kitchenMage's Herb Garden

Resources for seeds, plants and organic gardening supplies

2009-03-11T20:26:32-07:00

When I was a kid, Mother Earth News was a regular fixture in our household. One of my favorite things to read was always the Land for sale section, where I could dream of one day owning many acres of my own, where I would plant my multi-acre organic garden, tend several greenhouses, then go visit the various critters before whiling away a lazy afternoon on the porch with a tall glass of iced tea and a good book. As if that's how it worked in real life. Funny how those ads never explained exactly how much work your own little slice of paradise can be.

The intervening years have pared a few things off that dream farm. Chickens, yes. Cows, not so much Although I am contemplating a pig. One pig. Named Bacon. Okay, maybe two so we can also have his brother Ham. Acres of garden became a handful of raised beds and those greenhouses...well, we're planning the first one.

Sigh.

The Mother Earth News is still here, however. And they are waking those dreams of gardens as far as the eye can see, although I'd like some minions to weed and harvest, please.

They have two new tools that I am planning on making heavy use of as we wend our way towards summer:

Each of these searches a collection of mail-order catalogs (over 500 for the seeds!) and returns results from across the entire collection. I have found quite a few seeds and plants that I want; Enough to fill that unbuilt greenhouse, in fact.

Half-price Aerogarden, today only!

2008-08-13T02:37:21-07:00

Fresh herbs are an essential ingredient of my cooking, which makes me lucky to have an herb garden of my own. Even here in theOtherCity, where my tenure is anything but permanent, I someoneElse replanted the front swath of an overgrown strawberry bed with herbs. More telling, as the moving van was being loaded, I someoneElse dug up my favorite dwarf sweet bay tree, which I could not bear to abandon and brought it along in a pot. Then someoneElse I bought another one. (hi, my name is kitchenMage and I am an herbaholic...)

Sadly, not everyone is fortunate enough to have the space or sunlight for any sort of outdoor herb gardening, and the indoor herb growing methods have been limited and expensive. This has left apartment dwellers at the mercy of the market. The one with the five buck clamshells of suboptimal herbs.

One of the cooler options for indoor herb gardening is the Aerogarden - a self-contained system comprised of a "pre-seeded bio-dome grow pod" (marketing gets points for the line - it sounds like it might grow pod people, fresh, crunchy, pod people...), grow lights, and other accoutrement. They promise a harvest in 28 days and even show one with bright red tomatoes growing in it. The big downside is that it is expensive, about $200, which is a steep price for all but the most dedicated herbaholics. (Meaning that if I lived in an apartment, I would be on the phone negotiating a bulk deal. But I can quit any time. Really.)

Well, if you have been wanting an Aerogarden, today is your lucky day. How does half-price sound? If it sounds good to you, get over to Amazon posthaste and grab one on sale for only $99 - the cost of ~20 of those clamshells of sad-looking herbs from the store. Hurry on over, though, the deal is good today only.

Fluttering by the garden

2008-08-08T02:00:10-07:00

Spotted flitting between the anise hyssop and this aptly named butterfly bush in the herb garden the other day, this beauty is a Red Admirable (or Red Admiral if you must be modern). They are common as the nettles upon which they nectar but I still love those marbled-looking underwings and bright blue spots. According to Robert Pyle's book, The Butterflies of Cascadia, they also like rotting apples, which means it is probably good that the apple tree has a guardian.

One more bit of pretty after the jump...

But I thought she said "Golden Gardens Shower party!"

2008-06-11T15:26:40-07:00

Swamped. Busy writing. Company's coming.

Then there's my miserably small gardening space - which has gotten better (there will be photos soon, I promise).

Yes, I have excuses for not posting here. Lots of excuses.

What I truly seem to be missing is that critical mix of time and motivation and it leaves me with dozens of half-written posts and a feeling that nothing is momentous to be the first post after all this time. So I have been reading other people's blogs and looking for inspiration.

I recently discovered Crunchy Chicken, a northwest blogger who makes most of us look like profligate environment trashers. She's going down the rabbit hole ruminating on raising bunnies, which has led to an amusing comment thread, and she's got a series of Extreme Eco-throwdowns at her site: the cloth wipe challenge and the Diva Cup challenge caught my attention right away.

So when I read the title Golden Garden Showers Party I thought it was some sort of celebration of our gloomy Seattle summer, to be held at Golden Gardens Park. It might even have been. Except that that is NOT what the title said. (And really, given the other challenges, I should have known better.)

The actual title is Golden Showers Garden Party, which is not the same thing at all! What it actually is is, well, let's ask Crunchy:

...studies indicate that each person’s waste fluids (aka: urine) can provide enough nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to grow a year’s supply of wheat and maize for that person.

On June 21st, collect your urine in a handy dandy container of your choosing. Depending on how big your garden is you may want to enlist the help of family and friends. That's the party part. But it is optional for those with a shy bladder.

Dilute it with water as per Sharon's instructions above (preferably some sort of grey water - perhaps using your saved shower warmup water) and apply to your garden. Voilà! Then check back here on June 22nd for a full report.

See? Not a party at golden gardens, although it is a golden party in a garden. That's what I get for reading too fast.

(As I type this, someoneElse is describing an IT process from his office. This involves repeatedly describing things that will either "flow down" or that need managing on the "back end" - ahem, some days this shi...er, stuff writes itself!)

I like the idea of the fertilization method, although I am not sure if I would turn it into a party. On the other hand, if I was a guy, I'd be, ahem, fertilizing the garden regularly. As is, I think I may wait for the book club.

this is my herb garden?

2007-10-24T14:14:00-07:00

Moves are always traumatic. You discover that you are missing all sorts of stuff at the new house and spend a chunk of time chasing down all those things you need: decent grocery stores, farmer's markets, fishmongers, and, in my case at least, fresh herbs.

Seriously, that tiny little bed up there is my new herb garden. (pause for a moment of silent mourning)

A couple of rosemary, a small creeping thyme, a munchkin-sized fistful of oregano (at least it's the good kind), and a sage that is, truth be told, more ornamental than culinary.

No wait! I lied. (hangs head in shame) There's more to it than that.

There's this.

Largely strawberries (still covered with stubbornly unripe berries, go figure), one rosemary, and a healthy bouquet of curly parsley. Also, the tiniest sweet bay tree ever. (click on the photo to see it, I noted it on the flickr image) Beyond that, the most promising aspect is the abundant clover, which will be easy to uproot and replant with something useful.

This is truly a sad state for a mage with a serious herb jones to find herself in.

Fortunately, this will all change soon. The first free weekend day that isn't pouring down rain will find me heading south with a shovel and empty pots in the back of the truck. Of course, I say this as autumn drizzles its way into the Pacific Northwet. The fog valley gets 10 feet of precipitation annually, so this waiting for a dry day may take a while. I may not wait so long.

Since we are only renting the place - and for a time measured more easily measured in months than years - this is going to be a great opportunity for a demonstration of temporary gardening on the cheap. We have already started; someoneElse has gotten close to a dozen rosemary cuttings in the ground - including one that is close to a foot tall with a dozen small branches! While I am struggling without fresh herbs outside my door, having three rosemary has been a saving grace.

Well, that and the neighborhood cider mill, Lattin's, where $5 will get you a gallon of organic cider, pressed just this morning, right over there in the corner of the store where you can watch. To go with it, apple cider donuts: old-fashioned, cakey but not dense, not too sweet, dusted with cinnamon sugar. Maybe one of the dozen(s) of fruit pies to take home for later, one of the variety of of pickled vegetable, some apples from the huge wooden crates. Heck, there are even animals to pet, just like the good old days on the farm. Very Norman Rockwell. Halloween brings a haunted barn, and I think there's a corn maze, also haunted, naturally. I must go back with a camera.

I am sure, however, about another haunted corn maze, "Terror in the Corn," which is just down the road a bit. (Can anyone explain the image in the circle on that page, chainsaw and what, a chicken? is that 'ssouri's chicken? Does the chainsaw slip into an alternate reality there when it disappears? I am confused) Makes a mage wonder what sorts of herbs go with haunted corn...witch hazel...devil's claw...?

whb: one last flower before fall

2007-09-29T07:34:17-07:00

Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden! Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein this week, so get yourself over there to check out the roundup.

Some days you think you have it all together and know exactly what to expect from life, and your herb garden.

Then you turn around and those boxes the cat is sleeping on take on a new meaning...and the sage plant defies the fall chill to give me one last benedictory flower.

I am taking this as a good sign, which I could use right about now. ...and yes this is cryptic, more soon.

whb: two years in the life of the sage bed

2007-09-23T03:11:29-07:00

Today I offer a retrospective of sorts: Two years of progress in the sage bed, which was once a big green blob, then a rather sparse little spot, as shown above.

Well, that was then and this is now...

Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden! Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is at Once Upon a Tart, the home of the Brownie Babes this week, so get yourself over there to check out the roundup.

As you can see, it doesn't take all that long to go from a handful of small plants to a gloriously full garden - and that's just in one small flower bed!

To see the entire progression, embellished with a bunch of those cute little notes flickr lets you plaster all over things, start at the first photo here: Growing an Herb Garden and click through the set.

As a bonus, after the sage bed series, there are a few shots of pruning sage for cuttings. Enjoy.