia tree right above the beehive. When we saw the tree in bloom, I was breathless! Spectacular! Just wow! Seriously, this photo does not do it justice. In person, it was amazing.

Package installed! The bees will like there new home for sure!

Here's Paul putting in the frames after we installed the package. How gorgeous is this location????

I can't think of a more perfect home for our beehive! Picture perfect!

Columbus Circle Pickup

2013-04-28T20:47:00.000-04:00

Last week, I woke up at the crack of dawn to meet up with some folks at Columbus Circle. What were we all doing here? We waited for a good hour and a half.

Finally a non-descript white van pulls up. We all bum rush the van.

Can you see it now?

Another view.

Yup, we were all here to pick up our babies. All 10,000 of them!

This guy picked up 5 bee packages. We were here to pick up two. This year we are doing 3 hives in total. One we already installed, and these two completes the other hives. Every year, our former bee teacher organizes a bee pickup, where he drives down to Georgia to pick up Italian honeybees and drives them up to NYC for distribution to all those that ordered through him. It's a really interesting experience to see a group of 50+ people show up to pick up bees in the middle of midtown Manhattan. You should see all the looks we get from passerbys. LOL. Priceless.

Bee Arrival Part 1

2013-04-23T12:33:00.002-04:00

We've had a flurry of activity these last few weeks. We ordered 3 packages of bees. The arrival of the first package of bees was picked up two weeks ago! Look at these beauties!

I was seriously grinning from ear to ear. All winter I anxiously awaited for spring to come so that we could beekeep again! I was so beyond excited in this photo! Could you tell? LOL....

Here we are getting ready to pour the bees into the beehive! This photo reminds me of one of those old bad "attack of the alien" movies. hahahha

Bees poured in and we put the Queen's cage between two frames. The Queen is delivered in a separate cage and a piece of sugar candy is lodged in the bottom of the cage. The purpose of keeping the Queen separate is so the worker bees get accustomed to her pheromone. In 3 days time, the worker bees should have eaten through the sugar candy and release the Queen. We'll come back in 3 days to check on her!

Bee-zy, Bee-zy, Bee-zy April!

2013-04-19T23:01:00.001-04:00

April started off extremely busy, because it's official the start of beekeeping season up here in the Northeast! Our bees were slated to come mid-April so there was lots for us to do. Including ordering and painting our new hive! This new addition brings our hive total to 3! The new hive will be located right next to our other one. And since Bees need help navigating to their hive home, we decided to paint the hive a different color than the other one. Unlike last year, we decided not to build our Langstroth hives, it just took too long to do so, and frankly for $20 more, we can buy a full hive kit pre-assembled. $20 extra to me was a no-brainer. We ordered a beehive kit containing all medium boxes. Here are the boxes getting painted.

I'm just loving the bright green color that was chosen!!

The beehive kit comes with 4 medium boxes! Here it is all painted and assembled!

And next to the other beehive!

It's usually a good idea to put some type of weight on the beehive for strong winds. Emily, our beehive host decided on this lovely Buddha. I think it's quite fitting. Happy Buddha, overseeing our lovely beehive!

Stay tuned for my next post! The bees are arriving!!

A Tragic Day

2013-03-31T17:00:00.002-04:00

Before the winter began, we prepared and closed up the hive. All winter long, I thought about our beehives and whether they survived. This photo was taken during the first big snowstorm that we had back in November. There really was nothing we could do but wait out the winter and hope.

A view of the rooftop hive last month. When there is snow on the ground, we can't get up to the roof, so we checked it out when it's a clear day. Opening the hive when it's cold is forbidden, the draft alone will hurt the bees. So wait and wait, and hope for a mild winter.

Yesterday, the temps went up to the mid-50s so we took the opportunity to do our first hive inspection this spring. First we went up to the rooftop hive and started pulling frames. I felt a lump in my throat. No sign of life. Frame after frame, dead bees. And then we pulled out the frame with the Queen cluster. The duty of the worker bees during the winter is to huddle together and keep the Queen warm. Here are the bees in a little cluster. The cluster looked awfully small. There was also evidence of unborn brood.

A closer look of the cluster, and in the center, here you see the Queen. You can't tell from this photo, but she is marked by a blue dot. Poor Queen Bella. Her attendants tried their best, but the cold got to them. Since this was the weaker of the two hives, I suspect there weren't enough bees to keep the hive warm enough. These bees are southern bees from Georgia and they aren't acclimated to the cold northern weather. The strange thing about this hive was when we dismantled the boxes and looked into the bottom board, there was little evidence of dead bees, not the thousands of dead bodies you'd suspect. More like a few dozen. Did they fly away and die before it got really cold? What happened to them?

Next we went to the 2nd beehive location in the backyard. The first few frames that we pulled out had lots of honey! Frame after frame of honey reserve that was supposed to be food for the bees throughout the winter. This was a really bad sign. That meant the bees didn't survive the winter to consume any of the honey.

This frame was almost filled with honey! This is not what you want to see when you pull frames after a winter season.

And then the moment of truth. I pulled a frame with the Queen cluster. Both sides of the frame had bees hovering over the Queen. They most likely froze to death. I was heartbroken. On the verge of tears.

The hardest part of all, was when I got to the bottom board and saw all the worker bee bodies. My heart sank. This year, we decided to source more hardy winter honey bees to see if they can survive our Northeast climate. Despite the fact that the Southern bees are good producers, we would prefer that they survive the winter.

At the last frame of the box, I noticed something disturbing. The majority of the frame was filled with mold. We will have to throw out this beeswax and install a new foundation into the frame. The evidence of mold is a sign of improper ventilation and dampness in the hive. That also could have been a factor in the bees not surviving.

We learned many lessons from this winter experience. This year, we'll try hardier bees, and this winter better ventilation, and perhaps building a partially enclosed shelter to cover the bees from the snow and elements. Our new bees have been ordered, and we shall be starting the season soon. Farewell Queen Bella and Queen Etta. You will be missed.

Wild Turkey

2013-03-28T19:24:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I took a walk during lunch with a co-worker in Battery Park and just as I was telling her about Zelda, the wild turkey that lives there, we turn the corner and see her! It is so amazing that she roams around wild here at the southern tip of Manhattan! Seeing her totally made my day!

Dreaming of everything in this catalog

2013-03-22T02:46:00.002-04:00

Today I received an email with the most amazing catalog. I drooled over everything that was in it. If I had an endless supply of money, I would buy it all and this would be my dream farm / backyard!

Check out the catalog, get ready to oogle at the pages!
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/pages/ecatalog-agrarian-current.html?bnrid=3102298&cm_ven=E3&cm_cat=EDM&cm_pla=0321_Agrarian_eCat&cm_ite=hero_cta1&cm_em=

Forcing bulbs!

2013-02-15T19:06:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back, I saw a post on Facebook from a fellow garden blogger who found an amazing deal at Walmart. Garden Hoard found a bin full of spring flowering bulbs that were extremely discounted for literally pennies, with a huge sign on the bin "to be thrown out". I guess big market stores discard plants when they are deemed past their prime and not sellable. As gardeners, we see a dying plant, old seed, or bulb and think, "hey, we can grow that!!" I have discovered that garden bloggers are just about the most generous people out there, and Garden Hoard posted on her Facebook wall that she was willing to buy up the rest of the stock of bulbs for any gardeners who was willing to pay for shipping. I jumped at the chance and asked her to pick up as many packages of bulbs, and I'd send her money for the shipping cost. Low and behold a box was delivered with these babies! 14 packages of spring bulbs for $13! Woohoo!!

I planted a few hyacinths right away, and 3 weeks later, I'm already getting a stunning display of spring! I can't tell you how happy I am to smell and see a pink hyacinth in my apartment in dreary cold February! Love, love! I decided to plant a few more so hopefully I'll have a nice display of blooms all winter long! Woot!

Regrowing Scallions

2013-02-09T20:12:00.000-05:00

Ever since I found out that you can regrow scallions, I've been obsessed with regrowing them. It's so much fun! And so easy!!

I cut the bottoms off, and stuck the bottoms of the scallions in a pot of soil in a sunny windowsill and within 2 weeks, scallions started to regrow! This is the best!! I'm going to try to regrow scallions every time I buy them, maybe one day, I'll never have to buy them again! That about sustainable!! Try it, but WARNING, you'll get obsessed with it!!

Pretending it's Spring

2013-01-27T13:13:00.000-05:00

All week it's been frigid. The temperatures has dipped down to the teens, and it's brutal. I went across town to my favorite store, Trader Joe's. Oh, how I love this place.

I ended up bringing home with me two bunches of daffodils. I couldn't resist the price, each bunch of 10 stems were $1.49. I have to wonder how these farms make any profit with prices so low, but I suppose they do when a chain like Trader Joe's is buying large quantities for resale.

One day later, it looks like spring in my living room. One by one the daffodils are bursting open. Such a needed spot of "sunshine" and bright happy color. Makes me think and dream of spring. Soon. Very soon.

Growing Empty Spaces

2013-01-25T18:36:00.000-05:00

This week, I received a cool message on my blog's Facebook page from David, someone I never met before. I'm not sure how he found my blog or Facebook page, I suppose a simple Google search on urban gardening in NYC would bring me up in search results. He shared a link of his short documentary that he made about urban gardening in Brooklyn. How communities turn urban plots of land into an edible green oasis. Check out his video and be inspired to grow locally.

My White Blooms

2013-01-22T23:44:00.000-05:00

My amaryllis finally started to open this week. I'm so excited to finally see it bloom!

Here it is fully opened. It's not as big as I thought it would be, but it's definitely pretty. The second bud is coming up as well. It's nice to see something blooming in this frigid weather. It's currently 17F. Brrrrr.

Eagerly waiting

2013-01-18T13:09:00.002-05:00

On an impulse, I bought an amaryllis 2 days after Christmas because it was on sale for only $3.99. I am a big sucker for plants, and plants that are on sale. I put the plant on my window sill and have been watering it and patiently waiting for it to bloom. Just the other day, I saw the bud beginning to open. I can't wait until it fully blooms! Amaryllis are one of my favorite plants of all time! I've never owned an all white one before. It's going to be so pretty!

New Year, New Plants

2013-01-08T14:53:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I am a sucker when it comes to a beautiful plant. I have absolutely no will-power whatsoever. Every start of a new year, I am so gun-ho about buying new houseplants. Once again, I got reeled into a promotional coupon that I received from Home Depot for a buy one get one free orchid plant. If you sign up to their Garden Club, they send you newsletters with tips, advice, and coupons. Sound familiar? Its like deja-vu. Two years ago, I gave it a go and went out brought these home. The plants were beautiful when I got them home and perfectly healthy. A couple of months down the road, and I managed to kill both orchid plants. I'm pretty much a brown thumb when it comes to house plants. And apparently especially with orchids. I followed the instructions on how to take care of the orchids but I made a rookie mistake. It was my fault really. I overwatered the poor things and the roots got all damaged. Both plants slowly lost their leaves and died. So, when my inbox received a new coupon for a buy one get one free promotion, I figured, hell, I'll try it again. This time however, I am going to take meticulous care in keeping this phalaenopsis alive. The plants were surprisingly cheaper than 2 years ago! They were selling for $14.99 each! So with the coupon, I got two for that price! At $7.50 a pop, that's what I call a bargain! I went after work straight to the Home Depot closest to my apartment and brought home this beauty. I plan to read some books on how to care for her. Hopefully by this time next year, I'll be writing a new blog post about how well she's doing, instead of buying a new one. Wish me luck!

Happy Belated New Year

2013-01-05T00:58:00.001-05:00

I'm behind in blog posting, again! What a way to start a new year! But this time however, I have a good excuse. I've had the flu for 5 days straight. Sniffling, sneezing, coughing, stuffy head, runny nose, achey, headache type of flu. I haven't left the house in about a week. Being sick during the holidays is the worst. (sigh)

Before I got really sick, my family was visiting from out of town and we got a chance to do some fun touristy things around the city that I normally don't get around to doing. Like visit the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and healthy new year!

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2012-12-31T14:20:00.000-05:00

Winter Blooms

2012-12-31T00:56:00.002-05:00

I've been away for a week visiting my family for the holidays. I had the best time! Before I left New York, my paperwhites were just starting to bloom, and there were a few buds forming. I was hoping that I wouldn't miss the blooming display while I was gone. I've been waiting all month for these babies to bloom, I planted them as bulbs in early December.

When I came back yesterday, I was greeted to this! Four buds had bursted open. The smell was intoxicating! I just love the smell of paperwhites! It freshens up the entire apartment. These are my favorite winter blooms! It doesn't feel like Christmas without these!

Saving a Tree: I need your help!!

2012-12-21T19:33:00.002-05:00

Last year. I didn't celebrate Christmas. I didn't buy a tree. I didn't put up decorations. I didn't even put up lights. You see. Last year, I was going through a separation / divorce. I was depressed. And I didn't feel like celebrating. But this year. I am in a better place. I am newly divorced. I moved to a new apartment. I have a new job. And a new life. And, to my surprise. I am much, much happier than I was a year ago. In my new neighborhood, there are street stands everywhere selling cut Christmas trees. Since I did not celebrate Christmas last year, I really wanted a tree this year. Nothing feels more like Christmas to me than the smell of fresh evergreen in my house. However, now I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment, with room for only a small tree. I stopped by the tree stand a block from my place and asked the sales guy how much the 3 foot tree was. $45 bucks he said. "Forty-five!!, Are you serious?" I yelped! I balked at the price and decided not to buy a tree. In my mind, I refuse to pay that kind of money for a dead tree. I'll save my money and the tree.

If you do buy a Christmas tree in Manhattan / boroughs, the city Parks department again is doing a Mulchfest after the holidays. On January 12th and 13th 2013, trees are collected and mulched and used in gardens and parks throughout the city. So, drop off your holiday tree to a participating park in your neighborhood. Check out the details here.

I was a little bummed about not getting a Christmas tree, but then my friend gave me the best idea. He said, "why don't you decorate your lime tree?" LOL. So that's exactly what I did. Well, I didn't do that much decorating, I hung a few ornaments on the tree to liven it up. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

But... I noticed this week that the leaves have been falling off my tree at a very rapid rate. Every day, it looses 2 or 3 leaves. Is this normal? Should I be worried? There are 6 branches now with no leaves on it. I am sooo beyond worried. I've had this tree for over 4 years, and it's grown so much since I first got it. I don't know what to do to help rescue it. Any advice would be so appreciated. Please help me save my tree. I'm thinking maybe it's not getting enough sunlight? This window faces the back of the building so it doesn't get sun but indirect bright light. Also, on the left where that tall pipe is, it's a standing heat pipe. Old buildings have heat like this. Help. I need your help. Do you have a citrus tree indoors? What should I do?

My New Way to Compost

2012-12-19T17:24:00.001-05:00

When I lived in Staten Island, I had two outdoor compost bins and I loved it. I had this fancy one, and this DIY one that I made. However this year, I moved to Manhattan, and not only did I have to give up my amazing backyard and garden, I also had to give up my compost bins. I didn't however, give up on composting. I found out that on Saturdays at the farmer's market 2 blocks away, they collect compostable organic material. I go through a lot of fruit, veggies, coffee, and eggs, so I had to start putting the compost in the freezer since it was starting to attract fruit flies.

When I pulled out all the containers out of the freezer, I realized I collect a LOT of compost in one week's time! Man, I miss my composters. Maybe I should get a worm bin for my apartment. I'm a little nervous about fruit flies in the worm bin. Do you use an indoor worm bin? Does it attract fruit flies?

All the compost goes into the bag and off to the farmer's market!

Here's a photo of the compost collection bin from this Fall. I was so amazed by how many of my neighbors diligently bring their compost to the farmer's market for collection!! If only everyone in NYC did this, we would save so much government money on carting city garbage to New Jersey. New York City pays by the pound to cart away the garbage since we have already filled all the landfills in our area. The city spends millions to take away our garbage. If only all the residents of New York City were required to compost, we could save so much of the city's budget for sanitation.

A view of the farmer's market and Grow NYC's booth. They oversee the markets and the compost collection, more about composting can be found on their website.

And residents of the neighborhood asking questions about compost collection. I love that there are concerned citizens out there that consider this an important endeavor.

Nothing makes me happier than to see a whole bin of compost! They fill about 2 of these bins every Saturday! The compost is brought to the compost centers throughout the city and the finished compost is used throughout the 5 boroughs in local gardens and farming initiatives.

Vermicomposting can also be profitable. My friend Alex shared this story about the Charlotte Douglas International Airport who practices vermicomposting / worm composting. "Charlotte Douglas International Airport has deployed an army of 1.9 million worms to eat through its organic waste. The airport has reduced the trash it sends to the landfill by 70 percent." They sort the airport's trash and separate the recyclables out of the garbage and all of the compostable organic material goes into a big tank with earthworms! The earthworms "eat half their body weight in organic material a day". The worm poop gets used within the gardens around the airport or sold. If only New York City could adapt these worm composting methods! I bet we could save a lot of waste and make money in the process!

I found my mecca

2012-12-16T23:59:00.001-05:00

I met up with my friend Gina yesterday for coffee and she surprised me with the coolest gift ever! I had mentioned to my friends and family that I did not want gifts this Christmas, and that instead, I wanted them to make donations instead of buying me a gift. She bought a donation of honeybees in my name as a gift to rural farmers in need via Oxfam International. The gift is honeybees plus training of beekeeping methods so the farmers can make money from raising bees, harvesting honey and selling it. I just love this gift, because the donation goes directly to help a family in need instead of some charity where you don't know where the money goes. The program teaches the families how to sustain themselves with a farming practice like beekeeping, rather than just give them money, show them how to make money. Here is more info about Oxfam donation gifts, where there are so many amazing things you can donate like gardening tools, a cow, a pig, a garden, and a goat.

On my way home, I saw for the first time a store called Tea and Honey near my neighborhood where they sold tea and honey from around the world. I absolutely loved their honeycomb style shelves.

One of the coolest parts of this store is that you can taste all the honeys in the store before you buy it. I was so excited! All the honeys were different shades of golden yellow, to ambers, and dark browns. They all had their own unique taste as well.

I ended up buying a jar called Rata honey from New Zealand. I just loved the light taste of this honey. I told my friend Paul who is one of my beekeeping partners and is from New Zealand. He told me this Rata tree is known as New Zealand's Christmas tree, how appropriate that I picked this honey since Christmas is in 9 days! I just loved the bright red flower it has. I can't wait to try this in my tea! Yum.

Aquaponics Excitement

2012-12-14T00:29:00.001-05:00

I received an email from Back to the Roots about a Kickstarter campaign they started to fund development for their new product, an indoor Aquaponics garden kit for your house. Last year, I interned at a hyrdroponic farm so learning about aquaponics is a natural next step for me. So what exactly is aquaponics? It's a symbiotic gardening environment where plants are grown in, well...in simple terms, a fish tank. It can be any aquatic animals, snails, shellfish, not just a fish, but essentially, the waste from the aquatic animal become nutrients for the plants, and the plant by the process of filtering out the "waste" cleans the water for the animals. In essence, you never have to clean the tank because the plants take care of that.

I never pledged money for a Kickstarter campaign before. This one I jumped at the chance because I am really passionate about growing my own food, especially in small urban environments. For a pledge of $50, you not only sponsor a cool project, but you also get your very own aquaponics kit by February of 2013. How cool is that? I pledged my $50, I love to support a cool program like this!
There is only 1 day left to pledge, so if you want one, do it now! Watch the cool video below to find out more about this project!

Gardening 101: Part 2

2012-12-11T20:22:00.001-05:00

Ok, I am sooooo behind on blog posts. I have been so extremely busy with work and life just gets in the way. I've been meaning to write about Part 2 of my Summer 2012 rewind. Earlier this past summer, I helped my cousin Kathy get her garden up and running. She has a big backyard in Queens and wanted to really grow some veggies this summer. Here is the backstory of me going to her house and planting seedlings and sowing seeds with her.

She was so excited when she saw the seeds start to sprout and so was I! She sent me weekly photos and I loved seeing the progress!

Scallions when they first sprouted.

Then 2 weeks later. How cool do these scallions look?

First signs of lettuce sprouting.

And the lettuce a week later getting bigger! Get ready for lots of salad I told her!

I mentioned to her that she could snip the lettuce leaves and eat them when they are small, like microgreens! They keep growing back! A forever salad!

All summer, she excitedly sent me photos of the plant progress. Like, the start of snow peas.

And the snow peas getting bigger!

And even bigger, and signs of flowering!!

We planted a variety of heirloom tomatoes seedlings that I grew from seed and they were taking off! I was so happy to see that the seedlings were getting larger and stronger!

Every week, I looked forward to getting her photos and garden update. One thing she mentioned to me that she quickly realized was a "chore" was getting up early before work to water the plants! Tell me about it! Next year, maybe I can talk her into a sprinkler system or drip irrigation. :)

More seedling photos.

The pepper seedlings getting larger!

The radishes when they first started sprouting.

The radishes really started to take off too!

It was so fun to see my cousin so excited about gardening, I forgot the feeling of giddiness and joy the first time you start an edible garden. It's so contagious I told her. I think she caught it. The gardening bug. Stay tuned for the results of her labor. The next post will be the harvest photos!

(All photos were taken by my cousin Kathy)